Species Index

Product Profile: Striped bass is a mild fish with a delicate, slightly sweet flavor that appeals to a wider range of consumers than traditional, wild-run striped bass, which has a more pronounced taste and a coarser texture. The raw meat is translucent white with a pinkish cast; it turns opaque white when cooked. It is moderately firm but flaky, and the oil content keeps it moist during cooking.

Catfish

Ictalurus punctatus

Product Profile: Because it's a grain-fed, farmed fish, catfish has a consistently sweet, mild taste. It absorbs other flavors readily. The moist, dense meat is firm and has less flake than the typical whitefish. Fresh catfish meat is white to off-white, sometimes pinkish, with noticeable translucency and iridescence. Cooked meat is opaque and white. Don't buy it if it is reddish or slightly yellow. Uncooked catfish smells almost like raw chicken.

Atlantic Cod

Gadus morhua; G. macrocephalus

Product Profile: Atlantic cod fillets have a silvery, subcutaneous layer that distinguishes them from Pacific cod. The lean meat has a mild, clean flavor and large, tender flakes. It's less firm than haddock and sweeter than Pacific cod. Raw Atlantic cod is translucent, ranging from white to pinkish. Cooked, it's an opaque white. Raw Pacific cod is opaque, creamy white. Cooked meat is white, tender-firm, lean and flaky, with a mild taste.

Haddock

Melanogrammus aeglefinus

Product Profile: Haddock's delicate flake and slightly sweet taste give it a wonderful, melt-in-the-mouth appeal. The lean meat has a firm yet tender texture, and the flake is finer than cod. The raw meat is white and cooks up even whiter. The flesh should be firm and resilient. A thin layer of connective tissue covering the flesh helps differentiate it from cod.

Pollock

Theragra chalcogramma

Product Profile: Pollock is a mild, delicate-tasting fish, with a slightly coarse texture. Some find it more flavorful than cod or haddock, perhaps because it has a higher oil content. Boneless Alaska pollock fillets are creamy tan in color. Cooked, the lean, moist meat is white and firm, with a nice flake. If you need a white fillet, your odds are much better with single-frozen vs. twice-frozen pollock, which is often grayer.

Flounder

Pleuronectidae

Product Profile: Raw flounder ranges from tan to pinkish to snow white, but cooked meat of all species is pure white, lean, boneless and flaky with a mild flavor. Petrale sole, with firm, delicate-tasting flesh, is considered the premier Pacific sole. Pacific Dover, with softer flesh, is a lesser-quality product. Cooked meat of smaller soles and flounders is delicate, while larger species like fluke or dab are firm and meaty.

Dover Sole

Solea vulgaris

Product Profile: Few fish command more respect in the culinary circles than the true Dover sole, which yields thin yet firm fillets that hold together well in many preparations. The raw meat is glistening white and dense and cooks up white. The flavor of the dover sole is mild and sweet. One fan of Dover sole describes the fish as being "more like a meat. It doesn't have the texture of a normal fish." Despite its delicate flavor, it's able to stand up to the heavy sauces favored by European chefs.

Halibut

Hippoglossus stenolepsis

Product Profile: Halibut retains its moisture well in frozen state and keeps its texture when cooked. It's a very mild, sweet-tasting, lean fish with fine-grained, dense meat that dries out if overcooked. Uncooked, the white flesh of halibut should be almost translucent, not dull, yellowish or dried out. When cooked, the snow-white meat loses its glossy appearance and is flaky and tender though still firm. It holds together well, and bones are easily spotted.

Turbot

Scophthalmus maximus

Product Profile: Turbot has gleaming flesh that retains its bright-white appearance when cooked. The firm meat has a large flake and an excellent mild flavor. Like all flatfish, a turbot yields four fillets, with meatier back fillets than belly portions. Fillets from a 3- to 4-pound turbot are quite meaty; those from smaller fish can be rather thin. A rim of fatty tissue on the fin side of each fillet contains a row of "kernels" of snow-white meat.

Grouper

Epinephelus morio; Mycteroperca bonaci

Product Profile: Groupers have a mild but distinct flavor, somewhere between bass and halibut. Red grouper is sweeter and milder than black grouper, and many consider reds the better of the two. Once the skin is removed from the fish, it's hard to tell red and black grouper apart, but black grouper does have firmer meat in the fresh state. The raw meat of both is white and lean with a notable lack of bones. Cooked, the white meat has a very firm texture and heavy flake and remains moist.

