Welcome to FISH FOOD TIMES

---

Oct. 2017 issue No.166

White croaker hiratsukuri sashimi・nigirisushi・fillet

---

Fish species with confusing discrimination

Also this month, following the FISH FOOD TIMES No. 163, I have a feeling that it seems to be buried in the "mud of a fish type", but this time I'm thinking I will stop deepening there.

Actually No. 163 content, readers pointed out that the name of the fish is not Emperor red snapper, but Firespot snapper. Since all of these fish are called district names such as "Sanbaner" without being clearly distinguished in Okinawa and the Nansei Islands, it is said that the name of the fish is "Sanbaner" and rewriting the text There is a background that I was forgiven in the form of supplemental update.

The white croake to be covered in this issue belongs to order; Perciformes, suborde; Percoidei, family; Sciaenidae, genus; Pennahia. In the same family; Sciaenidae fish, there are families like the following images, and in the field of fish selling spots throughout the country these are accepted as selfish names, respectively. Therefore, it is expected that it is rather difficult for the author to accurately communicate the distinction of fish species in such a way that every reader is convinced.

The following images are all photographed by the author, although the location and timing of shooting were different, the size was almost balanced, and a bit ambiguous memory remained.

How to distinguish the family of white croaker (family Sciaenidae)
White croaker 　family Sciaenidae, genus Pennahia The whole is silver white and somewhat slender, tail fin protruding triangle. There is a black spot behind gills lid.
Yellow croake　family Sciaenidae, genus Larimichthys The body color is silver white with yellowish color, the abdomen is slightly yellower than the back. Their eyes are close to the tip of the upper jaw, they are big, the origin of the tail fin is thin.
Yellow drum　family Sciaenidae, genus Nibea It is yellowish over the whole, black spots below the side line lined up in lines, and the one above it is disturbed. The original part of each fin except for dorsal fin is yellow.
Blackmouth croaker　family Sciaenidae, genus Atrobucca nibea Pectoral fin is long and reaches behind the first dorsal fin and has a black color overall.
Japanese croaker　family Sciaenidae, genus Argyrosomus japonicus The head is small, the length of the pectoral fin does not reach the rear end of the first dorsal fin. The end of tail fin has a little out of the center.
Brown croaker　family Sciaenidae, genus Miichthys Along the dorsal fin on the side line, there is an obliquely ordered brown spotle (small black spot column) followed.

---

Characteristics of a relative of white croaker

The fish of the image above is picked up later and will be described in detail. The topic covered in this article is white croake of the top image and its body color is silver white overall. A black spot behind the gills lid in the round place where the noise of the underlying image is filtered and deliberately raised is its big characteristic.

Family Sciaenidae 's fish seems to be able to shake the air bladders in common with each other. I have never heard of it, but since it sounds like it complains, it is said to have been named "Gucci".

When they gathered a lot, it is possible to listen even 400-500 m away, and this cry is almost limited at the time of the spring tide egg laying, which is thought to be a sound to be emitted to recognize each other's existence.

Its air bladders seems to have a structure in which red muscles are attached to both sides as shown in the image below, the air bladders resonate and it becomes a bark (vibration sound).

White croaker air bladders and muscles (example with yellow croaker)
1, Milky stuff sticking near the spine is air bladders
2, Remove only the air bladders with fingers.
3, Using the air bladders of family Sciaenidae 's fish, you can make an adhesive called animal glue. It is the etymology of 'nibemonai' meaning that there is no amiability in Japan.
4, There are red muscles that move the air bladders on both sides removed the air bladders.
5, This red muscle is coming off with your fingers when I turn this up.
6, This muscle is positioned like a fillet of beef and pig.
Boiled fish cooked with white croaker fillet

 

Also, when the head is dismantled, white round grains of the bottom image come out, this is a balanced organ called otolith, and because there is such a hard stone-like organ, another name "ishimochi" "also called.

---

Recently, almost no apparent popular fish

Long ago, for decades ago when the author was still a fresh fish representative "beginner", the white croaker has a memory that was sold like a mountain at a cheap price such as a dumping value. It is also freshness that the scales fade away, it is soft, it can not be fished very much, such as sashimi, rather it is not fish of freshness as dealt with at the fish shop but rather stupid as going to "kamaboko shop" .

