Something Fishy - To Scale or Not To Scale

Along the huge coastal areas of Spain, fish and seafood are the mainstay of any restaurant or home meal. This translates to one or the other or both for many a few times a week...and perhaps tapas of mussels, grilled squid or octopus in between. If you live along the northern coasts such as Galicia or the Basque region...it may be almost daily.

The Spanish are generally very casual about their fish. But whether the scales stay on or are scraped off always depends on how it will be prepared.

The question of the day, asked by an acquaintance was "Don't they always remove the scales? Back home in England they ALWAYS do". (And I always cringe a little when I hear the old 'back home...' part peppered in obligatorily, even by those who live here 15 years.)

To scale or not to scale...depends on whether it will be panfried, grilled, baked in a salt covering or if it will be your next stew.

Scales protect the tender fish from quick, but high direct heat such as grilling, even those iron grills for on top of the cooker (stove). Panfrying a fish with small scales, such as sole doesn't require scaling as they will literally disappear. Not so with a fish with larger scales such as a gilthead bream (dorada). They are also left on when baking the fish in salt - a particularly delicious way to prepare fish that does not leave the fish 'salty' at all but exceptionally moist.

Cooking fish in sauces or more liquid such as a stew, then yes - they are always removed.

But even with the scales mistakenly left on, if you understand HOW to eat a fish - deboning it as you go or filleting it first before serving on a warmed plate - the scales will come off with the skin, if you have been neat about it...

...but perhaps that is a subject for another tutorial (one day) on my site!