Herring

Clupea harengus

Product Profile: Fresh Herring ranges from delicately flavored small fish to larger fish with a fuller, "oilier" flavor. Otherwise, flavor and texture depend on how the herring has been prepared -- whether pickled, smoked or salted. Fresh, whole herring should be bright with hard bellies. Scales are large, loosely attached and cover the entire body. The meat of fresh herring is off-white and soft; sardines range from light to dark brown, with small bones visible; kippers are clear, light meat without bones.

Mackerel

Scomber scombrus

Product Profile: Mackerel has a rich, pronounced flavor. The meat is soft, flaky and moist. The other bands of dark, strong-tasting meat along the midline may be cut out for a milder flavor. The raw fish looks grayish and oily but firms up and becomes off-white to beige when cooked. The skin of fresh fish should have a nice seen, and the eyes should be bright and concave. Small scales cover the entire body and give the skin a velvety texture. The mackerel's distinctive coloring quickly begins to fade after the fish dies.

Mahi-Mahi

Coryphaena hippurus

Product Profile: Mahi-Mahi has a sweet, mildly pronounced flavor similar to swordfish. The lean meat is fairly firm in texture, though not steak-like, and it has large, moist flakes. Darker portions of meat can be trimmed away for milder flavor. The raw flesh is pinkish to grayish-white, though dark along the lateral line. Cooked, the meat becomes off-white.

Monkfish

Lophius americanus

Product Profile: Monkfish has a mild, slightly sweet taste. The tail meat, the only part of the fish that is used, is firm, dense and boneless. It doesn't flake readily and is firm like scallop or lobster meat. The raw flesh is off-white to pale gray, covered with a blue-gray membrane; cooked meat is white. With headless monkfish, blood is a sign of a recently caught fish. Dried up or brown-colored blood indicates a fish that's started to age.

Orange Roughy

Hoplostethus atlanticus

Product Profile: Orange roughy has a mild, delicate flavor and moist, large-flaked meat that holds together well after cooking. Raw orange roughy flesh is pearly white, and it cooks up to an opaque white. The skin side of the fillets often sports a faint, orange-brown band of color. With roughy, the darker the meat, the lower the quality.

Swordfish

Xiphias gladius

Product Profile: Swordfish is moist and flavorful with a slightly sweet taste. Steaks have a moderately high oil content, lending to a firm, meaty texture. The flesh color can vary from white and ivory to pink and orange. Swordfish flesh should be firm, and cut surfaces should be free of ragged edges. Discolored, dull skin is a sign of mishandling or dehydration.

Red Snapper

Lutjanus campechanus

Product Profile: Red snapper is lean and moist, with a sweetly mild, distinctive flavor. The texture is lean but moist. The superb taste of this fish is evidenced by the number of other types of fish that, with just the slightest hint of red, masquerade in the marketplace as "red" snapper. The semi-firm meat is pinkish, with yellow tones, in a raw state, turning somewhat lighter when cooked. The trademark skin is a deep red along the back, fading to a pinkish-red underside.

Tilapia

Tilapia spp.

Product Profile: The mild, sweet tasting, lean-meated tilapia has a slightly firm, flaky texture. Many compare the mild taste of tilapia to that of another farm-raised success story, catfish. Raw meat is white to pinkish-white and may have a thin layer of darker muscle tissue just below the skin side of fillets. The cooked meat is white and lean with tender flakes. Water quality and feed are critical to the raising of premium tilapia.

Rainbow Trout

Oncorhynchus mykiss

Product Profile: Rainbow trout meat is mild, with a delicate, nut-like flavor. The flesh is tender, flaky and soft. The flesh of rainbow trout is white, pink or orange. When the meat is cooked, it has a delicate flake and the color pales. Trout feed can contain pigments to produce desired flesh colors. The fillets need to be firm, resilient and have a fresh appearance. The skin of the rainbow trout should be dark, shiny and have a slippery feel. Avoid frozen fish that looks dried out or has gray flesh.

Yellowfin Tuna

Thunnus albacares

Product Profile: Yellowfin tuna has a mild, meaty flavor - similar, some say, to swordfish. It's more flavorful than albacore, but leaner than bluefin. The meat is bright red in its raw state but, when cooked, turns brown to grayish-tan, firm and moist, with large flakes. Yellowfin is also served raw as sashimi and in sushi. Canned product (light-meat tuna) is a bit darker than canned albacore and is often blended with skipjack tuna.

