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I was pondering. I see a picture. Buddies, after a big day on the river, cooking up a fresh salmon on the bank, cooked on top of a nice roaring fire. The river dancing close by, friends laughing, telling stale jokes, and having some cold ones, chilled by being sunk in a near-by eddy. The sun is going down behind the horizon, the sky is splashed with an assortment of flashy pink and red, accented with some purple hues...similar to a sexy steelhead fly.
Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, how about that fresh fish?
I was up north, one summer, near Kitimat, at a hot springs, with some buddies. A tourist yacht came in to the dock. The deckhand hopped on the dock, tied up the boat, then whipped out a couple of hefty springs.
As we were there, gazing at these prizes, the fellow said that the fish were just caught just a few minutes before, rigor hadn't even set in yet, so very fresh. So he was anxious to cook this fish right away, fresh from the chuck. Then a veteran of a fisherman walked up to the tourist and told them that they should wait for a bit. This man continued to say that when the fish are too fresh, the parasites haven't had the time to run into the belly post-mortem. So the parasites are still dispersed all over the flesh and cavity. If you actually wait for a bit, the parasites all group up in the belly. That way, when you gut it, the parasites go with it. I guess these parasites, if they're present, are visible to the naked eye, but very hard to see still. (I have seen them once...like a small grain of rice, but thinner, and it was moving.)
But I also heard that parasites are more present in trout from stagnant lakes, with little or no flow in it, and that it doesn't affect salmon really.
Has anyone ever heard of this?
I know sushi-grade salmon, for sahimi, is flash-frozen, to kill all parasites, apparently.
Another thing is smoking the fish. The heat is not very hot, it's only drying the fish. Apparently, another cause for parasite worries. But hey, don't all humans have some sort of parasite too?
I don't know. My thing is that if we all worry about every little thing, we wouldn't have a real quality in our lives. That's my :2cents:
Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, how about that fresh fish?
I was up north, one summer, near Kitimat, at a hot springs, with some buddies. A tourist yacht came in to the dock. The deckhand hopped on the dock, tied up the boat, then whipped out a couple of hefty springs.
As we were there, gazing at these prizes, the fellow said that the fish were just caught just a few minutes before, rigor hadn't even set in yet, so very fresh. So he was anxious to cook this fish right away, fresh from the chuck. Then a veteran of a fisherman walked up to the tourist and told them that they should wait for a bit. This man continued to say that when the fish are too fresh, the parasites haven't had the time to run into the belly post-mortem. So the parasites are still dispersed all over the flesh and cavity. If you actually wait for a bit, the parasites all group up in the belly. That way, when you gut it, the parasites go with it. I guess these parasites, if they're present, are visible to the naked eye, but very hard to see still. (I have seen them once...like a small grain of rice, but thinner, and it was moving.)
But I also heard that parasites are more present in trout from stagnant lakes, with little or no flow in it, and that it doesn't affect salmon really.
Has anyone ever heard of this?
I know sushi-grade salmon, for sahimi, is flash-frozen, to kill all parasites, apparently.
Another thing is smoking the fish. The heat is not very hot, it's only drying the fish. Apparently, another cause for parasite worries. But hey, don't all humans have some sort of parasite too?
I don't know. My thing is that if we all worry about every little thing, we wouldn't have a real quality in our lives. That's my :2cents: