On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 377

are thin and delicate Softness Certain conditions can lead to fish flesh becoming unpleasantly soft When fish flesh is depleted by migration or by spawning, their sparse muscle proteins bond to each other only very loosely, and the overall texture is soft and flabby In extreme cases, such as “sloppy” cod or “jellied” sole, the muscle proteins are so tenuously bonded that the muscle seems almost liquefied Some fish come out mushy when thawed after frozen storage, because freezing disrupts the cells’ compartments and liberates enzymes that then attack the muscle fibers And enzyme activity during cooking can turn firm fish mushy in the pan; see p 211 Fish Flavor The flavor of fish may well be the most variable and changeable among our basic foods It depends on the kind of fish, the salinity of its home waters, the food it eats, and the way it is harvested and handled Fish Taste In general, seafood is more fulltasting than meats or freshwater fish, because ocean creatures accumulate amino acids to counterbalance the salinity of seawater (p 188) The flesh of ocean fish generally contains about the same amount of salty sodium as beef or trout, but three to ten times more free amino acids, notably sweet glycine and savory glutamate Shellfish, sharks and rays, and members of the herring and mackerel family are especially rich in these amino acids Because the salt content of seawater varies substantially — it’s high in the open ocean, lower near river mouths — the amino-acid content and therefore taste intensity of fish varies according to the waters they’re caught in An additional element of fish taste is contributed indirectly by the energy-carrying ... more free amino acids, notably sweet glycine and savory glutamate Shellfish, sharks and rays, and members of the herring and mackerel family are especially rich in these amino acids Because the salt content of seawater varies... high in the open ocean, lower near river mouths — the amino-acid content and therefore taste intensity of fish varies according to the waters they’re caught in An additional element of fish taste is...salinity of its home waters, the food it eats, and the way it is harvested and handled Fish Taste In general, seafood is more fulltasting than meats or freshwater fish, because