or “blood-fresh”); Chinese restaurants often
have tanks of live fish at the ready; the French
prepare freshly killed “blue” trout; and many
shellfish are cooked alive.
In general, delaying and extending the
period of rigor will slow the eventual
deterioration of texture and flavor. This can
be done by icing most fish immediately after
harvest, before rigor sets in. However, early
icing can actually toughen some fish —
sardine, mackerel, and warm-water fish such
as tilapia — by disrupting their contraction
control system. Fish are generally at their
prime just when rigor has passed, perhaps 8 to
24 hours after death, and begin to deteriorate
soon after that.
Recognizing Fresh Fish
Nowadays, consumers often have no idea
where a given piece of fish in the market has
come from, when and how it was harvested,