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I recently cooked tilapia in foil packets. I used Season All, and topped eached filet with guajillo salsa (flavored with lime) and lime slices. I noticed a bitter aftertaste when I was eating the finished product. It wasn't unbearable, but I didn't like it. I'm thinking it was the lime slices. I'm by no means a cooking pro, so I was wondering if anyone knows if lime slices add bitterness when cooked? And if so, how to avoid?

My internet research didn't come up with anything definite. (However, I discovered this website in the process!)

Bootsie
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I'd be a little concerned about mixing aluminum foil with acid foods. Aluminum acetate has an astringent taste. I'm not finding it on the internet, but aluminum citrate (from citric acid in the lime juice) likely has a similar flavor.

Here's a recent, and seemingly reputable look at cooking acid foods in Aluminum foil (PDF file): Risk Assessment of Using Aluminum Foil in Food Preparation

Using parchment paper rather than aluminum foil would avoid the possibility of producing bad tasting metal salts.

Wayfaring Stranger
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The pith in most citrus fruit has a bitter taste, primarily from naringin. The degree of bitterness varies by citrus fruit; in my experience, grapefruits, limes, and (a distant third) lemons have the most bitterness. Even within a single type of fruit, there's wide variation. I don't know of any foolproof methods for determining whether particular limes have bitter peels, beyond tasting them.

I can easily see how cooking with sliced limes could make the packets bitter, particularly if they were thinly sliced and happened to be high in naringin. I would suggest cutting off a small piece of peel (the whole peel, down to the inner flesh) and tasting it before using them. If they taste bitter, I would suggest zesting them (the zest does not contain much naringin) and then cutting off the remaining peel with a knife so that the slices are just the inner flesh. There will still be some bitterness because naringin is also present in the membranes surrounding the lime sections.

Sneftel
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it was the wrong preparation of the fish. you have to be very extra careful when removing the innards specially the bile.

omg
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