Black Cod? Is It Any Good? (Sand Point: home, art, local)

[akck]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

The price of salmon is gonna go through the roof this year, btw.

Yeah, with the price of gas my salmon will run about $125/lb, up about $5/lb. Of course that beats the $500/lb price when I first got the boat.

[cobolt]

I didn't know that black cod is also known as butterfish (so the article says) and if that's the case.....it is very good because when my mom used to cook for us, butterfish was the fish of choice and it is awesome!!

[Barkingowl]

So its a fish known by a variety of names, but the unifying factor is that it tastes good?

[rotorhead]

It's good fish when fresh and handled correctly, but like all fish it can be ruined by careless processing or overcooking. One of the restaurants here does it up in a wasabi-cream reduction sauce over jasmine rice with steamed veggies...unique and very tasty. Their black cod is uniformly velvety smooth, medium-firm and creamy in texture. The fillets can occasionally have small bones, but most times not if they're cut correctly. Since it's a deepwater fish you expect to get it frozen, but it doesn't seem to affect its quality like with some fish, probably because it's fairly oily to start with. I wouldn't say it beats fresh-caught reds or silvers, but it's definately a more neutral taste and probably would appeal to folks that don't like "fishy" fish as much. Not as firm-fleshed as halibut, but more so than trout or dollies. All in all, good eating as long as it's been treated right.

[Bruce 01]

Originally Posted by itdincor

. . . As for Pacific Cod, I once saw them fighting each other in Lazy Bay, Alitak, for human ... fecal objects. Since I feel you are what you eat, and I have seen what P-Cod like to eat, they are all yours. Emotional? Irrational? So? . . .

On that point, I love swordfish steaks, even though they run from $12-20 per pound here in the northeast.

But a buddy of mine, who was in the navy during the Korean War, will not eat them because he said that swords used to follow their boat when they dumped their holding tanks.

Who knows, maybe all fish will do it. I used to have a beagle that raided the cat litter box and would defend the "morsels" she found with bared teeth.

[BudinAk]

Salmon is very good too, but it has got to be FRESH...I mean, really fresh...like only hours old. The salmon you find canned in stores is....uh....BLEAH! Yeah, I will eat it, if there is someone holding a gun to my back...
"Aging" on a shelf just does not help salmon...that fresh flavor is totally gone...
The one exception seems to be smoked salmon...it keeps rather well canned...good stuff!
To me, halibut seems to be fairly bland no matter how you cook it....not much taste....(just IMO)

Bud

[Metlakatla]

Except in extremely high end venues, the canned salmon you find for sale is pinks, which are bland pretty much no matter what. Smoked King salmon lends itself well to canning--better than vacuum sealing, I think. Brings a better price in Manhattan, too.

[Barkingowl]

When salmon is cooked is the flesh always pink?

[rotorhead]

If it's farmed salmon, the pink is fake. They have to deliberately add colorants to the food the farmed fish consume in order to make their flesh appear "salmon colored". Wild salmon get their color from their genetics and diet, and the vast majority of them are some shade of pink/orange when cooked.

That said, there are a few "white kings" (king, or chinook salmon) where the flesh is more of an ivory color, both raw and cooked. It still tastes like salmon, still has the health benefits of salmon, it just looks different. It's highly unlikely you'll run into a "white king" unless you're specifically looking for one at a fish market, and they typically charge a premium (just because it's different, I assume) if they do happen to have one.

There is also always some grey color to the fattiest areas of cooked salmon (right next to the skin and along the lateral line), which may be removed by the chef at restaurants for esthetic reasons.

[Barkingowl]

Other than catching & preparing salmon yourselves, where would you say that one could have a chance to taste the most varieties of wild salmon?