Checking fish bones for doneness

[edwardsboi]

Does anybody do this?

I was reading Crave, a cookbook with an interesting concept, by Ludo Lefebvre, who might be better known for his tattoos and his good looks than for his experimental cooking. But, he trained with some of the best chefs in the world including Alain Passard who's won three Michelin Stars.

And, Ludo mentions how much emphasis and importance Passard placed on the fish bones to know if the fish had been perefectly cooked. Passard would comb and pick through the dishes after the customer had eaten the fish, checking to see if the fish bones were the specific rose color he was looking for.

This is the first time I've ever heard of this, and wanted to know more about this technique and how to do it. Why would Passard do this technique- it seems it would limiting because you couldn't check the fish until after it had been cooked and eaten and thus too late to fix it. And, could you do this for all types of fish and all types of cooking techniques?

[Batard]

You can tell from whether the bones are white or pink how perfectly the fish was cooked. If the bones are white they were completely cooked through. If the bones are cooked completely through, you can infer that the flesh was overcooked. If the bones are pink, it means that the fish was cooked perfectly, just enough to warm the bones but not cook them through. If there's more to it than that, I'm sure that someone will jump in with a correction or further elaboration.

Edited February 12, 2009 by Batard (log)

[Prawncrackers]

Chinese have been doing this for years. When we steamed whole fish, the sign of it being perfectly cooked is when the flesh is cooked but the bone is still pink. Have look at this post i made on the Chinese Eats At Home thread last week for perfect pictorial demonstration!