Most of such freshness white croaker was caught in a sea area such as the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea by one-shot fishing due to the west trawl net fishery which draws a sack-like net with two vessels. (It is different from trawl fishing that pulls a net with one fishing boat)

However, recently I have seen almost no white croaker lined up in the fish shops, but it has the historical background as follows.

Long ago, various fishes inhabited the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, and white croaker, yellow croaker, cutlassfish, conger pike etc were caught by the west trawl net fishery on the continental shelf. However, as shown in the figure below, from the 1960 's to the 1990' s, the operating seas of the western net draw net fishery narrowed, and since 1996 it has reached the edge of the East China Sea continental shelf. And since 2004 the operation is mainly in the EEZ of Japan excluding the Japan-China provisional measures west of Kyushu.

In the 1960s the catch of the fishery of the west trawl net fishery was maintained at 300,000 tons or more, but in the first half of 1970 the catch amount was about 200 thousand tons. After that, although it was stable at about 200,000 tons until 1980, it decreased further in the 1980s and 1990s, it changed to the 6 thousand to 9 thousand tons after 2000, it increased to about 3.3 thousand in 2014 It only catches tons.

The number of the permission ships of the west trawl net ship matched 684 in 1965, but in 1975 it decreased by 175 to 509, 10 years later in 1985 it was 424, and in 10 years later In 1995 it was 98 vessels. And now in 2017 only 8 ships (8 in Nagasaki) have been reduced.

This is because the costly Japanese fishing boats have become unprofitable since the 1980s, withdrawing from that one after another. And China has bought a second used ship that withdraws and there is circumstance that started operation in this area. In other words, the Chinese fishing boat has advanced into this fishing ground after 1980, when the Japanese fishing boat withdrew, at that time the resources of the East China Sea had already been overfished and the fishing ground seems to be exhausted.

In Japan like this, while west trawl net fishery is exactly a candle flickering in the wind, according to the FAO fishing statistics, in China the distribution areas of white croaker and yellow croaker shown in the figure below , The trawl net fishery in the waters of the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, which are the spawning grounds, are conducting active fisheries. In addition to that, recently the notorious tiger net came out.

A tiger net is a fishing boat that fishes using a large-scale net of a special shape, and attracts mackerel, horse mackerel, etc. with a powerful fishing light at night, the net ship is looped with a net with a length of 1 km A small boat equipped with underwater light guides the fish to the bag-shaped part of the net's tip. The dragger's displacement is about 500 tons, it is one size larger than the Japanese round haul netter, a smaller number than the winding net fishing, and the real operation time is short, but the mesh is small and it catches a large amount to the fry fish. It seems that this tiger net that looks like a tiger's face spreads out the bag-shaped part of the tip, catching many fishes as if squeezing out from the sea.

In China, the catch amount of all fish species increased markedly in the 1990s, but the catch of recent years has become almost flat. And from 2007 to 2013 yellow croake is reported to catch about 340 - 410 thousand tons, conger pike is about 300 thousand - 37 thousand tons, and pomfre catches about 320 - 37 thousand tons. In Korea as well, it can be understood from the table below that 20,000 tons of white croaker and yellow croake are caught about 2,000 tons and 30 thousand tons respectively.

---

Facts of China and Korea

White croake and yellow croaker are familiar for a long time as a fish representing food culture in China and the Korean Peninsula, and in particular, in Korea, it means that it is so special that it is used as a priest's offering.

In the fish shop of METRO (Germany's headquarters supermarket) visited in October 2016 by the Chinese, as shown in the lower left image of the lower image, even in the corner where the yellow croaker is selling naked fish It was displayed in a noticeable form.

 

In Busan visited in October 2015, the following scene was seen in the vicinity of Jagalchi Market, and I felt the magnitude of croakers presence.

