Whole pike-perch in foil with lemon and thyme

Pike-perch has almost no fat — it's the leanest of our predatory fish, and it dries out fastest of all in the oven. A whole two-kilogram fish only makes the problem worse: by the time the thick back warms through, the thin belly is already overdone.

Foil solves this. Wrapped pike-perch cooks in its own steam rather than in dry heat, and a two-kilo fish needs about forty minutes at 200 °C — roughly twenty per kilo. There will be no crust under the foil — so at the end it's opened for five to seven minutes and the fish is basted with the juice that has collected at the bottom of the parcel.

Lemon and thyme go into the belly, not on top. On top, citrus peel turns bitter after twenty minutes in the oven, while inside it gives the fish only aroma and acidity, which also removes the muddy river taste.

Foil and a roasting bag trap the same steam with different seasoning: pike-perch in a bag with lemon and onion is the closer cousin here. Cooking from portions instead of a whole fish? zander baked in pieces with carrot and onion cuts the prep time.

Caloric content: 95kcal

Notes

• Pat the fish dry without fail. A wet fish in foil will start steaming instead of baking — there's already enough steam from the fish itself.
• Salt and mixed peppercorns go outside; lemon juice with oil go both outside and inside. The oil here isn't for frying — it's to keep the spices on the skin so they don't fall off into the juice.
• Cut off the fins with scissors before cooking. After the oven they turn brittle, and pike-perch fin spines stay sharp even in the cooked fish.
• Make the foil seam on top and fold it twice. Steam will escape through any gap, and the whole point of the method is lost — the fish ends up in dry heat.
• Count the time from a preheated oven. Put into a cold one, the fish will spend twice as long inside and will dry out even in foil.
• Check doneness near the spine. The meat should pull away from the bone; if it clings, close the foil back up and give it another five minutes.

Questions and answers

How long to bake a whole pike-perch in foil?

Forty minutes at 200 °C in closed foil, then another five to seven minutes open. For a fish noticeably larger than two kilograms, extend the closed time and leave the open part the same.

Do you need to scale the pike-perch?

Yes, and the fins are removed too. The skin is left on — it holds the juice in and keeps the fish from falling apart when it's taken out of the foil.

Why did the pike-perch come out dry even in foil?

Most often because of a gap in the seam, or because the foil was opened too early. The second cause is an oven that wasn't preheated, so the fish baked longer than it should have.

Can fillets be baked the same way instead of a whole fish?

Yes, but the time is cut in half: fillets cook through in about seven to eight minutes in closed foil. There's less point in it though — it's the whole fish on the bone that gives you the juice the foil is closed for in the first place.

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