Yellowtail Butchery...

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by cioppino

We have eaten tuna so fresh it was still twitching and warm when we ate it. None of us ever got sick. Icing to me is merely a way to improve the quality of my fillets while extending the time I have to deal with a catch.

I often eat tuna, as well a Bonito right out of the water. It's great but it has a different texture, or essentially is more chewwy then tuna that has been properly aged on ice, that's simply because the muscle tissue has not started to break down.

Essentially what your doing is ageing your fish by letting it sit on ice. People do this with meat all the time, aged beef is the norm, and is considered to be more tender with better flavor then fresh. Same with fish, though you certainly do not want to age it as long.

As to getting sick from what you eat... Well this is a topic kind of near and dear to me at this moment since I have been laid up for over a month due to complications (a intestinal bacterial infection) that resulted from what I'm pretty sure was food poisoning.

I once got this sick before and that was actually from eating raw fish (Yellowtail) right out of the water, down at Ensanada but I believe that was due to the water we rinsed the fish off with, not the fish itself. That time my guts were screwed up for months, but in my recent case I'm pretty sure what got me was some undercooked Pork.

The parasites in fish will not give you immediate food poisoning, but at times in their life cycle they are too small to see, and they can invade your gut and cause major complications down the line.

If you going to eat raw fish right out of the water it's wise to eat it with ginger, wasabi, or cayenne pepper.

Wasabi increases stomach acidity which kills parasites and it has other anti parasitic chemical properties. I've forgotten the actual chemicals involved maybe I look it up later.

Cayenne once again increases acidity in the stomach but it also contains Capsicum which kills parasites, both roundworms and tapeworms, and also has anti bacterial qualities. Ever wonder why rural Mexicans do not get sick from their water? It's due to the high amounts of Capsicum in their diets.

Ginger contains zingibain a anti parasitic chemical that kills parasites and inhibits parasite reproduction. Ginger extract has been scientifically shown to kill the anisakid nematode (worm) that infests the guts of local seals as well the tissue in our local fish.

I see these worms in local halibut all the time....

.......but I've seen them in Yellows and Dorado as well and the younger worms are too small to see.

That's the roundworm that we are most likely to get from eating local sushi or sashimi.

No wonder the Japanese serve sushi with pickled Ginger... it works!!

Of the three I like pickled ginger the best, but a teaspoon Tapitio, or even a Jalapeno or two after the fish is more then enough to kill anything you got with it, and prevent a parasitic infection.

Right now due to my illness I'm taking a teaspoon of cayenne with warm water every morning for it's anti bacterial qualities, so no parasites for me, and it definitely wakes you up...

As to all Yani said about Omega three fatty acids etc.... He's definitely right on the money.


Jim