For raw preparations, buy the freshest marine fish available, avoid fish in the cod family, and avoid freshwater fish, assuming you're not interested in a tapeworm infection (if you are, godspeed). If you know what to look for in whole fish, you can shop for fish anywhere, even in markets that are less aesthetically appealing. Gauging freshness is easier with a whole fish (check for bright red gills, eyes that are bulbous and clear, flesh that's firm and unblemished) than with a fillet (smell and tightness of the muscles are pretty much all you have to go on). Haraguchi says that even at a clean, well-maintained, trusted fish market, he'd be wary of buying fish fillets that are not specifically designated for use in raw applications, and that in most cases, it's better to simply buy whole fish from the market and fillet it yourself. While looks can be deceiving, the vast displays of fish never smell off or fishy instead, the air has a clean, marine smell.īuy Whole, Fresh Marine Fish (but Not Cod) (This is done to account for the way the innards settle due to gravity keeping an upright-swimming fish upright ensures that one side doesn't end up squished, which would detract from the quality of the flesh.) The fish cutting boards behind the counter, where the staff cut whole fish into fillets in full view of customers, are hosed down and sanitized regularly. Whole fish are buried in ice, with each fish set in a posture similar to the way it swims through the water. Fish fillets are placed on aluminum trays, set in an overabundance of crushed ice with sufficient drainage, and oriented so that their flesh touches other fish flesh as little as possible. Instead, you can use The Lobster Place as a kind of visual guide-it is a model for not just fish presentation but safe handling practices as well. But if you're unsure of whether to trust the products and claims of a fish market you've happened to wander into, you don't need to speak to the fishmonger (although it never, ever hurts to establish relationships with the people who are selling you food). Osakana and The Lobster Place are not typical fish markets there aren't many shops out there that treat their fish better. Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik Assess Your Fish Market "Of course, freshness is important," Haraguchi says, "but the most important thing is how it's handled the closer it gets to the table or the customer." The fillets are then allowed to air-dry in a refrigerator designed to maintain a controlled temperature and humidity level to reduce the moisture content in the flesh, a process sometimes referred to as "aging." "Taking the moisture out is sanitary, and it makes the fish more flavorful," Haraguchi says, noting that "a lot of people make the mistake of packing fish right after it's filleted, and there's a lot of moisture still left, whether it's from the fish or from the water used to clean the fish." After the fish has sufficiently dried, it's frozen in a super freezer to kill parasites. Some fish undergo further treatments in order to make the skin edible-for example, the skin on Spanish mackerel is torched, and boiling water is used to blanch porgy skin in a process known as yubiki-while others are skinned. Instead, it is scaled, gutted, and de-headed carefully washed in running water and filleted. The fish Osakana receives is never allowed to stay whole overnight.
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