Only whole fish such as small salmon, trout and sea bass are suitable for baking. They need to be cleaned carefully. Having made sure that everything that needs to be removed has been removed, use a piece of muslin or linen dipped in salt to thoroughly wipe the inside of the fish. Some species, such as mullet, have a grey membrane in this area and you can remove it easily using this method.
Make sure you do because it can impart a strange taste to the fish and it looks very unappetizing once it has been cooked.
The next thing to do is to score the fish diagonally with a sharp knife to a depth of about half the thickness of the flesh. This will promote more even cooking as well as speeding up the process.
Brush the fish all over with olive oil or clarified butter and lay it on a rack over a roasting pan for maximum circulation of heat.
Preheat the oven to 130°C/350°F* and cook the fish on the middle rung for 10 minutes. Then turn it over and cook for a further 10 minutes to ensure even cooking and moisture distribution.
Check that it's cooked by using a knife point to see if the flesh will lift from the bone. It should do this easily. If it doesn't, return the fish to the oven for a further five minutes.
Larger fish can be skinned before serving (the cooked skin will lift off easily) but small ones such as brown trout are best served whole with something like my Basic Recipes: Lemon Sauce
*These temperatures may appear to be on the low side to you. Don't be tempted to increase them in order to speed up the cooking process. All you will succeed in doing is drying out the fish.
