Removing the bones from cooked fish, before eating the flesh, is not only a waste of mineral nutrients. In some cases it can be difficult, and lead to a lot of waste of meat.
We know that many ancestral cultures employed slow-cooking techniques and tools, such as earth ovens (a.k.a. cooking pits; see ). Slow-cooking fish over a long time tends to soften the bones to the point that they can be eaten with the flesh.
The photo below shows the leftovers of a whole salmon that we cooked recently. We baked it with vegetables on a tray covered with aluminum foil. We set the oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and baked the salmon for about 5 hours.
The end result is that we can eat the salmon, a rich source of omega-3 fat, with the bones. No need to remove anything. Just take a chunk, as you can see in the photo, and eat it whole.
It is a good idea to marinate the salmon for a few hours prior to baking it. This will create enough moisture to ensure that the salmon does not dry up during the baking process.
If you are a carnivore, you can make a significant contribution to sustainability by eating the whole animal, or as much of the animal as possible. This applies to fish, as I discussed here before (, , ).
Add eating less to this habit, and your health will benefit greatly.
Wouldn't cooking the fish for that long damage the omega-3s?
ReplyDeleteThat looks nice!
ReplyDeleteI like canned salmon for this reason - you get to eat the bones and skin. And canned salmon is mostly wild salmon, too, unlike a lot of the fresh salmon sold in most countries.
Hi Anon. No the omega-3 fats would not be damaged. What tends to cause damage (chemical alteration) is oxidation through prolonged air exposure; and refining as an oil, particularly if the oil is exposed to air or used in high heat cooking.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Thanks very much!
ReplyDeleteBut if you eat the bones yourself, what are your pigs to eat? That's so selfish!
ReplyDeleteHate to say it but the salmon does look awfully dry.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the sous vide method or a simple water bath in a fish kettle would have been better.
Pauline
would 5 hrs of cooking not result in lots of oxidised cholesterol?
ReplyDeleteHi Anon. Dietary cholesterol is not easily oxidized (see link below). This seems to be true of lipids in general, as long as they are not refined/isolated as oils.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0309174099001400
Salmon is one of my fav fish. I have it quite often but I really had no idea about the fact.
ReplyDeleteThanks Neck for sharing.
you are right
ReplyDelete