I don't eat fish. Where to start?

That’s debatable… second world is more appropriate

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I gave those things away long time ago… I haven’t bought a game in about an year or so… Coffee I make myself, I don’t buy junk food…
Trust me, I can’t afford this shit…

That’s unfortunate. That being the case… most seafood is kinda expensive. But, you can get a lot of the benefits from even canned fish, like a can of tuna. Sandwiches, etc. You can also get flavoured canned tuna varieties.

It also doesn’t smell bad. And it’s CHEAP.

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There are 5 or 6 different types of salmon, ranging from the cheapest “Pink” [rather mushy texture] which is what the cheapest canned salmon is, to “Spring” [firm texture] which is the most expensive type salmon, usually sold to high end restaurants or shipped to Japan. At that time Pink was sold off the boat for about 35 cents/lb and Spring at about $5.00/lb. It’s been 35 years since I did a season of commercial fishing on the west coast of Canada so I don’t remember all the variety names. The largest salmon I caught [ working on a trolling boat] was over 50 lbs head on and gutted. That was a “smiley”, a term used when any salmon over 25 lbs was caught. IIRC the largest salmon on record at the time was 88 lbs.

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I know nothing about sushi and It doesn’t appeal to me in thought.

I see it sold in Australian food courts and for the fuck of it I tried it because I can stomach eating meat as in the muscle in an animal / meat.

It tasted cold, slimy and fishy as in I know the flavor of hot cooked tuna, salmon etc.

For tiny mouthfuls of expensive terribleness that could be covered up via toppings like chilli sauce. Maybe Australia mall food sucks or I just prefer cooked foods feeling in my mouth.

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Well yeah, but over here pork or even chicken are about the same price as the two trouts I got.
But I agree with you. Even the most basic shirmp is crazy expensive. I was honestly surprised of the price of the trout.
Mackerel is dirt cheap though, but it’s full of bones and then the entire neighborhood smells…

Good to see someone learning to scale fish for survivalist reasons but seriously @psycho_666 try that pan sear stuff I told you about. It has flavor for sure and is healthy. It is worth it. If you don’t … well your loss.

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The what now?

https://highliner.com/#!en/product/pan-sear-selects-roasted-garlic-&-herbs-haddock/32

(Other kinds listed there too)

Not cheap often but sales bring them down to $9.99 and $8.99. Seen $6.99 once but that must have been a super clearance situation.

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I can do that at home no problems…

I have been a Alaskan commercial fisherman my entire life, ate fish everyday, until a year ago an injury left disabled (now I hang out here instead of on the boat. I fished for Pollack, Salmon, Halibut, King crab, Tanner crab, Dungeness crab, Black cod, Grey cod, Rock fish, Yellow Eye, Spot prawns, Tiger prawns, Albacore Tuna, and a billion others.

If you are looking for fish that isn’t outrageously expensive go frozen if you do not want to buy canned. There are a lot of types of fish that are amazingily good canned, but you do have to know what to look for. Don’t buy fish that is thawed, non-frozen, say at a fish counter… Unless you have a guarantee that it was iced immeadiatily and caught with in 24 hours. This is why to go frozen, most frozen fish, from most large fisheries, is flash frozen on the boat. Often within minutes of being caught. I have no issue with properly frozen fish, THAT HAS REMAINED FROZEN, being near a year old. A lot of fish in the store has been frozen and then thawed for the counter, so the clock is ticking on it.

When you thaw it at home, do not warm it in any way, except very cold water, or being left in the fridge (on a very cold setting). cook it as soon as its thawed. Do not wait. ASAP.

To avoid those pin bones, when you buy a piece of fish, pick out (or request) the tail section. People always jump for the mid-section because its thickest, but thats where you get those tiny bones. This is most true with Salmon and Trout.

If the the sediment/muddy (many Trout and Catfish) taste of some fish turns you off, stick to Saltwater species. If you don’t like fishy taste, look towards fish with whiter flesh, say Grey cod and Pollock, and less of the red, brown, or in between species. If you are going for something like Yellow Fin (Ahi) tuna, that has a redder flesh (its not fishy, and common most places) do not buy the dark red pieces, go for the lightest flesh you see. Unless you like a mineral taste. (that rule applies to almost all fish)

Go for fishes caught in cold waters (like Alaska, Russia, Norway, Chile). Either really far north, or really far south, depending on the hemisphere.

Generally oily fish, will have a stronger taste. Mackerel is a good example. There are some exceptions. Cod is one that is oily. but it isn’t funky, fishy… Black cod is far oilier than grey cod, more expensive too. I love Black cod. But grey cod\Pacific cod is a great “starter” fish. Silver Hake, Pollack, Tom cod, (essentially all the same) are a step down in quality but are good for having a mellow taste, although somewhat mushy flesh. Very inexpensive.

Albacore tuna is great.

