To tell if fish is fresh.

To tell fresh fish, real fresh fish is by how it looks. Really fresh fish should look as though it could still swim away. And I do mean that.

The problem that we have today in the supermarkets is that to get fish, in to the stores, that fit a commercial criteria to meet a price point, as part of the selling police of that store, is very difficult. So a lot of what you see will not be fresh fish. It will be caught and then blast frozen on the boat. It could have been on the boat for a week or more before it come to shore and then be processed. Or even processed at sea then frozen and taken to shore. Fish is a very big and international business now and is traded all over the world.

So when you see a display of fresh fish with red snapper, barracuda tuna and the like it might not be as fresh as you think.

So what do we look for? Well to tell if a piece of fish is fresh and defrosted is not as easy if you are just looking at the fillets. In fact unless you are a bit of a fish expert it is very hard to tell. What you want is to see the whole fish.

Now a good fishmonger will have whole fish for sale and will filet them for you if you want. So there is no need to worry about you having to do that. But if you can see the whole fish you can see the condition that it is in and all the things you need to look at.
As I said at the beginning of this piece it should look like it could still swim away. Look at its eyes. The eyes should be bright and bulging with black pupils. This should mean that the fish is fresh. If the eyes look dull, if they look greyish, sunken or with red rims then it is not fresh.

The gills should be clean and red. If the gills are dirty dark and slimy then this is a good singe of a bad fish.

But if the fish doe not have a head how can you tell. The flesh of the fish should be firm and ridged and spring back if you touch it. The skin should be bright and shiny. It should have a viscous slime that is clear and evenly distributed across the skin. If it does not look or feel like that then it is not fresh.

And finally it should smell pleasant. Strong fish smell is a singe that the fish is getting old. The more offensive the smell the older the fish will be.

So get to a market that sell fresh fish and look for fish that is packed in ice looks like it has just come out of the river and you will be in the best pace to get the best fresh fish

What is in Yorkshire.