The man cleaning fish behind the small window counter at La Mer Poissonerie in Montreal is not having a good day. He knows the man whose salmon he’s filleting is not going to tip. Somebody has already helped that customer choose the whole fish, weigh it and put a price tag on the bag. Now the man is making a fuss about losing his plastic tag with the price print-out attached.
The filleter knows the man has it. If it’s not on his side of the counter, near his knives and long, white cutting board, then it’s on the customer’s. “You must have it,” he says, as he sprays down his counter. Did it get confused with mine when I handed mine over, he asks? But there’s nothing in my basket. Without the tag, there’s no way to charge the man the right price. Now that the head, vertebrae and tail are removed, the fish weighs much less. But the man is supposed to pay for them, whether he wants to keep them or not.
Once the man is off complaining to the manager, the filleter moves on to my purchase. “In fillets, skin on, please,” I say. “But I’d like to keep the head, skin and bones.”
He doesn’t smile. I wouldn’t either after what the last customer put him through. “What do you do with all the leftover heads and bodies?” I ask, my heart clenching as he moves to toss the last man’s giant head and vertebrae into a garbage bin by his side. My mind flashes is flashing to fish head curry. I think of the family of four that would feed. Less altruistically, I imagine all the flesh left on the skin and bones drizzled with soy sauce and roasted to fried chicken-like crispy perfection in my oven. They’re the odd bits of the fish world — the seafaring equivalents of chicken livers, lamb hearts and sweetbreads, all delicacies depending on the recipe.
“Most people don’t want them,” he says. They’re so unwanted, in fact, that the fish store used to give them away for free. But then people started coming in just for the heads and not buying fillets. It was cutting into profits. “So we started selling them,” he says, expertly removing the pin bones from my purchase with a few graceful slices. But the astronomical price turned people off. So now they split the difference, charging enough that people will buy them. If they didn’t, the heads and bodies would just go to waste. There’s only so much fish broth the poissonerie needs.
But wait.
Somebody already bought that fish head. And now it’s being resold. Is it legal to sell someone food and then take a portion of it back to sell to someone else? Alan Conter, a law and ethics professor at Concordia University, says yes. The moment the customer says he doesn’t want the head and scraps, the shop can do with them as it likes, including selling them.
At butcher shops, you can often buy bones for a small price, too. Some places give them for free. But the difference I see is that people rarely buy the entire chicken, ask the butchers to debone it for them, skin it and then not take those parts. More often the butchers chop the whole chicken up themselves and sell the individual parts at higher prices.
Fishmongers often charge a premium for fillets presented beautifully behind counters, but with fish, where freshness is key, it’s an appealing optional to have the fish filleted à la minute. The whole fish is usually a lower price per pound because of the added weight that you don’t eat (the bones, gills and slimy bits at least).
But there’s a murky, magical moment before a customer in front of you at the filleting counter says he doesn’t want the head and bones and the fishmonger tosses them in the bin. In that time, when he still owns those pieces, he can give them you (or anyone) free of charge. He paid for them, after all, and he’s not going to use them.
However you go about getting them, here’s what you can do with those pieces that don’t deserve to see the garbage bin at the fish shop:
Fish Stock – or just bring the head, skin and bones with enough water to cover to a simmer and cook 30 minutes. Strain, eating the flesh that falls off the bones and skin. Some people even eat the eyeballs (not me) but definitely don’t skip the meaty cheeks in the fish head. Freeze stock if not using immediately.
Soy-Marinated Crispy Fish Skin:
All that flesh that sticks to the skin and bones when you fillet a fish is not wast (yet!). First you need to roast it to perfection. Then:
1 tbsp soy sauce
skin and flesh-covered vertebrae of 1 or more fish
Combine soy sauce and fish parts in a plastic bag placed in a bowl and marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and broil on low for 5 minutes. Turn if necessary to crisp the bottom and broil 2 minutes longer, or until golden. Carefully remove flesh from bones (you don’t want to eat them – they’re dangerous for digestion, and still good for making stock) and eat with crispy skin as a snack or use to garnish other dishes.
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