Buying Guide
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How to Tell if Fish Is Fresh: The Buyer’s Checklist
The fastest way to tell if fish is fresh is to trust your nose before anything else. Fresh fish should smell clean and mild, almost like ocean or river water, never sharp, sour, or like ammonia. That single check alone catches most bad fish before you even need to look closer. I use this same checklist every time I buy fish, whether I’m picking through a market stall or standing at a grocery counter: smell first, then eyes and gills on whole fish, then texture on everything. It takes less…
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The Complete Guide to Buying Fish and Seafood
Buying good fish is where every great fish dinner actually starts, and it’s also where most home cooks lose confidence before they’ve even turned on the stove. I’ve spent more than twenty years buying fish for my own kitchen, and the truth is that most of what determines whether a piece of fish turns out well happens before you ever touch a pan: what you bought, how fresh it actually was, and whether it was even the right cut for what you’re cooking. This guide walks through everything that decision…
