How Hot + How Long
How to Cook a Single Piece of Fish, but Not Salmon
350 degrees, 18 minutes
I wanted to cook a single piece of fish, simply.
I googled it, but there was no answer on the Internet, anywhere. Instead there were epic reminiscences about the author’s childhood, or honeymoon, or divorce, or first job. And when I skipped all that navel-gazing and scrolled down to the “simple” recipe, it was never simple at all — there was inevitably a requirement to make a marinade, or wrap the fish in a banana leaf or parchment or bacon. Or to use breadcrumbs. Or to make a stew. Even Mark Bittman failed me.
Enraged — because why is everything simple so hard? — I set out to figure this out myself, and I did. And now you don’t have to.
This recipe works for any piece of white fish that is about 6 oz or so, like cod or halibut or mahi mahi. It is not for salmon because I have not mastered salmon. I cannot get the albumin (that disgusting white stuff) to stop oozing out and have therefore given up, because there are only so many hours in one’s life. But I feel confident in my white fish skillz.
The Recipe for a Single Piece of Fish
This is what you do: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. If you bought the fish frozen…