Top chef Jack Croft from Fallow restaurant in London has shared a simple trick to achieve perfectly crispy skin on fish like salmon, preventing it from sticking to the pan. The secret ingredient is mayonnaise, which forms a protective barrier between the fish and the cooking surface.
The mayo trick
In a TikTok video from July, Jack explained: "One of the biggest issues when fish is cooking is that the skin sticks, and you're left with a dodgy bit of fish." The chefs demonstrated spreading a thin layer of mayonnaise over the fish, either on the skin or flesh side, before cooking.
Jack continued: "A hack that we use is to spread a very thin layer of mayonnaise on the surface of the fish. It can be the skin or the flesh side. And what this does is it puts a thin layer of egg and oil between the fish and your cooking surface. This both helps to improve the Maillard reaction and also helps the fish stop sticking."
Why it works
Mayonnaise prevents sticking by creating a layer of oil and egg proteins that adheres firmly to the fish's moist surface, unlike plain oil which can run off. The Maillard reaction, responsible for the golden-brown colour and rich flavour, is enhanced. Additionally, mayo has a higher smoke point than butter or oil, allowing for higher cooking temperatures without scorching the exterior before the interior is cooked.
The Fallow chefs wrote in the video's caption: "This hack is the perfect way to stop your fish sticking in the pan." The result, as Jack put it, is "perfectly crispy skin, perfectly nonstick, extra glass-like finish."
