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Arrowtooth Flounder-Don't bother with it.

Purchased some arrowtooth flounder fillets, frozen. They looked great in the bag-beautiful white meat. Came home did some research for recipes and found out that there is a major problem with this fish. It has an enzyme that is activated by heat. When you cook it the flesh turns soft, and does not flake and firm up the way a nice white flesh fish should. In my research, I discovered that this fish is abundant in Northern waters, near Alaska, and is usually a by-catch of halibut fisheries. Since it is so abundant and easy to catch by trawling, it is now being marketed heavily. Don't bother with it. I cooked what I had, we each ate a small fillet, and threw out the rest.
 
That's a shame, you could've maybe used them for a fish stock but it's always disappointing when things don't work as planned in the kitchen
 
Yes, it is, especially as I had used a time tested recipe that has worked well with many other white fishes, including mahi-mahi, snapper, grouper, real flounder, tilapia, etc.
 
Sure. Using a pastry brush or similar, coat fillets with olive oil, lightly. Sprinkle on salt and black pepper. Make a paste using fresh thyme leaves, minced garlic. Spread a light coating of the thyme/garlic mix over the filets with a butter knife or cake spatula. Preheat a 12" fry pan for a minute or so, lightly coat with olive oil. Over medium low heat, cook filets (depending on thickness) 3-6 minutes, not to full doneness. Transfer to shallow baking dish/pan, and put the fillets about 5 inches away from the broiler set on high for about 2 more minutes.
 
Just looked up "Cooking Arrowtooth Flounder" on the internet. Apparently this mushy flesh thing is well enough known that there are suggested methods of preparation to reduce the problem. Never run into this fish, so have no idea about the effectiveness of the methods, but thought I would mention it.
 
Just looked up "Cooking Arrowtooth Flounder" on the internet. Apparently this mushy flesh thing is well enough known that there are suggested methods of preparation to reduce the problem. Never run into this fish, so have no idea about the effectiveness of the methods, but thought I would mention it.

I did look up the methods before I cooked them, and soaked the fillets in lemon juice for 1/2 hour prior to cooking. They did not turn to mush. The fillets were soft, and did not flake, and the taste was simply not there. I buy and cook a lot of fish because SWMBO does not eat meat or poultry. Basically it just was not worth the time or effort it took to prepare and cook it. For an inexpensive fish, tilapia is a much better choice, at least for me. I would not buy this particular fish again.
 
That's why I rarely by fish I hate spending good money on fish and them not being up to my standards. It is such a crap shoot. Recently my wife's cousin told us he didn't realize that good fish didn't tast fishy. He thought all fish were supposed to have that awful aftertaste. I have even got picky about time of year I will catch and eat. Gota be hard water or I normally won't bother unless my little guy gives me his best sad eyes look and begs for me to clean em versus release. I hate the way they market some of the fish now Thanks for the warning I saw a bag of them not to long ago and was wondering since this was not something I had seen before.
 

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
It also has a lousy name.

Call something Patagonian Toothfish, and you can't give it away. Rename it Chilean Sea Bass, et voila- fifteen bucks a pound.
 
I bought some of this stuff recently and just cooked some up. I started googling soft/mushy flounder and this thread came up. Now I know... But I think im going to finish off the rest off the bag. Thanks!
 

DoctorShavegood

"A Boy Named Sue"
I have never tasted an Arrowtooth Flounder...unless it was inside a fish stick in the 70's.

Our grocery store here in Austin stocks Gulf Flounder throughout the year. It's not always available. In my opinion it is one of the best tasting fish. Sometimes they will displayed it whole but I get the fish monger to fillet it for me. Broiled with a little Old Bay or lightly coated in flour and fried in a small amount of olive oil is how we like to cook it.
 
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I quit eating tilapia ...google tilapia danger

You're not wrong, but without giving more explanation, your comment is overstating the danger a bit. The first result in the Google search is Snopes.com -- the fact checking, internet rumor checking organization. Since they're reasonably well regarded for accuracy, I see no reason to doubt them.
Their rating about the tilapia warnings is "Mixture" -- meaning "Don't Eat Tilapia" shouldn't be regarded as an accurate blanket statement of danger.
http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/tilapia.asp

Overall it seems that you're right to be concerned about farm-raised tilapia from CHINA. Wild caught and USA-Canada Farm raised fish seem to be safe to eat overall.

I try to avoid asian-farmed seafood in general. Too many horror stories. US raised seafood is generally excellent though.

Cliff notes: Check the label, only buy North American raised fish.
 
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