Preparation
Salt-and-Rest Prep
Salt the surface and wait. Water comes out, and with it goes the smell you do not want.
Key Points
Use about one percent of the food weight in salt. Twenty minutes is the sweet spot. Always wipe, never rinse, unless the salt was heavy.
Common Failures
Leaving it too long makes the food salty and tough. Rinsing instead of wiping puts the water straight back on the surface.
Do this
Sprinkle salt evenly over the surface. Leave it on a rack or a plate. After twenty minutes, wipe the beads of water away with paper.
Why it works
Salt pulls water out of the cells. That water carries smell compounds with it. Wiping removes both at once.
When to skip it
Skip it for very fresh fish you plan to eat raw. There is nothing to remove and the texture only gets firmer.
