Profile: Saithe
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The saithe (pollack) is a close relative of the cod or cod and the pollack, but is more elegant in appearance. The body is elongated and dark in color. The back is almost black and covered with a dark olive sheen. The mouth cavity is also blackish. The fins are gray, the ventral side is whitish. One of its special distinguishing features is its strikingly protruding lower jaw.
Taste & preparation
Saithe is one of the three most popular edible fish in Germany. The pearl-grey meat of saithe is lean and has a more characteristic taste than most other white fish. It is therefore well suited to preparation with strong ingredients and side dishes. The meat has a firm texture and is therefore easy to fry.
Lifestyle
The saithe is a schooling fish and lives in cold and temperate marine regions in water layers close to the bottom, but also pelagic (free-swimming) in the middle of the water. It is a predator. The young fish usually live separately from the adults close to the coast or in fjords. They feed on skipjack, luminescent shrimps and fry. The adults are real fish predators and hunt herring, sprats and capelin in the North Sea. The saithe or coalfish is usually up to 70 cm long. However, there are also exceptions of 130 cm in length and 30 kg in weight. The fish can live for over 25 years.
Season
Worth knowing
The name "pollack" is an invention of the food industry. Fishermen and anglers generally call it by its real and technically correct name "coalfish". So coalfish and salmon have little in common - one is lean and has pearly grey flesh, the other is bursting with fat and has pink-colored flesh. But how did the coalfish get the name saithe? The explanation goes back 100 years: when the First World War broke out, imports of salmon, which was already popular at the time, came to a standstill. The resourceful wife of a salmon trader in Cuxhaven is said to have looked for a substitute and experimented with other fish. In the process, she became aware of the coalfish, which had previously led a wallflower existence. But there was plenty of it and it scored points for its firm meat. Without further ado, it was salted, smoked, sliced and the meat dyed red. This was the invention of the salmon substitute, which became a bestseller under the noble-sounding name "pollock". In the meantime, saithe has become independent of its role model: It is an important edible fish and is no longer just a substitute for salmon.
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