Salt crusted fish

[rede2learn]

I've always wanted to cook a whole fish in a dome of salt as I've seen on tv. Well one of the rockfish (striped bass) that we caught today ended up around 32 inches. We gutted it, and took the head off for ease of storage and scalled it. I've been reading recipes on other sites and they all call for fish that seem to be smaller than the one I have. This fish probably weighs 5-7 pounds.
Will it still be possible to cook it in this salt crusted method or is the fish too big?
Also, any pointers for seasoning would be great,

Thanks!

[JDP]

It may be too big. A striper is a longer fish. I assume the tail end is much thinner than the head end, which could cause a big discrepency in the the cooking times. When I have made it I use a 1.5 to 2# snapper type fish with the head on. I like to stuff it with lemon and fresh fennel with a little salt an pepper. I also put some egg white into to the salt to make a better crust. You can also lay a piece of parchment paper over the fish prior to putting on the salt to reduce the salt flavor.

Good luck fishing and cooking,

JDP

[ironchef]

It's possible, but like JDP said, that's a pretty big fish. I have seen them do salt crusts with larger fish on Iron Chef so it's not like it can't be done.

Also, instead of using just salt or salt + egg white method, I would incorporate flour and use the salt crust dough method. Because of the large size of your fish, it should help the fish cook more evenly and keep it moist. Here's an example of how to do it:

http://www.bigoven.com/recipe161140

[Caine]

Originally Posted by rede2learn

Also, any pointers for seasoning would be great,

Thanks!

Yeah. Lots of black pepper, onion and lemon. Go easy on the salt.

[rede2learn]

Thanks for all the help. I tried the bigoven recipe with the dough and messed the dough up so that it couldn't be used, too sticky. So I put together a paste of kosher salt, dill, chive and spread that all over the outside. (oh, I cut the tail off so that the thickness would be more consistent) The fish ended up fitthing inside a normal baking dish 9x12. It was still very thick, probably had about 4 inches of fish above the dish.

Cooked the fish at 450 for 30 minutes. Internal temp was 150

Anyway the fish turned out beautifully. The juiciest fish that I've ever had and we eat lots of fish and cook it well. The inside was stuffed with lemon juice, rosemary, dill, onions, black pepper.

Next time I'll do this on a cookie sheet like the recipes called for. I think that will make it easier to get the salt away from the fish. Most of it came of in one nice big hunk, but on the bottom there were lots of little salt crystals that kept finding there way into the meat.

I'll definitely do this again!

[YT2095]

some crushed Cardamon pods, Cumin and Fenugreek seeds would be nice added too :)

[Candocook]

Maybe you can do fillets instead of the whole fish. Here is one that does that.
Recipes : Salt Crusted Hawaiian Opakapaka : Food Network