Buy Sablefish · $175.00–$495.00 · Alaska Gold Seafood
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Sablefish is sold nearly everywhere as black cod, and it is not a cod — Anoplopoma fimbria is the sole commercial member of its own family, a deep-water North Pacific fish caught on longlines from Oregon to the Bering Sea. The name matters less than the fat. It carries the highest oil content of any Alaskan whitefish, around 15 percent, which is why the flesh is pearly white, breaks into unusually large silky flakes, and is close to impossible to overcook: the fat keeps it moist long after a halibut of the same thickness has dried out. That richness is what made it the classic fish for miso marinade in Japan, where it is gindara, and the reason a black cod fillet costs several times what a true cod does. Two naming confusions are worth carrying to the counter. In Spanish it is bacalao negro, but so — loosely and often — is Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides), the fish sold in English as Chilean sea bass and in Argentina and Chile as merluza negra; they are unrelated, from opposite hemispheres, though both are fatty white deep-water fish and cook similarly. And in English, sablefish is regularly muddled with the black scabbardfish of Madeira and mainland Portugal, another dark deep-water species with a comparable reputation and a completely different body.
| Country | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸United States | Sablefishprimary | Sold at almost every US counter as black cod, though it is not a cod |
| 🇬🇧United Kingdom | Black cod | The usual British restaurant name, largely through the miso-marinated preparation |
| 🇲🇽Mexico | Bacalao negro | |
| 🇫🇷France | Morue charbonnière | Also charbonnier; the name refers to the dark skin, not to any relation to cod |
| 🇪🇸Spain | Bacalao negro | The same name is loosely applied to Patagonian toothfish (Chilean sea bass), an unrelated fish |
| 🇩🇪Germany | Kohlenfisch |
$175.00–$495.00 · Free US shipping (except Hawaii) · Alaska Gold Seafood
Alaskan Sablefish (Black Cod) Portions
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