All snapper are good to eat in that they are all lean, low-fat fish with a mild flavor and edible skin. I love skin-on snapper because, once scaled, you can eat the skin of a snapper and it will taste a bit like a crispy potato chip.
It is a popular white fish because it has a nice mild flavor. It tastes wonderful roasted with fresh herbs and lemon juice. You can buy it whole or in fillets. Since it is a thin fish, it is best cooked with the skin on.
Whole fish should have clear, bright red eyes. When cooking whole, score the fish two to three times crosswise through the thickest flesh, near the head. Whole fish can be broiled, grilled, pan-fried, steamed, baked or deep-fried. Fillets are good pan-fried or steamed.
Clean the fish carefully with lime, lemon or vinegar. Run your knife through the fish to ensure all scales are removed. Red snapper contains a lot of bones, so be sure to eat slowly when eating the fish.
Snapper is an easy fish to cook. You can grill it as we do here, roast it or sauté it. Snapper is a somewhat firm fish so it holds together well on the grill. We remove the skin in this recipe to shave off a few calories but leaving the skin on can further help keep it together when you're cooking it.
Vermilion snapper has a moderate mercury level which makes it safe during pregnancy but it should be limited to once a week at the most, just like red snapper. Yellowtail snapper is another pregnancy-safe snapper but still should be limited to consuming once a week due to the moderate amount of mercury.
It's no surprise that red snapper is considered a highly nutritious fish, especially if you are looking to lose weight or improving your cardiovascular health. It's extremely low in calories but high in protein.
Before cooking, soak the fish in milk for 20 minutes
In this scenario, the protein in the milk binds with the compounds that cause that fishy odor, in essence extracting if from the fish.
First, try rinsing the fish in cold water and then patting it dry with a paper towel. This will remove some of the surface bacteria that can cause the fishy taste. Next, soak the fish in milk for about 30 minutes. The milk will help to neutralize the strong fishy taste of the fish.
The best side dishes to serve with red snapper are mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, butternut squash, radish chips, french fries, basmati rice, cilantro lime rice, roasted vegetables, warm quinoa salad, couscous, steamed green beans, and pineapple salsa.
Avoid eating tuna skin, which is thick and tough, and skate skin, which is prickly. Swordfish and monkfish also have thick, leathery skins that you probably want to avoid.
Fish skin is rich in nutrients such as protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamin E, which can help with muscle growth, heart health, and skin health.
According to Bon Appétit, cooking fish with the skin side down in the pan, on either the stovetop or grill, protects the flesh from getting burned or dried out, and it helps to make flipping easier without reducing your perfect catch into a crumbled mess. Cook it skin-down until about 90% done before flipping.
Species of fish that are long-lived and high on the food chain, such as marlin, tuna, shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish contain higher concentrations of mercury than others.
Salmon, Wild-Caught (including canned)
Wild-caught salmon is low in contaminants, including mercury and lead. And some salmon, like pink and sockeye, from well-managed fisheries worldwide (particularly in Alaska), also tick the box for being lower in mercury and lead.
Choose fish and shellfish that are lower in mercury such as salmon, trout, tilapia, cod, sole, sardines, shrimp, oysters, and other shellfish. For the most health benefits, choose fatty fish such as salmon, trout, herring, chub mackerel, and sardines. o These fish have healthy omega-3 fatty acids.
Red snapper is an excellent fish to cook whole, whether it's your first time cooking a whole fish or if you're a pro. Here, we cut slashes into the flesh of the fish and smear a paste of ground parsley, capers, salt, garlic, and crushed red pepper flakes into each cut, so the paste seasons the fish inside and out.
Beyond the best reason to eat fish eyes—they're delicious—Chinese folks swear by their nutritional advantages as well. The eyeball is said to stimulate brain cells and stave off memory loss, courtesy of a pair of unsaturated fatty acids called DHA and EPA.
The tough proteins in the fish skin also make it easier to flip and move around the pan. “Salmon must have the skin left on during cooking to crisp up nicely,” says Tentori. (However, other types of fish that are often thick cuts, like snapper, may take too long to cook if the skin is left on.
Actually, some fish fillets come with the skin still on. This can be wonderful if you're pan-frying the fish (without breading) because the skin gets nice and crispy and so delicious. But if you're planning to bread the fish or bake it, then the skin does not get crisp and is instead soggy and pretty gross.
Red snapper is done when its internal temperature reaches 137°F. It's actually safe to enjoy with an internal temperature of anything 125°F or higher, though, so if you prefer your fish a little bit less done, that's totally fine too.