Introduction: The benefits of fish are well-known, and the Chinese Nutrition Society recommends that each person should consume 50-100 grams of fish and shellfish daily. However, besides the specifics of preparation, there's a lot to learn from buying to eating fish. In this issue, a reporter from "Life Times" interviewed Luo Yongkang, a seafood expert at the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering at China Agricultural University, and Professor Chen Shunsheng, Director of the Department of Aquatic Product Processing and Storage Engineering at the College of Food Science at Shanghai Ocean University, to hear about these two fish experts' rules for eating fish.
Choose fish that are "eight-tenths" of their full size. The size of a fish determines its texture and safety. If it's too small, the fish hasn't fully matured, the meat won't be tender and fresh, and there will be more bones. If it's too large, the fish is old, the meat is coarse, and it may have accumulated harmful substances. Therefore, it's best to choose fish that are about "eight-tenths" of their full size. For example, 1.5 jin for carp and Wuchang fish, 0.5-1 jin for crucian carp, and 4-5 jin for grass carp.
Don't buy fish with cloudy, sunken eyes or gray gills. When selecting "freshly chilled fish," first observe its eyes and gills. Fresh fish have full, clear, and bright eyes, and their gill filaments are distinct and bright red. Slightly less fresh fish have less full eyes, wrinkled and slightly cloudy corneas, sometimes with bleeding and red eyes, and their gills are dark, gray-red, or grayish-purple. Spoiled fish have sunken or shrunken eyes, wrinkled or ruptured corneas, and gills that are brown or grayish-white.
Don't choose fish from tanks with discolored water. When buying live fish in a supermarket, check the "water color." It reflects the water quality. If the water is dark green or blue, it may be due to excessive algae, indicating that the water and tank haven't been changed or cleaned in a long time, which could affect the fish's health. Fish in tanks with clear, flowing, and regularly changed water are generally more lively.
Don't buy fish that are too cheap. If the price is unreasonably low, consider the fish's source, quality, and safety. Eating spoiled fish poses significant health risks.
Let freshly killed fish rest before cooking. The quality of the meat is not optimal immediately after slaughter because it needs to go through a "purging" process to become more delicious. Small fish like grass carp and silver carp should be refrigerated immediately and cooked after 2 hours. Larger fish need to be refrigerated for more than 2 hours.
Don't eat fish that is too red or too white. Different fish varieties have naturally different colors, such as red-meat fish like tuna and white-meat fish like hairtail. However, if a fish is unusually bright red or pure white, it's likely due to artificial coloring.
Don't eat heavily preserved fish. Aquatic products can contain nitrites. During drying or pickling, some proteins break down, forming amines that combine with nitrites to create nitrosamines, which pose a certain cancer risk.
Freeze raw fish slices before eating. Raw fish slices may contain parasites, which are highly susceptible to both heat and cold. They can be killed by freezing at -20°C for 24 hours, but the ice under a typical sashimi plate is not cold enough to kill them. Therefore, fish should only be eaten raw if you are completely confident in the source of the ingredients.
Try to steam your fish. Among all cooking methods, steaming is the healthiest. It uses low temperatures and little oil, preserving most of the nutrients in the fish. Boiling or stewing can cause some nutrients to leach into the broth. Grilling uses high temperatures, which can produce harmful substances, and it also uses a lot of oil, negating the low-fat health benefit of fish. Frying contains even more oil and causes greater nutrient loss, so it is not recommended.
Here, "Xiao Mei" has carefully selected a few fish recipes for you to try!
【Homestyle Braised Mackerel】 【Deep-fried Sardines】 【Catfish and Tofu Stew】
Jell-O fish