Wild Fish Cooks Differently Than Farmed Fish

Wild Chonook "King" Salmon

After cooking wild fish for over 25 years, I learned from my clients at Otolith Sustainable Seafood that wild fish cooks differently than farmed fish.  Having no experience cooking farmed fish, I over looked how the experience of individuals cooking Otolith's seafood would be different from my own.

One difference between farmed and wild fish is the fat content.  Wild fish has fewer omega 6 fats found in many foods such as corn oil and vegetable oil. Omega 6 fats keep farmed fish from drying out while cooking at high temperatures above 250F.  Farmed fish can contain up to twice as much saturated fats which is another likely reason why some home cooks find it moister than wild salmon especially when grilled.

Consuming beneficial essential omega 3's primarily found in fish is only as beneficial to our overall health as the rest of our diet permits.  Consuming excessive omega 6 and saturated fats can have an adverse impact on our entire body including inflamation and stress responses linked to auto immune disorders. Many of us seek the balanced nutritional benefits of wild fish and want to have the most enjoyable experience possible when we eat wild fish.

These are my best handling and cooking techniques to assure a scrumptious wild fish experience for any practiced home cook:

1) Cooking food at lower temperatures is less likely to toughen or dry out challenging ingredients.  Any lean wild fish can be served juicy and fully cooked at 250F for 20 minutes per 1/2 inch thickness.  As with any recipe its best to start out with your ingredients at room temperature.  If your cooking Otolith's blast frozen wild fish, its imprtant to thaw in the refrigerator for at least one day before cooking and up to 7 days before cooking.  It will take approximately 20 minutes for a 3/4 inch thick portion of thawed fish to raise to room temperature once removed from the refrigerator.  Sous vide is another excellent way to cook wild fish at low temperatures whereas the vaccuum sealed fish is cooked slowly in a water bath of 130-150F for up to 40 minutes.

2) The addition of liquid to recipes will also prevent wild fish from tasting dry or over cooked especially when the wild fish is cooked slowly at 250F.  Poaching fish in shallow liquid enough to almost cover the fish is an unexpected great technique for maintaining juicy delicious fully cooked wild fish.  I use as little poaching liquid as possible to nearly cover my fillet portions when poaching.  Because the size of the baking dish affects the amount of liquid required to poach fish, I also use the smallest glass baking dish accomodating all of the fish without overlaping the fillet portions.  Crowding the fish is fine for poaching.  Cuting the fillets into smaller portions makes it easier to arrange them in a baking dish without overlaping.  A simple poaching liquid consists of white wine, water, lemon juice and additonal flavorings as desired such as onion slices, salt and pepper, butter and bay leaf.  I use all additional ingredients mentioned in my poaching liquid and I try not to overwhelm the delicate flavor of my fish therefore I avoid using garlic, tomatoes, green peppers and most herbs when poaching.  Garnishing poached fish with fresh chopped parsely is nice.  Poached fish is cooked at 250F for 20 minutes per half inch of fillet.  My goto recipe is poached wild halibut.  When fillet portions of halibut are close to one inch thick, poach halibut for 40 minutes.  Always remove fish from the heat after cooking and permit cooked fish to rest for 5-7 minutes before serving.  This will settle the juices within the fillet allowing them to redistribute throughout the fillet before its ready to eat. 

4) Insulating wild fish while cooking also locks in juiciness and can be done while cooking fish at 250F or 350F.  Sauteed vegetables over baked fish can be used as an insulation against the harshness of the higher 350F temperature.  Placing fish and or sauteed vegetables together in pouches of foil or parchment also provide adequate insulation to retain juiciness and circulate humidity within the pouch.  The French call this technique fish en papillot or in english we say fish in pouches. At 350F in pouches with sauteed vegetable wild fish cooks for 10 minutes per 3/4 inch.  At 250F in pouches with sauteed vegetables wild fish cooks for 20 minutes per half inch of thickness.  Sauteed vegetables are best sauteed until just glossy and will continue cooking once baked in the pouch with the fish.  Always cut dense firm vegetables into smaller pieces, at least a quarter of the size of softer vegetables with higher water content,  permitting them to cook evenly throughout at the same time and temperature within the pouch.

5) Do not over handle wild fish. Every encouter with a wild fish fillet is an opportunity to impact its quality and taste.  Handling is the most important part of preserving the natural greatness of wild fish.  Superior handling is the reason hook and line fish taste superior to trawled fish.  Handling is the reason first fresh cut blast frozen at its port of landing tastes fresher than reprocessed frozen at sea fish thawed and refrozen after additional processing. With handling in mind, let's not use Otolith's Quick Thaw Technique for fish we intend to cook. Otolith's quick Thaw is great for preparing raw fish for raw service.  Its also a tremendouse shock to the protein, fat and natural moisture of the fish.  Cooking wild fish after Otolith's Quick Thaw will invariably result in tougher drier results unless we compensate for the thawing method by using our gentilest cooking tenchniques which includes cooking sous vide or any of many raw fish dishes.

In addition to best handling, its beneficial when searching fish recipes online to use keyword(s) "wild" and identify the exact species you wish to cook ie. sockeye, coho, king salmon, North Pacific rockfish, lingcod, halibut etc.  Search engins will suggest more recipes specifically intended for the wild seafood species of your choice when you use key words to define your recipe search.  Eliminating the potential for using recipes created for farmed fish is important because of the differences between farmed fish and wild fish.  Identifing the exact species you wish to cook in your recipe search may assure ideal recipe selections for the fish you are cooking and be less likely to provide generic recipes for any salmon or whitefish.

Let's keep cooking!