The Basket Was the Mistake

Grilled whole branzino, and the one piece of equipment I should have left in the cabinet.

There was no occasion. I hadn’t used the grill much this summer, and a whole fish kept turning up on my feed. It looked simple enough. So I bought one.

Then I started looking for a recipe, and really didn’t find one. Everyone I watched did the same four things. Oil the fish, season it, lemon inside the cavity, add it to a hot grill and flip it when it browns. That’s the entire method. I kept watching, waiting for the part I was missing.

I bought the fish from Wegmans. Organic whole branzino at $22.99 a pound. One fish cost $26.90, a little over a pound, and fed two of us. About thirteen dollars a person. Worth knowing what that buys. A whole fish is the head, spine, skin and tail in addition to the fillets. Only half of it is dinner.

The grill got to 450. That part I did right.

Then I made the mistake. I own a Weber fish basket and I used it, because I was afraid the fish would stick to the grate and tear. It is also the reason my skin never got as crisp as I wanted. The basket holds the fish slightly above the grate and that gap is where the crust would have been.

I flipped the fish after 6-7 minutes, which is what I picked up from watching videos. The fish was in the basket though, and cooked slower than that, so I left the second side on longer. It came out fine. Still not crisp.

Mine needed more salt in the cavity than I gave it, and I would add more next time. The lemon and scallion added additional flavor and made the presentation nice to look at.

Then, off the grill, I added butter. I used a garlic and parsley finishing butter from Wegmans instead of making one, and I would do it again.

Next time it goes straight on the grate. Well oiled, left alone, and I will have to accept that some of the skin may stay behind. The basket will be used for vegetables instead.