Wahoo

Acanthocybium solandri

Product Profile: Raw wahoo meat is lighter in color than that of its mackerel cousins and has less of the red muscle meat. The pale-pink flesh cooks up white. Wahoo is mild-tasting, with a firm, lean texture and large, circular flake. Grilled wahoo has been compared to chicken or veal in flavor.

Whitefish

Coregonus clupeaformis

Product Profile: Whitefish is considered one of the best-eating freshwater fish there is. Because the fish lives in icy northern lakes, the meat has a high fat content, making it an excellent candidate for smoking. The mild flavor is more like salmon than trout. The meat is medium-firm with a large flake. Though whitefish is a salmonid, the meat looks nothing like trout or salmon. Raw, the flesh is almost pure white, and it cooks up off-white.

Atlantic Salmon

Salmo salar

Product Profile: The flavor of Atlantic salmon is milder than that of the wild salmon species. The meat is moderately firm and oily, though not as fatty as that of the wild chinook, or king, salmon. The flesh color varies, depending on the amount of pigment in the feed, but generally Atlantics' meat is a rich orange or pinkish-orange color. The fatty meat appears almost marbled when raw. Atlantic salmon retains its color when cooked and has a large, moist flake.

Mako Shark

Isurus oxyrinchus

Product Profile: Mako shark is moist and slightly sweet, with a full-bodied, meaty taste. Both flavor and texture are similar to swordfish, but the flesh of the mako is moister, and the meat is not as sweet. Fresh, raw mako is very soft and ivory-pink or a muddy, reddish color that turns ivory white and firm when cooked. While the lean, dense meat looks very similar to swordfish, it lacks the whorls of the swordfish steak.

Black Sea Bass

Centropristis striata

Product Profile: Black sea bass has a mild, fresh, somewhat delicate flavor and a tender but firm texture. Uncooked flesh should be sparkling white and translucent, not opaque. The firm, lean meat cooks up snow white. Be careful handling whole fish; a jab from the dorsal-fin spines can be very painful. These fish are notably hardy and hold up well as a live product. They also offer excellent shelf life fresh. It is typically frozen only when demand is low or the market is glutted.

Black Sea Bass

Centropristis striata

Tilefish

Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps

Product Profile: This species is sometimes called the Rainbow Tilefish for its lovely blue, green, rose and yellow coloration. Out of the water, the colors fade. Tilefish yield thick fillets with a row of pinbones. The raw meat is pinkish-whit but cooks up white with a firm, flaky texture. The flavor is mild but distinctive, often compared to lobster or crab, which is not surprising, since the Tilefish's diet is largely crustaceans.

Anchovy

Engraulis spp.

Product Profile: The meat of canned anchovy packed in oil is blush red, a result of the four-month salt-curing process. The meat of unprocessed anchovy is gray; it becomes off-white when cooked. Canned or salted anchovies have a pronounced, salty tang; fresh anchovies have a rich but subtle taste and a soft texture. The skin is edible.

Arctic Char

Salvelinus alpinus

Product Profile: Arctic char has distinctive flavor, somewhere between that of salmon and trout, but closer to trout. The meat is moderately firm but has a finer flake than either salmon or trout. A high fat content keeps it moist. Flesh coloring ranges from deep red to pale pink. The taste is the same, regardless of the meat's color. Arctic char, like other anadromous fish, can have parasites, which are killed by proper freezing or cooking.

Barracuda

Sphyraena argentea

Product Profile: The flesh of the barracuda is creamy tan when raw and cooks up to off-white. Pacific barracuda meat is firm, with a large flake and moderate fat content. It has a full, meaty flavor.

Basa

Pangasius bocourti; P. hypophthalmus

Product Profile: Basa is a tasty fish, with a delicate texture and nice white flesh. The fast-flowing waters of the Mekong give the meat a clean, fresh flavor. Tra tends to be coarser and more grainy than true basa. You can tell true basa from tra by appearance. Basa fillets are whiter than tra fillets, which are usually more of a beige color. Tra fillets are also thinner than basa fillets.

