How to choose fish and seafood

On the shelves sea and river fish falls into fresh (chilled) or frozen. To begin with the first.

How to choose fresh fish

First, look into the eyes of the fish. If they are cloudy, have fallen into or delaminated, began spoilage. In fresh fish eyes shine.

Then look at the gills. They should be pink and fit snugly to the body. If the gills are gray, brown or green, a fish gamy.

That is why it is not recommended to buy fish without heads and fins. Often they are cut to conceal spoilage. It is better to overpay for the "extra" weight, but be assured freshness.

Look closely at the color: it should match the natural colors of the fish. For example, a blue-mackerel zolenaya rest with a plurality of black stripes and silver abdomen. If the carcass has spots or "rusty" plaque, the fish is not fresh.

After the visual evaluation of feel around the fish. The carcass must be resilient, to tightly adjacent to each other scales. Flabby meat and flaking scales - a sign of spoilage.

Push the back of the fish. If the dent left, from the purchase should be abandoned. In the same way, you can check the freshness of chilled fillets.

Finally, the fish smell. The smell should be gentle and natural. If a fish smells like a swamp or gives ammonia, it is spoiled. In no case do not buy a product.

How to choose frozen fish

Fish, especially marine, frozen or on fishing vessels or processing plants on shore. If sales of the catch point are far away, the fish covered with ice glazing.

Glaze - is the frozen marinade (often with an added preservative) forming ice crust and increasing the shelf life of the fish.

Start with a visual inspection, too. The glaze should be a smooth, uniform, about 2 millimeters thick. If the ice crust on the carcass or cracked under it you can see the blood, fish properly stored and clearly peremorazhivali.

This is also evidenced unnatural "posture" of fish. Do not buy the fish if the carcass is bent, folded over her broken tail or fins.

Smell the fish. "Is it frozen, and the more-glazed fish smell something?" - you ask and you will be right. If the fish is caught and immediately frozen, the smell of it is practically absent. If the frozen carcasses exude a strong fishy smell, they have deteriorated even before freezing.

And last check: Take a fish in his hands. By weight of frozen fish should be approximately the same as fresh. If the carcass is too light, it peremorazhivali many times. Even if the product does not spoil the taste quality of such fish is poor.

How to choose seafood

Seafood - it's edible, it is caught in the sea and not fish. All seafood low in calories and very useful: rich in protein, amino acids, iodine.

Seafood divided on molluscs (squid, Oysters, mussels, octopus, etc.) and crustaceans (shrimp, crayfish, crabs, lobsters, etc.).

Regardless of the variety of almost all the seafood come to us on the shelves in frozen or canned form. Fresh they just do not bring (or it is very expensive). After all, most of the shrimp exported from Southeast Asia, oysters - from the Mediterranean coast, and the crab and squid - from the Far East.

This delicious foods that you need to fish in the sea, preserve and bring to the "mainland". They can not be cheap.

Price - the first landmark in the selection of high-quality seafood. The second - the smell. Even a light aroma of ammonia should alert you. Seafood should smell like the sea or not to have the smell at all.

Take a walk through a supermarket fish department. Is there enough cold? If not, then perhaps in the store are weak or refrigerators, they have recently shut down. Any violation of the conditions of storage affects the quality of the product.

Carefully inspect the packaging of frozen seafood. It must be solid. Hoarfrost inside - sign thawing and refreezing. If the inhabitants of the seas covered with glaze, then it should be no more than 7-10% of the total product volume.

Now consider the particular selection of the most popular seafood.

shrimps

Shrimp are typically sold boiled-cream (they are pale pink), or fresh-frozen (they are gray), peeled or in the shell, in the package or in bulk.

shrimp varieties are many, from small "beer" to large "royal". Therefore, they are calibrated in size and indicate on the packaging of numbers: 50-70, 90-120, and so forth.

These figures show the approximate number of shrimp found in one kilogram.

Pay attention to the appearance of the shrimp. In untreated tailings must be bent into a ring. Direct as dried fish, shrimp - a sign that the product is repeatedly peremorazhivalsya or been frozen already stale. Stains and unnatural hues - it is also a sign of low quality raw material.

crabs

crab species is also very much. It depends on the type of size and color of the meat of crustaceans, from pure white to almost brown.

The stores are sold live and cooked crab (usually all), as well as chilled and frozen (often in the form of butchered meat, claws, legs).

By purchasing live crabs, see how they are active. If you sit in the tank and almost motionless, the purchase should be abandoned. The eyes of live crabs, as well as the fish, must be black and shiny.

If you buy cooked crabs from them must come a pleasant slightly sweet flavor. But no fish smell!

Carapace both live and frozen or boiled crab should be hard, without stains and damages.

squids

In our stores, as a rule, are sold gutted (without the beak, eyes and viscera), but not yet cleaned squid. Color carcass thus depends on the environment and the age of the mollusc from grayish pink to purple-violet.

When buying pay attention to the size of the squid. The most tender meat from the carcasses of about 300 grams of weight and a length of about 15 centimeters.

Look, when the squid were caught and packaged. Fishing for these shellfish is in July-August. If the package are the summer dates, it is a good sign.

Buying cleaned squid, consider a carcass for cuts and blemishes. Meat purified squid should be smooth and white.

mussels

In Central Russia, the mussels are sold canned or frozen in the wings and one without.

When you purchase should be guided by two important indicators.

• Appearance shell. They should be solid, without cracks and chips, and their flaps should be tightly closed. Well, if the wet sink.
• The size. Ideal - a medium-sized mussels. This means that clam has reached the tastiest - polutoragodovalogo - age. They are in a kilogram of about 40-60 pieces.

oysters

Criteria for selection of oysters are about the same as that of the mussels. But there is an important caveat.

Oysters eaten alive.

Therefore, in the shops, they should be stored in a special tank or in the ice. Bringing home, they should also be immediately put in cold water.

And one more life hacking. On opening the oyster special knife, pour the lemon juice on it. The meat should be reduced. If this does not happen, the clam is dead and this oyster is better not to eat.

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You know the intricacies of buying other seafood? Share them in the comments.