If you want to minimize “fishy” taste, buy fish with out skin! Cook fish without the skin! Much of those fishy flavors are from the skin and the slim layer of fat directly below.

If you go for Salmon, they are all great. The names can be confusing. Atlantic Salmon, is actually a saltwater trout. It is the most common fish to be farmed in the Salmon department. It sucks. Stay away from ALL farmed salmon. In my opinion. Go wild caught. What they feed them is similar to dog food. Go for Alaskan Wild Salmon for the best stuff. Here’s the confusing part, all the salmons have two names, Coho is Silver (good), Dog is Chum also called Keta (very mellow and inexpensive, good buy usually), Pink is Humpy (cheapest, great buy, a little oily), King is Chinook (expensive, strong taste, not worth the money I feel). Jack King is an immature King, very mushy, don’t buy. Red is Sockeye (Awesome flavor and texture, but sometimes spendy$$).

Be picky about skin!

Skate and especially shark, or dog fish (not to be confused with Dog salmon) should never ever, be sold with skin on. Or else you’ll get an ammonia taste. Everything shark related has issues with urea if not properly handled, they pee thru their skin. Other fish do not.

For cooking I like to rub some brown sugar on a filet of salmon or trout, wrap up in aluminum foil, with some lemon slices and bell pepper. Its hard to mess up, just thrown it in the oven. Rock fish, pollack and cod are awesome with a simple beer batter, or better yet fish tacos with those breaded pieces. A slab of tuna, this sounds weird but trust me, slather mayonaise thickly on to a filet or steak, then throw it on the grill. The mayo burns off while the fish cooks, then the outside doesn’t overcook while the whole piece cooks all the way through. Also it stays together instead of flaking apart.

Frying is great for flavor, but will often make any fishiness stronger. Baking is mellow but its easy to over cook. Your fish should never taste dry. Steaming mellows any fish out, but the texture is almost always degraded. remember to check the flesh often, no matter how you do it. if it flakes its done, as long as the flesh is opaque, no longer any translucency, ITS DONE.

I could talk for days on shrimp, prawns, crab and shellfish. Not to mention octopus and squid. Let me know if any of that helps, I can answer most seafood questions.

Forgot to mention, Herring are great. I love them pickled. Related to sardines, but they do not taste strong like sardines. Very mellow. Try them pickled in a jar (from the store, I pickle them myself though).

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I filleted the trout myself and aside from the small mistake I made there were no small bones in it at all…

I think you people massively misunderstood my question. I have no way of doing that. The store don’t have that huge variety and honestly I don’t really trust what they will tell me in the stores…
Most fresh fish is Bulgarian, meaning local, so I don’t mind buying local produce…

So what type of situation are you looking at? Catching most of your fish, buying most your fish whole, “fresh” at a fish market, buying fish (whole or partial) from a fish counter at a grocery store/super market, or just from a store with out a fish counter?

Yeah, trout are easy to deal with bone wise. Not like many others like O’io or Mackerel.

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Really nice comment. Thanks for sharing your experience.

That’s true Pete but you can find frozen fish from norway in the big stores.

Yeah the thing is you are living near a river and most river fish have a stronger fishy taste. Btw “pangasius” ( this is the greek name ) could be found frozen with averagely good price and not that fishy taste.

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I’ve heard and read a lot of bad things about that fish. So I will just avoid it.


That’s supposed to be either cod or hadock, not sure which. For our international readers - freezing date is April 2018. I know it’s frozen, but it’s an year old and I rather not.

I’m not fishing. God no. I can’t swim so I stay away from water.
I just want to be able to buy some sort of fish every now and then and do something with it.
I honestly enjoy cooking it more than eating it, but I’m weird like that.

Will try to find cod or hadock next and see what can I do about it, but that will be some time next month…

It’s most likely - Atlantic cod.

Fine by me just to let you know though -

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I still rather not…

Just by the way, I’m really grateful to everyone who contributed to this thread. Sometimes I really love being on this forum.
Thanks for taking time to answer my stupid questions.

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I can second that, watched a report a few years back, that it’s largely caught in water polluted by medical waste from industry, don’t know if it’s a localized problem, but it’s enough for me not buying it.

Questions are not stupid, how else would one learn.

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If @psycho_666 likes steamed salmon, he could also try cooking fillets in the oven wrapped in foil with a tiny bit of oil, aromatics and some green veg. Can do the same thing with any light-coloured fish, really.

Just works well with salmon. Also good idea to through in a few prawns with it. If you don’t like the smell, just use frozen and put them in with the chilled fish. It’ll mean they don’t overcook.

My absolute favourite thing is oven cooking salmon fillets and prawns in hollandaise, and serving it with buttery potatoes (boiled until the outside is fluffy, so the butter gets soaked up) and asparagus.

Tuna’s a good one if you prefer a meatier flavour, but steaks are stupid expensive (Edit: as others have pointed out, many times).

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You mean like I did with the trout filets?