Preparing Fish in a Salt Crust – Recipes Ideas and Tips from Star Chefs

Name: Fish in Salt Crust
Prep time: 22 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 42 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: sea bass 2 pc; thyme 1/2 bunch; Rosemary 1/2 bunch; Garlic clove 1 pc; egg white 6 pc; coarse sea salt 1,5 kg; oliv oil 1 tbs; Pepper 4-6 pinches

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Fish in a salt crust — Fish in Salt Crust Recipe Image © Thomas Sixt

Author:
Thomas Sixt is a chef, food photographer, cookbook author and blogger.
Here he shares recipes, answers cooking questions and helps with cooking.

Here I show you my recipe fish in salt crust. The whole fish goes into the oven, this is a simple preparation, practical, with little effort and delicious.

Branzino al sale I had eaten with great pleasure in Italy, that was before Corona. So today I am adding to this preparation so that we can enjoy the fine Italian cuisine at home.

In the following article you will get a lot of tips and ideas from the star kitchen. I wish you good luck and would be happy if you would cook it. Share this article with your friends!

Table of Contents

1. Which Fish is Ideal for this Preparation?
2. Prepare Salt Crust
3. Recipe Fish in Salt Crust
4. Calories and Nutritional Values
5. Side Dishes for Fish in Salt Crust
6. More Recipes for Fish and Seafood

1. Which Fish is Ideal for this Preparation?

Ideally you prepare this dish with a saltwater fish. You can put portioned fish up to 45 cm or a larger fish in the salt, but the fish should still fit on your baking tray.

Sea bream on ice, den Fisch bitte vor dem Zubereiten gründlich Schuppen!

Portioned fish can be wrapped with baking paper. This way you can easily put the fish on your plate later.

Sea bass (Branzino) is for me the best fish for the salt coat!
Recommended to you by cook Thomas Sixt

How can you recognize fresh fish:
1. The fish does not smell
2. Bright red gills
3. Undamaged and shiny scale dress
4. Clear eyes, exception perch-like fish always have cloudy eyes
Chef Thomas Sixt on fresh fish and its characteristics

Freshly caught trout — I caught this trout a long time ago near Salzburg. By the way, you could also prepare trout in a salt coat. You can see the beautiful scale dress, the red gills and the clear eyes.

Let’s take a look at the salt mantle next, I can already tell you, it’s really easy!

2. Prepare Salt Crust

I can still remember my cursing stepfather, he had packed a fish in “his salt crust” and in the end he had to recover the remains with hammer and chisel.

The biggest mistake in this preparation is the addition of water. Water and salt in combination with heat creates a very firm crust, which you can only open with Black & Decker.

To keep the hammer drill in the basement, I reveal the first secret: Please use only salt and protein for your coat.

Salt crust — Egg whites with salt in a bowl. I had chosen the consistency a little too firm, a little more beaten egg white makes it easier to form a nice crust.

Make salt coat with beaten egg white and salt, please do not add water!
Salt cooking tip from cook Thomas Sixt

3. Recipe Fish in Salt Crust

Made it this far? Wonderful, now it’s about to start and your fish will surely be put into the oven right away!

Fish in Salt Crust

Cooked, photographed and written down by chef Thomas Sixt.

Servings 2

Calories 483

Total Time 42 Min.

Preparation Time 22 Min.

Cook Time 30 Min.

Simple tutorial for the preparation of fish in a salt crust.

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Ingredients

Fish
2	pc	sea bass
1/2	bunch	thyme
1/2	bunch	Rosemary
1	pc	Garlic clove
Salt crust
6	pc	egg white
1,5	kg	coarse sea salt
Serve
1	tbs	oliv oil
4-6	pinches	Pepper (I use black pepper)

Instruction

Note for Side Dishes

Pumpkin from the oven recipe picture — Baked pumpkin with goat cheese and fresh figs

Prepare Sides

I have not added the side dishes in this recipe.

Please take care of the side dishes first, as the cooking time is usually longer.

I had selected pumpkin from the oven and mushrooms fried in butter.

The recipes are linked in the article.

Preparing fish

Prepare fish

Scale the fish in the water, using a knife (back of the knife) against the direction of growth along the fish.

By diving under water the scales stay in the sink and do not fly through the whole kitchen.

You can leave the fish in the water for a short time until it is wrapped in the salt or store it temporarily.

Prepare salt mantle

Salt crust

Beat the cold egg whites, freshly separated from the egg yolk, in a clean and fat-free bowl with a hand mixer/ whisk until stiff.

Add salt

Add the coarse sea salt to the beaten egg white.

Mix salt

Mix the beaten egg white with the salt. Preheat oven at 220°C hot air.

Cover fish

Process

Put part of the salt crust on the baking tray.

If you would put the fish directly on the baking tray, the fish would be cooked too fast.

You can put baking paper under the salt bed, so that you can clean the baking tray easier later.

Brush the dry spotted fish with olive oil, fill the abdomen with herbs and garlic, put the fish into the salt bed.

Wrap the fish in the salt coat — Cover the fish with the prepared salt crust mixture.

Pack fish

Spread the rest of the salt mixture evenly over the fish and seal it.

Place the baking tray in the middle of the oven and cook for 25-35 minutes.

—> Recommended temperature 200°C

Fish cooked in a salt coat — Fish in the salt crust when it comes out of the oven.

Fish ready

Remove the baking tray from the oven.

When is the fish ready?

–> Open the salt coat on the head and check the eyes of the fish.

–> If the eyes are all white, the fish is cooked.

–> Warm up the side dishes and the plates.

Season and arrange the side dishes.

Fish in salt coat open — Carefully remove the salt coat from the fish.

Remove salt

Carefully remove the salt coat on the upper side of the fish.

Remove skin

Carefully remove the skin from the fish.

Remove the top fish fillet — Fillet the fish and remove it from the fish coat.

Arrange fillet

Remove the upper fish fillet and arrange, then remove the bones and remove the lower fillet.

Serve

Serve the fish as a side dish, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with pepper.

Bon appetite!

Note on cooking time – when is the fish ready?

As a guideline: oven temperature 200°C, a sea bass weight 700g needs about 25-30 minutes.

Depending on the oven, it may take a little longer, the thicker the salt crust, the longer the fish needs.

4. Calories and Nutritional Values

5. Side Dishes for Fish in Salt Crust

Since we almost have the sea creature in the oven and I have already worked my way through the recipe section below step by step, I would like to introduce you to some suitable side dishes. My “Favoriti” are marked with a star…

5.1 Vegetable side dishes

5.2 Saturation supplements

White bread and olive oil *
Baked potatoes with thyme or rosemary *
Polenta *
Mashed Potatoes
Boiled potatoes
Saffron risotto
Mushroom Risotto
Porcini Risotto

I tend to the Mediterranean classics when it comes to side dishes with this fish, so in the case of saltwater fish. I would also like to combine trout in a salt coat with mashed potatoes and peas.