Our favourite trick for kids to fall in love with Beltfish
Nov 08,2024 | Isle Provisions
We're incredibly grateful for every bit of feedback from our customers!
Recently, one of our regulars, Bt, mentioned that our belt fish was a bit too fishy and not quite kid-friendly. This got us thinking: we love the tender, buttery texture of belt fish, so wouldn't it be a shame if the flavour got in the way of everyone enjoying it? Naturally, we took this as a challenge to make belt fish a hit with even the pickiest eaters—kids!
Fishy odour is complex. It's largely due to volatile compounds found naturally in each species. Factors like the fish's origin and the environment its raised in all affect the smell. So how do we reduce that fishiness?
Japanese—the world's seafood gourmet—often enjoy their sashimi with sake. We thought this might give us clues to keep the flavours bright and balanced while keeping fishy odours at bay.
Here's what we tried: soaking the belt fish in rice wine for 20 minutes on each side before steaming it without any condiments ( just to really stress-test this method). And it worked!
The fishiness was noticeably reduced, and the flavour? Still delicious. Check out the tasty fish broth on the plate!
So what's the food science behind this? Fishy odours come from certain basic volatile compounds (think pH), which rice wine helps neutralize during steaming. Rice wine also has more natural umami than grape wine, so it pairs beautifully with seafood, enhancing flavours while reducing strong smells. This trick works on meat too!
Have you ever tried reducing fishiness in a recipe? Share your best tips with us—we'd love to hear your kitchen hacks!
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