European Sea Bass

Dicentrarchus labrax

Product Profile: European sea bass meat is pinkish when raw and cooks up opaque white. The finely textured, flaky meat is lean, with a sweet and mild flavor. Many chefs say the wild-caught bass is more flavorful than the farmed product.

Bluefish

Pomatomus saltatrix

Product Profile: The meat of uncooked bluefish ranges from a light putty color to blue-gray with a brownish tinge. It becomes lighter when cooked. A strong flavored, dark strip of meat on the fillet may be removed before cooking. Bluefish has a rich, full flavor and coarse, moist meat with edible skin. The larger the fish, the more pronounced the taste.

Bream

Sparus auratus

Product Profile: The rosy-colored raw meat turns white when cooked. Bream's moist flesh has a rich, sweet flavor. The texture is firm but tender.

Cod

Gadus morhua; G. macrocephalus

How To Fillet

Product Profile: Atlantic cod fillets have a silvery, subcutaneous layer that distinguishes them from Pacific cod. The lean meat has a mild, clean flavor and large tender flakes. It's less firm than haddock and sweeter than Pacific cod. Raw Atlantic cod is translucent, ranging from white to pinkish. Cooked it's an opaque white. Raw Pacific cod is opaque, creamy white. Cooked meat is white, tender-firm, lean and flaky, with a mild taste. The moisture content is a little higher than that of Atlantic cod, making it less firm.

Croaker

Micropogonius undulatus

Product Profile: Raw croaker meat is usually snow white but may have a reddish tint. The cooked meat is white. Croaker is lean and full flavored, with an almost sweet taste. The flesh is firm, similar to that of black drum. The skin is edible.

Cusk

Brosme brosme

Product Profile: The cusk's flesh is white when raw and becomes an opaque white when cooked. The meat is firmer and chewier than cod. The flavor is mild and sweet much like cod.

Dogfish

Squalus acanthius

Product Profile: Spiny dogfish meat has a sweet, mild flavor and a higher oil content than mako or other sharks. It has a flaky yet firm texture. The raw meat is white. The outer flesh can have a reddish color. If not cut away, the reddish portion turns brown when cooked. The rest of the meat cooks up white. The oil content helps keep the flesh moist. Dofish meat should have a faintly sweet smell; although a slight metallic odor is acceptable, an ammonia taint is not.

Dory

Allocyttus niger; Pseudocyttus maculatus

Product Profile: Black oreo dory has small, thin, cream-colored fillets that turn ivory when cooked. Smooth oreo dory has larger, thicker fillets than black oreo and cooks up whiter. Both dories are at the mild end of the flavor scale, though black oreo dory has a higher oil content than smooth oreo. The texture is firm, especially so with smooth oreo dory. neither fish flakes easily.

Drum

Sciaenops ocellatus; Pogonias cromis

Product Profile: The flesh of small, very flesh red drum has an almost emerald-green tint. Meat of larger red drums is white with a red tint. The raw flesh of black drum is whiter, through that of both species cooks up snow white. Both the red and black drum have a sweet, mild flavor and firm, moist flesh, similar to snapper in texture. Some think the small "puppy" drums are sweeter and flakier than the larger "bulls." Black drum meat is coarser than red drum.

Eel

Anguilla rostrata

Product Profile: Eel meat has a very firm texture, high fat content and full, distinctive flavor. The raw flesh is gray but turns white when cooked and has a small flake. Eel is best bought when still alive, or the flesh can be soft. The animals can survive for several days out of the water if kept in a damp environment. Eels harvested from stagnant water or held too long in tanks can have a slightly muddy flavor.

Shellfish

Atlantic Hardshell Clams

Dissostichus eleginoides

Product Profile: Hardshells are the connoisseur's choice for raw, halfshell clams. They are mild-flavored, sweet and briny. Cooked hardshells are soft, juicy and mild. Raw meat should be tender-crisp and plump, ranging in color from ivory to golden yellow, with some dark areas. Cooked meat is pale, pinkish-white. Discard clams with open or broken shells. Unlike softshells, hardshell clams can close their shells completely and "live on their own juices" for a time.

Soft-shell clams

Mya arenaria

Product Profile: The softshell clam's delicate meat is sweet and slightly salty. The large bellies are tender and soft. Meat color ranges from ivory to gold, with some dark areas. The shell should be whole and clean, and the siphon firm and plump, not flaccid or dry. The siphon is covered with a dark membrane that is removed before the cooked clam is eaten.

