Cooking fish may seem a bit intimidating at first. The rewards are delicious once you take the plunge, but you have to know what kind of fish to buy and how to prevent it from sticking to the pan. It takes some skill to determine when the fish is ready, but we can help.
The USDA’s Safe Minimum Cooking Temperature Guide recommends cooking fish until the center of an instant-read or meat thermometer reaches 145°F.
When a thermometer is not available, some people use another method to determine when fish is cooked. They make the thickest cut of the fish and inspect the texture.
When you prod the fish with a fork, it should break easily into flakes and be opaque (not translucent like when it’s raw). Although this is not as precise as using a thermometer, it can still be useful.
More Fish-Cooking Tips from The Kitchn
You can experiment with different cooking methods once you’ve mastered the art of getting fish cooked to the proper temperature.
Try salmon that has been grilled on a cedar plank when the summer heat arrives. Or, if you like to cook inside, learn how to prepare pan-seared mahi-mahi. Either way, you can’t go wrong. Read on for more fish-cooking tips.
When ready to use, keep frozen at 0° F or lower. Thaw before cooking. Do not cook from frozen; instead, remove from package and chill for 8 to 10 hours.
*The % Daily Value tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
Cook the product until the internal temperature reaches 145°F after removing it from the packaging. Oven and grill temperatures vary, please adjust cooking times accordingly. When thawed, preheat the oven or grill to 350°F, and cook the food for 10 minutes per inch of thickness. Allow 20 minutes of cooking time per inch of thickness at 350°F when cooking from frozen. When tested with a fork, the fish should be opaque, moist, and easily flake. Cooking times and temperatures may vary. Internal temperature should be at least 145°F. We strive to produce a fully “boneless” product. However, as with all fish, there may still be some small bones.
What About the Time in the Recipe?
You should treat the approximate cooking times listed in recipes as such.
Pollock’s precise cooking time depends on its size, the cooking device you use, the cooking vessel you use, the cooking method you use, and the amount of heat applied.
These variables differ greatly from home kitchen to home kitchen and from cook to cook, as you have probably already realized. Checking pollock early and frequently is the only reliable way to determine when it is finished.
You now know how to check your internal temperature and what to look for.