Foods & cuts · Swordfish

Swordfish steak

The fish that behaves most like meat: dense enough to take a hard sear, firm enough to turn with tongs, and dry enough that it is usually overcooked.

What it is

Form: Steak
Typical weight: 180–280 g
Typical thickness: 20–35 mm
Cut: Not a cut of anything

Why it behaves as it does

Worth reading against tuna, which is the other fish steak here. Both are dense and boneless and both take a grate well, and they fail in opposite directions: tuna's failure is that people cook it through when they wanted it rare, and swordfish's is that it has very little fat and goes from firm to dry with nothing in between. It is the closest thing in this catalogue to a lean pork chop, and the same advice applies — it wants the shortest cook that gets it opaque, and it wants to come off before it looks finished, because it carries on. BBQHQ publishes no swordfish window: the two fish rates it holds are stated for 'fish' generally, and applying a general rate to a fish this atypically dense would be a narrowing it cannot check. The endpoint is the one both publishers give for fish — opaque throughout.

When is it done?

Food-safety endpoint

Food Standards Australia New Zealand
FSANZ states that steaks can be cooked to preference, in the same guidance that requires chicken, sausages and hamburgers to reach 75 °C. No temperature is attached to the steak case.
The rule and its source
Across Australia and New Zealand, FSANZ advises cooking chicken, sausages and hamburgers thoroughly to an internal temperature of 75 °C, while stating that steaks may be cooked to preference.
Well established
- Food Standards Australia New Zealand — States this directly
  “Cook chicken, sausages and hamburgers thoroughly, to an internal temperature of 75oC - check the temperature with a food thermometer.”
  Where it applies:
  Australia and New Zealand together. FSANZ's remit is bi-national, which is why a New Zealand reader is covered by this AND by MPI.
  Form:
  Names chicken, sausages and hamburgers — poultry plus the two commonest minced forms.
  Method:
  Stated in the context of sausage sizzles and barbecues specifically.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
- Food Standards Australia New Zealand — States this directly
  “Steaks can be cooked to preference”
  A regulator saying explicitly where its own rule stops. Most authorities leave this to be inferred; FSANZ writes it down.
  Form:
  The distinction is FORM, not species: the same animal appears on both sides of the sentence.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Use separate equipment for raw and cooked meat, and never put cooked meat back on a tray or plate that held it raw. Throw away leftovers unless there is refrigeration available to cool them quickly.
The rule and its source
At a barbecue, raw and cooked meat must be kept apart: separate equipment, and cooked meat never returned to the tray that held it raw.
Well established
- Food Standards Australia New Zealand — States this directly
  “never place cooked meat back on the trays that held the raw meat”
  The single most common barbecue food-safety failure, and one that no cooking temperature prevents.
  Where it applies:
  Australia and New Zealand.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Food Standards Agency
Wash a thermometer stem in hot soapy water before and after each use, and do not put the head in water.
The rule and its source
A thermometer stem should be washed in hot soapy water before and after each use, and the head should not be put in water.
Well established
- Clemson Cooperative Extension — States this directly
  “Make sure to clean the stem of your food thermometer with hot soapy water before and after each use. Do not immerse the head in water.”
  Before and after, not just after. a probe that went into an undercooked bird and then into the next one is a cross-contamination route BBQHQ's food-safety model already recognises between surfaces and hands, and has never described for the instrument that touches every piece of meat on the grate.
  The head exclusion is an equipment instruction rather than a hygiene one — electronics — and is recorded here because it is in the same sentence and separating them would misquote the source.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-21

When it goes wrong

It came out dry: The fish came out dry — 2 distinguishable causes.
It stuck to the grate: Food sticking to the grate — 2 distinguishable causes.

Afterwards

Cooling, keeping and reheating what is left is general guidance for barbecue leftovers. Neither UK authority publishes anything specific to swordfish steak, and BBQHQ does not invent a distinction they do not make.

What we don't know about this

The cooking rates BBQHQ holds for fish are written for 'fish' as a category rather than for this species. Applying them here would be a guess about how this particular fish behaves over fire.

What we know we’re missing records what was searched for each of these, and what would settle it.