An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace

by Tamar Adler

When you buy whole fish, ask for it to be scaled and gutted. It will arrive in your basket with its skin still on, but its hard, silvery scales removed. If it does not come scaled and gutted, take a dull knife and scrape it down the length of the fish in the direction opposite the shingling of the scales. This is a messy but fast ordeal. To remove a fish’s guts is surprisingly ungalling. They’re rather petite, and the only hard part is making the first cut into the fish’s belly. Cut into it sharply, make a long slit, and remove everything inside. Rinse the fish and dry it. To roast fish whole, heat an oven to 400 degrees. Make sure the fish skin is very dry, and then salt it well. Sprinkle salt inside it, a little less well, and fill the rest of the cavity with thinly sliced lemon, thyme, and rosemary. If you have none of those, count on salt and fish to collaborate, which they have done successfully until now. Put the fish in a roasting pan, however it fits. Drizzle olive oil onto the fish skin. Fish is best checked for doneness with your finger. It takes about fifteen minutes per inch of thickness for fish to roast. Fish takes longer to cook when it is on the bone, which makes cooking a whole one more forgiving than cooking fillets. Choose a sacrificial spot at the thickest part of the fish and poke into it as often as you need to to feel that its cooking is still under your control. It will be done when it is opaque and it flakes. If whole fish—or any fish—show signs of...