Once you've bought your fish, the path to a great meal is only just begun. If you are not cooking your puchase -- or catch -- immediately, you will want to learn these tips on how best to keep your seafood as fresh as it can be. Fish are not meat. Remember that and you will be on the right path toward taking good care of the fresh fish you bring home. And take care you must, because fish are both expensive and are among the most perishable foods we eat. Doing it right is not difficult, but it is best done with a little extra equipment. First, you need a large plastic container. Ideally you also will have a slightly smaller container that fits entirely inside the larger one. If you take this step, drill or punch many holes in the bottom of it. This smaller container will hold your ice and your fish. If the smaller container will touch the bottom of the larger one, you will need something to keep it elevated.

How to Gut and Scale a Fish. These are a few things every seafood cook should know how to do: Things like filleting a fish, scaling a fish, searing a fish fillet, making fish stock, etc. Think of this section as the building blocks of being a skilled fish cook. You will want to do this outside, or in a place where you can clean up easily -- scales will fly everywhere. I learned this the hard way: I scaled many fish in an old apartment of mine, only to find scales attached to the ceiling when I moved out, years later. The easiest tool to scale a fish is a butter knife. They make special scalers, but you don't need one. Start scaling your fish by holding it firmly with one hand and scraping from tail to head with the knife.

Grilling a whole fish is dramatic and thrifty all at the same time: You get to deliver a gorgeous, smoky grilled fish to the table -- and you lose far less meat than you would had you filleted the fish beforehand. Start with a scaled and gutted fish that has had the gills cut out (There are instructions on how to do this linked below.). First you need to slash the fish on both sides every three inches or so. This helps the whole fish cook evenly. If you did not do this, the thick part would still be raw when the tail end was overcooked.