Bream Baked with Sour Cream in the Oven

Bream is lean, and in the oven that shows more sharply than in a pan: it dries out both outside and inside. That's why sour cream here isn't only on top — a large spoonful goes into the belly cavity of each body, and the fish finishes cooking coated on both sides.

Make the slashes across the backbone. The source recipe advises along it — that's not worth doing: bream's intermuscular bones run parallel to the backbone, and a lengthwise slash passes between them without cutting a single one. A crosswise slash cuts through all of them.

The dark membranes from the belly cavity must be removed. In bream they're bitter, and over forty minutes in the oven that bitterness spreads through the entire flesh — there's no removing it from the finished fish.

Sour cream keeps the moisture in here. Bream baked in salt with scales on and bream baked in layers with vegetables do the same job without any sauce at all.

Caloric content: 115kcal

Notes

• Slashes go across, not along. Bream's bones run along the backbone. A lengthwise slash passes between them and does nothing.
• Remove the black membranes from the belly cavity. This is the main source of bitterness in bream, and in the oven it spreads through the whole fish.
• A spoonful of sour cream goes inside. Lean fish dries out from the inside too — an outer layer alone isn't enough.
• The temperature is higher than usual. 190 °C instead of 180 °C: bream is flat, and at a lower temperature it dries out before it browns.
• Keep the two small fish apart. Placed tightly side by side, they steam each other and don't brown on their inner sides.

Questions and Answers

How long to bake bream with sour cream?

Thirty-five to forty minutes at 190 °C for a body weighing up to half a kilogram.

Should the slashes go along or across?

Across. Bream's bones run along the backbone, and only a crosswise slash cuts through them.

Why remove the black membranes?

They're bitter. In the oven that bitterness passes into the flesh, and it can't be fixed afterward.

What can replace sour cream?

Cream at 20% fat or higher, or thick yogurt. What matters is the fat content — otherwise the coating will curdle and run off.

Recipe and step-by-step photos — kolizhanka.net.ua.