Familiarize yourself with these market forms of fish:
Whole.—Fish marketed just as they come from the water. Ask your dealer to scale, eviscerate, and remove head, tail, and fins.
Dressed or pan-dressed.—Fish with scales and entrails removed, and—usually—head, tail, and fins removed. Small fish are called pan-dressed and are ready to cook as purchased. Large dressed fish may be cooked as purchased, but often are filleted or cut into steaks or chunks.
Steaks.—Cross-section slices from large dressed fish cut ⅝ to 1 inch thick. Steaks can be cooked as purchased.
Fillets.—Sides of the fish cut lengthwise away from the backbone. They may be skinned or the skin may be left on. Fillets are ready to cook as purchased.
Chunks.—Cross sections of large dressed fish. A cross section of the backbone is the only bone in a chunk. They are ready to cook as purchased.
Raw breaded fish portions.—Portions cut from frozen fish blocks, coated with a batter, breaded, packaged, and frozen. Raw breaded fish portions weigh more than 1½ ounces. They are ready to cook as purchased.
Fried fish portions.—Portions cut from frozen fish blocks, coated with a batter, breaded, partially cooked, packaged, and frozen. Fried fish portions weigh more than 1½ ounces. They are ready to heat and serve as purchased.
Fried fish sticks.—Sticks cut from frozen fish blocks, coated with a batter, breaded, partially cooked, packaged, and frozen. Fried fish sticks weigh up to 1½ ounces. They are ready to heat and serve as purchased.