Surf clams

Spisula solidissima

Product Profile: Surf clams offer little waste: Shells serve as containers for stuffed dishes, and the twin adductor muscles (white cylinders attached to the shell) are delicious, as is the juice, or "nectar". These clams are less flavorful than hardshells. Cooked, the chewy white meat is mild and sweet. Raw meat is whitish-orange. Cooked meat ranges in color from ivory to golden yellow, with some dark areas. Canned clams should be in clear to opaque liquid. Breading should be intact on breaded product.

Blue Crabs

Callinectes sapidus

Product Profile: Meat of the blue crab has a rich, sweet, succulent and buttery flavor. The body meat is delicately flavored, while claw meat is nutty. Softshells offer a crunchy texture, since they are eaten shell and all. Cooked shells of blue crabs turn orange-red. Body meat is white, tender and flaky. Claw meat has a brownish tint, which is natural. Pasteurized meat is firmer and darker than fresh crab meat.

King Crabs

Paralithodes camtschaticus

Product Profile: King crab is sweet, moist and rich. It's a bit firmer than Dungeness crab meat. The King crab is sweet, moist and rich. It's a bit firmer and coarser than Dungeness crab meat. The king's body meat is slightly flakier than the leg meat. The spiky shell of the cooked crab leg is a bright red. The meat is snow white with a scarlet membrane. Almost all king crab sold in the U.S. market has been cooked and brine frozen.

Dungeness

Cancer magister

Product Profile: A world standard for premium crab, sweet, flavorful and semi-nutty, Dungeness has been likened to the shellfish version of an artichoke heart. Some compared the crab's meat to that of a Maine (American) lobster, but more tender. Leg meat is slightly firmer than body meat. Live Dungeness crabs are purplish-brown in color. When cooked, the shell turns bright orange. The cooked meat is opaque white. Live crabs should be active in holding tnaks. Shell color of while cooks should be bright red; the back should not be cracked, and all legs should be attached.

Snow Crabs

Chionoecetes spp.

Product Profile: Snow crab meat is sweet and delicate, with a more fibrous texture than king crab. Texture ranges from the tender, longitudinal fibers of shoulder meat to firmer fibers of claw meat. Cooked shell is red, though not as red as king crab, running to brownish at the shoulder. The meat ranges from snow white to reddish. Like king crab, snow crab is marketed already cooked.

Stone crabs

Menippe spp.

Product Profile: Stone-crab claws are smooth and rounded. The shells turn bright orange when cooked; the tips remain black. Raw meat is grayish; cooked is white. The meat resembles lobster in appearance. The claw meat is sweet, mild and firm, like a cross between crab and lobster. The shell is "harder than a landlord's heart," noted one Florida gourmand.

American Lobster

Homarus americanus

Product Profile: Lobster meat is mild and sweet in flavor. The texture is firm and somewhat fibrous. Live lobsters range in color from brownish rust to bright blue to greenish brown. Live lobsters should be active, and their tails should curl, not dangle, beneath them. Cook weakened lobsters immediately; discard dead ones. Consumers are advised not to eat the tomalley, the light-green substance found in the lobster.

Spiny lobster

Panulirus spp., Jasus spp.

Product Profile: Coldwater tails tend to be more tender and succulent than warmwater, and they shrink less during cooking. Tail meat is firm, mild and sweet. Raw tail meat is nearly translucent, with a pink, cream or whitish-gray tint, depending on the animal's diet. Cooked tail meat should be firm and snowy white with red tinges but no dark spots. Watch for overglazing. It's limited mainly to warmwater tails, as coldwater producers usually sell their product dry, wrapped with plastic wrap. Pacific Ocean spiny lobsters sport greenish/orange shells; those from the Atlantic are reddish brown. The shell is rougher on a coldwater lobster.

Blue Mussels

Mytilus edulis

Product Profile: Blue mussels have a distinctive rich, sweet taste, like a blend of oysters and clams. Mussels should look and smell fresh and have tightly closed shells. Mussel meats, which range from white to orange, are plump and tender, but less soft than clams. Females tend to be orange when ripe (they're fine to eat and, unlike oysters, don't taste oily when about to spawn). If a mussel's shell gapes, try to pinch it shut. If the mussel is alive, it shut its shell tightly.

