Cabracho and Rockfish are different fish, but they're close enough in the kitchen to stand in for one another.
Scorpaenidae
Cabracho
Cabracho is the red scorpionfish of the Atlantic and Mediterranean — a spiny, big-headed, unlovely fish that is one of the most prized ingredients in Spanish and French cooking precisely because of what it does to a broth. Its bones and head give more gelatin and flavour than almost anything else in the market, which is why it is the backbone of Marseille's bouillabaisse (as rascasse) and the whole point of the Basque pastel de cabracho, a cold set terrine served with mayonnaise that is the dish most Spanish cooks meet it in. The flesh itself is white, firm and sweet, but there is not much of it and the spines are venomous, so it is usually bought whole and cleaned by the fishmonger. Do not confuse it with the Pacific rockfish sold in the United States: those are Sebastes, a related but distinct genus, sold as fillets rather than cooked whole for stock.
Full guide →Sebastidae
Rockfish
Rockfish is the market name for roughly seventy species of the genus Sebastes, the dominant nearshore catch of the US Pacific coast from California to Alaska. Colors range from the bright orange-red of yelloweye and canary rockfish to the mottled browns and blacks of gopher and blue rockfish, but all share the same kitchen behavior: lean, white, medium-firm flesh in small flaky sheets, mild enough to take almost any treatment. It is the default fish-taco and fish-and-chips fish of the West Coast, and it holds together in a stew better than cod. Buyers should know two things. First, Pacific rockfish is very often sold in the United States as "Pacific red snapper" or "Pacific snapper" — it is not a snapper, and the substitution is restricted under California law. Second, "rockfish" means something else entirely in the Chesapeake Bay and Mid-Atlantic, where it is the local name for striped bass, an unrelated fish. Across the Atlantic the same genus is a mainstay under different names: Rotbarsch is one of Germany's most familiar frozen fillets, cantarilho is standard in Portugal, and the deep-water Sebastes norvegicus is sold in Britain as redfish or ocean perch.
Full guide →Both are Scorpaeniformes with spiny heads and sweet firm white flesh, and English calls both of them scorpionfish or rockfish depending on the coast — but cabracho is a Mediterranean fish bought whole for the broth its head makes, while Pacific rockfish is sold as mild fillets.
| Country | Cabracho | Rockfish |
|---|
| 🇺🇸United States | Red scorpionfish | Rockfish |
| 🇬🇧United Kingdom | Red scorpionfish | Redfish |
| 🇫🇷France | Rascasse rouge | Sébaste |
| 🇪🇸Spain | Cabracho | Gallineta |
| 🇵🇹Portugal | Rascasso | Cantarilho |
| 🇮🇹Italy | Scorfano rosso | Scorfano di Norvegia |
| 🇩🇪Germany | Drachenkopf | Rotbarsch |
Browse every species in the atlas on the fish index, or identify one from a photo with Identify my cut.