Learn the tools that you need to cook the best fish you can ever imagine along with the seasonings that will round out any fish meal.
This post includes affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. These are products and services I recommend because I use or trust them. Cookies will be used to track the affiliate links you click.
If you are looking to cook better fish at home, I want to share with you all the best tools for the job as well as what you should use to season the fish.
🌡️ Thermometers
I always say that the best tools to have for cooking any food to perfection is a thermometer. When you cook food to temp you can never go wrong. There are some different types of thermometers that can help when you are cooking fish. All the ones I recommend are from ThermoWorks because I think they are the best in the business for accuracy and quality.
The Thermapen® ONE from ThermoWorks
This is the must have thermometer to get a quick, fast reading. It truly is instant with a 1 second readout. I use my all the time for whenever I cook any seafood along with steaks, vegetables, etc. I even check my bread to see if it's done baking. It ends so much questioning in my head whether food is done or not.
If you want to take the temperature of fish while it's cooking then you need a probe style alarm thermometer. These types you stick a probe in the food and an alarm will alert you when it's done. There are many options from ThermoWorks that serve different purposes.
| DOT® Simple Alarm Thermometer | This is a basic model that will just give you the read out of what temperature you are at with an alarm. It's an affordable model to start with. |
| Chef Alarm | This one lets you set high and low temperatures. |
| Square DOT | This one allows you to have 2 probes so you can get multiple temperatures readings at once |
| The Smoke X | If you are smoking fish outside, this one allows you to monitor the temperature when you are inside with a remote unit. |
I also find an infrared thermometer useful for cooking fish. If you are grilling you can check to see where the hottest part of your grill is. If you are deep frying and want to get a quick gauge of the surface temperature of your oil, you can use it for that. This is the model that I own - Industrial IR with Circle Laser
🍳 Cooking Vessels
There are several different cooking vessels you can have at your disposal that will help you cook fish better. Let me go through a few of them,
Non stick pans are easier to clean up but they simply don't cook food as well. Plus if you scratch them and the Teflon starts peeling off you have to get rid of the pan. So I would rather have a stainless steel skillet that feels heavy for it's size. If it's too light weight and cheap it won't do a good job of searing.
These types of pans have been growing in popularity. Lodge known for their cast iron cookware, now has a line of carbon steel pans. How are they different? Carbon steel pans are lighter in weight and heat up more quickly than cast iron. The downside is that they don't hold heat as well as cast iron does, but they are a great option for cooking fish in, especially if you don't like lugging around a heavy cast iron pan.
If you want to add a woodsy, smoky flavor to fish get yourself some food grade cedar planks.
Want to get those grill marks but don't want or can't fire up a grill? Then an indoor grill pan is a great option. The one I recommend is cast iron. It gets nice and hot so you can get that desired grill mark look.
If you are cooking fragile fish or shrimp on the grill then getting a fish basket will help your fish to stay in place and not fall down into your grill.
🧰 Top Kitchen Tool
One more kitchen tool I think would be very helpful when cooking fish is a fish turner. I would go with this one - OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Fish Turner
This kind of spatula works better for flipping fish over. It's thin and flexible, so that will help you easier get under the fish so you can flip it carefully.
🧂 Seasonings
When it comes to seasoning fish we have to start with salt. Quality salt is going to make a significant difference in how your fish tastes. My home is always stocked with Redmond Real Salt. It comes from an underground mine in Utah. It's unique taste come from the trace minerals in the salt.
I also love some freshly cracker pepper on my fish. For that I turn to Burlap & Barrel Single Origin Spices. In 2023, they were featured on an episode of Shark Tank. They source their spices directly from the farmers that grow them, cutting out the middle men, and providing more income for these small farmers.
Here are the types of peppercorns they carry.
Some other spices from Burlap & Barrel that go great with fish include:
- Cured Sumac
- Ground Black Lime
- Raki Anise Seeds
- Lucknow Fennel
- Köfte Baharat (a spice blend with Black Urfa chili, silk chili, cumin, allspice, garlic, sea salt, sunflower seed oil)
🍞 Breading
Now when it comes to breading, you will want to look for Panko breadcrumbs instead of regular breadcrumbs. They offer a more airy open texture for crispy, less oily fried foods.
Learn about the difference between regular and panko breadcrumbs.
A trick I learned from Christina from the Weekday Pescartian is to use Wondra Flour. This is a pre-cooked, dried flour that browns your fish really well. You can just go with a light dusting of it and it will do wonders for your pan-fried fish.
Leave a Reply