Green Mussels

Perna canaliculus

Product Profile: Green mussels are sweet, tender, delicate, plump and juicy. Meat color varies from apricot (female) to cream (male).Greenshells are most commonly available individually quick frozen in the whole or half shell to lock in flavor. Because they are grown on ropes suspended above the seabed, they rarely contain grit or sand. Unlike the blue mussel, the greenshell mussel's shell is slightly open in its natural state.

European oysters

Ostera edulis

Product Profile: Traditionally, flat oysters are reputed to have a finer flavor than all other oyster species. Their taste is fairly pronounced, with distinct salty highlights and a sweet to flinty overtone. There's a slight metallic aftertaste, almost like sucking on a penny -- nothing a sip of white wine won't fix. European oysters are more rounded than Atlantic or Pacific oysters. Shells are flat, with little cup. Color varies from white to brown, with the inside a creamy off-white. The meat is a creamy to light brown, matching the shell lining. Cooked meat turns ivory.

Pacific Oysters

Crassostrea gigas

Product Profile: Pacific Northwest oysters are mild and sweet, with a briny flavor and crisp texture. As with all oyster species, flavor depends on the waters in which it is grown. The deeply cupped, elongated shell is curly, thick and silvery gray to gold. Meat is creamy white, sometimes with a dark fringe around the mantle. Shell and meat colors vary by region and season. How do you know if an oyster's alive? Just tap on the shell to see if it closes.

Eastern Oyster

Crassostrea virginica

Product Profile: The Eastern oyster is known for its distinctive, salty flavor and meaty texture. Oyster meats should be smooth with adequate liquor (store cup-side down to retain the liquor). Eastern oysters have a moderately deep, elongated, gray-white to gray-brown, rough, spoon-shaped shell with rose-colored streaks. Inside is a light-colored fringe (the gill) and creamy to light-brown meat. Cooked meat turns ivory. To test for live oysters, tap the shell; it should close.

Bay Scallops

Argopecten irradians

Product Profile: Mild and sweet, bay scallops are considered the best-tasting of the scallop species. Raw, the lean, cork-shaped meat is translucent, with color ranging from creamy to pink. The texture should be firm and moist, not slippery and spongy. Cooked meat is opaque white and firm. Top-quality scallops should have an ivory translucence and elastic springiness that allows them to keep their shape.

Sea Scallops

Placopecten megallanicus

Product Profile: The largest commercially available scallops, sea scallops have a sweet, rich taste that ranges from mild to briny. Raw, the drum-shaped meat is a shiny, creamy white, sometimes with pinkish or brown spots. Top-quality scallops should have an ivory translucence and elastic springiness that allows them to keep their shape. Cooked meat is opaque white with a firm, lean texture.

Gulf Shrimp

Penaeus. spp.

How To Fillet

Product Profile: Gulf shrimp are generally flavorful and sweet, with slight variations in taste according to the species. Pinks are tender and sweet. Browns are firm, though somewhat bland, and sometimes have a hint of iodine. Whites, the standard against which other shrimp species - domestic and imported - are often measured, are sweet and firm.

Tiger shrimp

Penaeus monodon

How To Fillet

Product Profile: Farmed black tiger shrimp have a mild, almost bland flavor compared to the pronounced taste of ocean-harvested Gulf shrimp. Cooked tiger's meat is also softer than that of other shrimp species. Tigers have gray to black stripes on gray or bluish shells and associated stripes on the peeled meat. The cooked shell turns bright red. The white flesh is tinged with orange if cooked peeled and red if cooked in the shell. Meat should be slightly resilient and moist. Improper storage temperatures, refreezing or extended frozen storage can turn shrimp tough, dry and fibrous. A black spot on the shell indicates melanosis. It's not a health issue in early stages but indicates general poor quality.

Other

Squid

Loligo spp, Illex illecebrosus

Product Profile: Cooked squid is mild and has a subtle sweetness. The meat is firm yet tender. Illex squid has large, 8- to 12-inch tubes and is coarser than loligo. Raw squid meat is ivory beneath a naturally speckled membrane. Cooked squid is opaque white and firm. Fresh or thawed squid should be moist, shiny and ivory colored. Pink, yellow or purple flesh indicates deterioration. Edible parts of the squid include the arms (tentacles), the mantle (tube) and the fins (wings). The body is covered with a thin skin that may be removed before cooking. Squid ink is often used to make black pasta.

Octopus

Octopus spp.