Sprout
Sous Chef
This year I decided to make a delicious Easter meal of fish, bread, and honey.
Sadly, my meal did not turn out very delicious. I mixed a couple tablespoons of honey with the juice of half a lime. I brushed both sides of a 2/3 lb cod filet with the mixture and sprinkled both sides with kosher salt, I then thinly sliced the other half of the lime and laid the slices over the fish, wrapped it in parchment, and baked it. I'd had it prepared similarly with lemon slices, so I thought, why not? When I opened the paper after cooking, the fish was sitting in a significant amount of juice. I excitedly tasted the juice and yep, you guessed it, it was awful. Soooo bitter. I removed the lime slices, poured off the juice, brushed the leftover 1/3 of the honey & lime mixture over the fish and simmered it in a skillet on top of the stove for a few minutes on each side to kill any cross-contamination bacteria from the lime-honey. I "salvaged" it, it was edible (or so I thought), at least in the thickest part of the fish, but not terribly enjoyable. I've deduced that the lime pith must have added the bitterness, which brings me to 2 questions.
1 Was the intense bitterness because I bought limes out of season, or possibly old limes? or is this normal for lime? I've eaten a few dishes and seen many with cooked lemon or orange slices that didn't have this problem, I guess I just assumed it would work with limes, too.
2. Has anyone ever gotten an upset stomach from a similar experience? My daughter (not surprisingly) didn't like the fish, but we made her eat a little anyway, which she promptly threw up. At first I attributed it to the bitterness, since she took a fairly large bite, started to gag, and then vomited. Then, about 15 minutes later, my stomach was upset and within the hour, my husband's was as well. I then worried about food poisoning. I'm sure the fish was cooked sufficiently, even the second time after adding the lime & honey, and the fish didn't smell questionable before I cooked it, but I thought it was still the most likely culprit. However, now, only a few hours later, we feel fine again. My poor little girl was the only one who got any real food poisoning symptoms besides an upset tummy, and she was running, jumping, and laughing 5 minutes after. I'm wondering if the lime pith could be the problem again. Any thoughts?
Sadly, my meal did not turn out very delicious. I mixed a couple tablespoons of honey with the juice of half a lime. I brushed both sides of a 2/3 lb cod filet with the mixture and sprinkled both sides with kosher salt, I then thinly sliced the other half of the lime and laid the slices over the fish, wrapped it in parchment, and baked it. I'd had it prepared similarly with lemon slices, so I thought, why not? When I opened the paper after cooking, the fish was sitting in a significant amount of juice. I excitedly tasted the juice and yep, you guessed it, it was awful. Soooo bitter. I removed the lime slices, poured off the juice, brushed the leftover 1/3 of the honey & lime mixture over the fish and simmered it in a skillet on top of the stove for a few minutes on each side to kill any cross-contamination bacteria from the lime-honey. I "salvaged" it, it was edible (or so I thought), at least in the thickest part of the fish, but not terribly enjoyable. I've deduced that the lime pith must have added the bitterness, which brings me to 2 questions.
1 Was the intense bitterness because I bought limes out of season, or possibly old limes? or is this normal for lime? I've eaten a few dishes and seen many with cooked lemon or orange slices that didn't have this problem, I guess I just assumed it would work with limes, too.
2. Has anyone ever gotten an upset stomach from a similar experience? My daughter (not surprisingly) didn't like the fish, but we made her eat a little anyway, which she promptly threw up. At first I attributed it to the bitterness, since she took a fairly large bite, started to gag, and then vomited. Then, about 15 minutes later, my stomach was upset and within the hour, my husband's was as well. I then worried about food poisoning. I'm sure the fish was cooked sufficiently, even the second time after adding the lime & honey, and the fish didn't smell questionable before I cooked it, but I thought it was still the most likely culprit. However, now, only a few hours later, we feel fine again. My poor little girl was the only one who got any real food poisoning symptoms besides an upset tummy, and she was running, jumping, and laughing 5 minutes after. I'm wondering if the lime pith could be the problem again. Any thoughts?