concerning
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Those legends
A Cod family identifies the real body
Although the names of various cod have reached the level of rotten street, according to the zoological classification, only three species can actually be called cod. The three species are The Atlantic Cod (Gadus morhua), the Greenland Cod (Gadus ogac) and the Pacific Cod (Gadus macrocephalus). All three of these real cod species are big heads, big mouths, fat bellies, with a pronounced lateral line on the sides of their bodies, most notably a beard on their chins.
Of the three species, the most famous is atlantic cod. This fish lives in the northern Part of the Atlantic Ocean, is a cold-water fish, the largest can grow to nearly two meters long, weigh one or two hundred pounds, the flesh is tender, large, and the yield is considerable. The reputation of Pacific cod is not as big as that of Atlantic cod, and it is known as big head fish in Jiaodongdi, China, and most of it is used to make frozen fish fillets to meet domestic and foreign market demand. Another type of real cod, the Greenland cod, is rarely seen in the market due to its low production.
C Black cod non-silver cod
Previously, many merchants on the market confused black cod with silver cod, what is the difference between the two? According to connoisseurs, both kinds of fish come from different seas in Alaska, the appearance of the black cod fish skin is black, the silver cod fish skin is silver, with the color name to distinguish them, they are not real cod.
The silver cod is the common name of the Antarctic canine toothfish, which lives in the deep sea of 300 meters to 2500 meters on the Antarctic coast, has special proteins in the blood, prevents freezing, and grows slowly, which is the same as many fish living in extremely low seas.
In Hong Kong, chefs used to refer to black cod as silver cod. When this habit was brought to the mainland, local connoisseurs became accustomed to referring to the "black cod" as silver cod. In 2007, the Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department clarified the naming convention for some cod: it was clearly stated that merchants should regulate the commercial names of the small-scaled canine tooth Antarctic fish and the scaly canine tooth Antarctic fish as "white cod" to distinguish between real "silver cod".
D Black silver cod, the price is very different
Black cod is a high-grade fish species, about one arm long, with gray-black scales and black spots on rounded scales. The price of one kilogram is about 240-290 yuan, which is recognized as the best taste and the most expensive. Among the so-called silver cod on the market, the share of black cod is roughly 30% or less. To find it, you have to go to a special supplier to pick it up.
The silver cod (i.e. canine tooth fish) is larger than the black cod, weighing more than 20 pounds and more than a meter long, and is also imported into the mainland by removing the original strip. Its scales are larger than black cod, diamond-shaped, gray in color, slightly rougher than black cod, and the price is about 230 yuan a kilogram, accounting for about 70% of the silver cod market, which can be seen in supermarkets such as Aeon, usually in the form of vacuum-packed cross-sectional fish pieces.
E Distinguish between black and silver cod, look at the shape and color to try the taste
Canine tooth fish is closest to black cod in terms of appearance and price, how to distinguish it when purchasing?
The scales of the black cod are dark and dense, with black dots on the rounded scales, while the scales of the canine toothfish are slightly larger than those of the black cod and are gray in color. In the case of sliced fish, the sliced cross-section of black cod generally does not exceed the size of a fist, while the canine tooth fish can reach the size of a palm.
The flesh of the canine tooth fish is very white, unless it is bleeding and not clean, there is no trace of impurity on the fish meat; while the flesh of the black cod is not particularly white, and there are several obvious red bands in the middle of the meat (there are fish bones inside). If it is a whole fish market, black cod must be sold with a tail, and the small scaled canine tooth Antarctic fish must not have a tail.
After cooking, it is difficult to see the difference from the fish, but the flesh of the canine tooth fish is slightly rougher than that of the black cod, and there is no milk flavor.
F Why cod are headless
I believe that the citizens who often visit the supermarket must find that all the fish with the word cod appear in the shape of fish pieces, with no head and no tail. There was once a saying that cod heads were poisonous or parasitic because they had to be removed to be sold on the market. However, experts have confirmed that the initial cod sales are mainly for the European market, and the European diet is mainly to eat the fish meat part, the edible value of cod head is very low, so after the fishing is directly slitting, cod head is taken as fishmeal feed for sale, not the legend on the Internet cod head is poisonous or parasite.
B The cream in the fish is black cod
To say that the popularity of cod has increased, it is largely thanks to black cod. Black cod is described by gourmets as the "cream" of fish, and can even be cooked without oil, and there is also a nickname of "cream fish" in foreign countries, which shows its tenderness and richness of fish oil.
The black cod is actually an anoplopoma fimbria , taxonomically belonging to the genus Gymnoflora in the family Scorpene. The main source of the bare cap fish is also in the northern Pacific Ocean, and most of the world's naked cover fish is processed off the Alaska coast. The largest consumer market for this fish is not the United States, but Japan, and 90% of the nearly 10,000 tons of bare cover fish caught in the United States every year are exported, of which 80% enter the Japanese market. The flesh of the bare lid fish is more delicate than that of cod, and it is a common product in high-end sushi restaurants.
According to the Alaska Seafood Market Association, Alaskan black cod lives in the cold deep sea and is rich in fat, making it delicious and the meat quality excellent. The average individual weight of Alaskan black cod is 5 to 9 pounds, but some individuals can reach 40 pounds.
Alaska is currently stepping up its efforts to strictly manage it to ensure the sustainable use of a variety of fish species. For this reason, fresh Alaskan black cod is only allowed to be marketed during the designated fishing season, which is April, late June, September and the first half of October. Although frozen Alaskan black cod is available at any time of the year (processing begins immediately within an hour of catching fish to keep the processing quality as delicious as fresh fish and to guarantee a high-quality product throughout the year), late April and June are the fishing season, which can be described as a time for black cod to "taste fresh".
It is understood that the black cod introduced by the Alaska Seafood Association is distributed in the northeast Pacific ocean from the Alaska Bering Sea to Central California, where the sea water is far from pollution, the water is deep and cold, and the black cod produced here is also higher in price than other similar fish species because of its high oil content and high tenderness, which is the most expensive bottom fish caught in the United States, and almost all black cod are exported in frozen form.
Text/Figure Yangcheng Evening News reporter Wang Min
Cod, a high-end-sounding foreign-style name, represents nutrition, umami and rare deliciousness in the minds of many diners. Nowadays, the development of commercial trade has made this high-end ingredient enter the supermarket and enter the menu of ordinary people. However, most people think that the delicacy does not really come from the cod body. As long as you carefully observe, you can find that cod can be seen in various businesses and restaurants, black cod, silver cod, white cod, Icelandic cod, etc. These various names, which is the cream in the fish? Which is the cottage goods? What's the secret to making our wallets and appetites no longer deluded? In particular, the reporter visited the Alaska Seafood Market Association in the United States to exhaust the legends about cod and restore the truth.
Wang Min