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Fish Tales 1(3)
FISH--WHAT IT IS...
In the lyric and sexist words of French gastronome Andre Simon, "From
the beginning of Time to this day, the sea has been man's magic larder:
without plough and without pay there has always been--and there still
is--in the sea a ready supply of fish for man to catch and woman to cook.
The same applies to all the waters of the earth: the sleepy or rushing
waters of the humblest streams and noblest rivers, the icy cold waters
of deep lakes in the mountains, and the shallow, brackish waters of lowlands
and sea coasts--all are inhabited by fish, and mostly fish that is food
for man."
Indeed, carp bones have been recovered from Stone Age sites. Pike skeletons
have been found in Danish peat bogs, pierced with bone arrows. And sturgeon
bones have been unearthed in 6th century Lake Ladogo sites, near the Baltic.
THE FISH by Ogden Nash (1931)
"The fish, when he's exposed to air,
Displays no trace of savoir faire,
But in the sea regains his balance
And exploits all his manly talent.
The chastest of the vertebrates,
He never even sees his mates,
But when they've finished, he appears
And O.K.'s all their bright ideas."
When fish are categorized according to their fat content, they fall into
3 general groups:
1. Lean fish, with a fat content less that 2.5%--that includes
black sea bass, cod, croaker, flounder, haddock, hake, halibut, perch,
pollack, red snapper, rockfish, and sole.
2. Moderate-fat fish, with a fat content less than 6%--to include
bonito, catfish, some salmon, striped bass, swordfish, trout, and whiting.
3. High-fat fish, with a fat content as high as 30% (eek!), but
generally around 12%. These include Atlantic herring, bluefish, butterfish,
mackerel, sablefish, some salmon, shad, smelt, sturgeon, and yellowtail.
[Continue 2(3)]
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