A lot of foam while cooking a cod with steam
I was cooking a cod with steam, but unexpectedly a lot of foam came out. First, I thought that the pot has not been cleaned but after re-cleaning the pot and refilling the water the situation repeated. My fish is surrounded by foam (like from the dish soap) instead of the pure steam. Any idea what is going wrong?
The fish was bought in the supermarket as "fresh" (not frozen), looked and smelled normally.
Best Answer
This sounded quite normal. Steam condensing on your fish is washing small amounts of protein into the steaming water below. It is quite harmless. As mentioned in my comment above, most of us have experienced that when boiling cold eggs too quickly causing the shell to crack and some egg white to leak into the water. That always make at least a bit of foam and often enough to overflow that pan.
There are a couple of things you can do to minimise that:
- pat dry the fish before steaming
- use a container under the fish to catch any juices so that none of it goes into the steaming water
More water in the pan and a gentler boil might help too
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Quick Answer about "A lot of foam while cooking a cod with steam"
It is not unusual. Condensate on the fish washes small amounts of protein into the water which causes the foaming. If you have ever had an egg cracked a little during boiling, you will see the water foaming too.Should cod be translucent when cooked?
When you start cooking fish it's rather shiny and translucent. When it's done, fish will be opaque. Flake easily with a fork. When fish is finished cooking, it'll flake apart with a fork (more on that next).What happens if cod is overcooked?
Fish that seems tough when you bite into it is probably overcooked. As it moves from done to "overdone," the flesh continues to firm then shrinks, pushing out moisture, which evaporates and leaves the fish dry and chewy.How can you tell if cod is undercooked?
The best way to tell if your fish is done is by testing it with a fork at an angle, at the thickest point, and twist gently. The fish will flake easily when it's done and it will lose its translucent or raw appearance. A good rule of thumb is to cook the fish to an internal temperature of 140-145 degrees.How do you know if you overcooked cod?
This Is How You Can Tell If You've Overcooked Your FishCook along with San Clemente Palace Kempinski - Steamed Cod
More answers regarding a lot of foam while cooking a cod with steam
Answer 2
Have a bowl of ice cubes while you’re boiling any type of seafood because it will foam over and out of the pot As you see the foam start to come up drop an ice cube or two into the center of the foam and the foam will go down immediately this helps break the protein release only use one or two ice cubes at a time so that the boil continues and it doesn’t cool off the water continue to do this for the first 20 to 25 minutes that’s how long is gonna take to process the protein off now you can also get a fan on high setting and let it blow over the top of the pot that way it minimizes the foam from forming as well
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