Dried fish of croakers lined up in the shop of a dried food store in the vicinity of the Jagalchi market in Busan

 

Raw fish such as drumfish, yellow croaker, white croake, yellow croake, yellowback sea-bream, Willowy flounder, Blackthroat seaperch, etc. lining up at the shop front of the fish shop in Jagalchi market

 

And it is the scenery of Busan Port below that will support the firmly supporting the fish sales area like the image above.

　

Scenery of trawl net fishery fishing boat moored in Busan Port

There were a lot of nostalgic trawl net fishery ships that I had been seeing every morning at the port of Nagahama where the central wholesale fish market of Fukuoka city is decades ago. And I still understand that the fish of Korea is also active in this trawl net fishery ship and supports the fish food of Korean people.The state of this time is the article of "Difference in the fish meal across the sea (Nov. 2015 issue No. 143)", "Difference in the fish meal across the sea (Nov. 2015 issue No. 143-2)" Please also refer to.

---

Future response in Japan where the environment of white croaker has changed

Well, the Japanese environment surrounding the white croaker has changed dramatically in this way, while historically being touched by changes in diplomatic relations with China and South Korea. Now in Japan the white croaker is not a fish to catch with the offshore west trawl net fishery, it seems to be a fish caught finely by small coastal trawl net fishery etc. And it can be said that the freshness has also changed from the past.

The white croaker used for sashimi and sushi this time seemed to have been caught by the coastal small rawl net fishery ship, it was fresh freshness so we made sashimi and sushi in the following process.

White croake sashimi and sushi process
1, Pull the skin firmly to the left with the left hand, put a kitchen knife between the body and the skin, and move it to the right side. (The work process until disassembling into three pieces is omitted)
2, Pulling the skin in the same way both upper body and lower body.
3, After removing the leather, work to remove all the small bones with a boneless tool.
4, From the tail, make your upper body hiratsukuri sashimi.	4, Place the skin side of the lower body on the bottom, turn the tip of the kitchen knife to the upper left, and draw from the side of the head.
5, Pull from the blade edge, send the knife with the left thumb to the right.	5, Pull the kitchen knife, then leave a piece of leather and raise the peak of kitchen knife and separate it at the angle you raised.
6,Ttrim a little longer and the same length.	6, trim the last piece to the size and length that can be used as sushi material.
white croaker's hiratsukuri sashimi	white croaker's nigirisushi

　

---

Method of boiled fish

In the past it was a rare white croaker that could be made into sashimi, so it was a classic dish whether to bake, boil or fry solely. This time, let's introduce the boiling which is most easy to taste of soft white meat among them.

white croaker's boiled fish
1, Remove the head with the method of cutting off while keeping the part of a collar of a fish attached, and wipe off moisture after washing with water.	7, Tail fin side cuts near the base of tail fin and shapes it.
2, Cut off dorsal fin with origin of blade.	8, A fillet that split for three people.
3, A collar of a fish is raised up, and pectoral fin and pelvic fin are cut off with the blade origin.	9, Products served in a tray.
4, Cut off the buttocks bire.	10, Boil the broth.
5, Cut the torso at one third, including the length from the cut of the head to the tip of the pectoral fin.	11, wait until boiling.
6, Put the kitchen knife on the middle bone on the head side, disassemble into two pieces and divide it into two.	12, After boiling, drop lid then wait for 4 to 5 minutes, then take the drop lid and wait for 2 to 3 minutes to finish.
White croaker's boiled fish is completed

---

Future positioning

Croaker fish such as white croaker and yellow croaker are delicious regardless of any kind of dish, and have existed as the same popular fish which can not be indispensable for the countries of Japan, China, Korea and Korea surrounding the East China Sea.

However, China and South Korea are not necessarily feeling the momentum as in the past in Japan today. Compared with the time when we caught tens of thousands tons in the past, now it has become a small presence in small rawl net fishery in the domestic coastal area. However, even if its presence is diminished, on the contrary it should be seen that the value as fresh fish is relatively high.

It seems that few fishery officials selling fish now seem to know that the white croaker or yellow croaker was a very large presence like the one described above, and how to deal with these fish again now I would like you to review it from a new perspective.

---

An opinion and the communication are to iinfo@fish food times

Date of updating 1 Oct. 2017