Title: Fish Selection Guide
Categories: Fish Info
Yield: 1 Info file

Text

Sometimes, you have a great fish recipe but you can't find the type of fish called for. Or maybe the fish that the recipe requires is really expensive, but another kind of fish is on sale at the market.

This guide, adapted from a chart in the Summer 1991 edition of Simply Seafood, groups fish by similarities in texture and flavor. You can take advantage of it by substituting other fish in the same categories.

Delicate texture, mild flavor: Flounder/Sole, Orange roughy, skate, sea trout/Weakfish, Alaska Pollock

Delicate texture, moderate flavor: Catfish, Whiting/Hake

Delicate texture, full flavor: Herring/Sardine, Smelt, Eel, Butterfish

Medium firm texture, mild flavor: Cod, Haddock, Halibut, Tilefish, Grouper, Snapper, Tilapia, Cusk, Ocean Pout, Wolffish

Medium firm texture, moderate flavor: Ocean Perch/Rockfish, Striped Bass, Walleye Pike, Turbot, Chum Salmon, Pink Salmon, Drums, Buffalofish, Rainbow Trout, Mahi-Mahi, Sea Bass, Mullet, Porgy/Scup, Atlantic Pollock, Pompano, Perch

Medium firm texture, full flavor: Atlantic Salmon, King Salmon, Mackeral, Amberjack, Sockeye Salmon, Sablefish, Bluefish, Carp, Pomfret, Yellowtail

Firm texture, mild flavor: Monkfish, Kingklip

Firm texture, moderate flavor: Shark, Sturgeon

Firm texture, full flavor: Tuna, Marlin, Swordfish

How much per person: Whole/round fish - 3/4 to 1 pound; Dressed/cleaned fish - 1/2 to 3/4 pound; Steaks/fillets - 1/3 to 1/2 pound; Cooked fish - 1/4 to 1/3 pound.

Cooking times for fish is generally the same: 8 to 12 minutes total per inch of thickness regardless of method (except microwave.) Most fish is "done" when the flesh is opaque and flakes easily, except for swordfish and monkfish which do not flake.

MM by Dave Sacerdote

previous

next