What kind of fish smells like cucumber?

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

It would seem that fish and a fresh cucumber can have in common? Residents of Primorye will easily answer this question. But the rest of the population, most likely, will decide that this is a children's riddle with a trick or even a prank.

It turns out that there is a similarity between them - the smell. But it should be clarified - not all fish smell like cucumber, but only some of its species.

But first things first.

Smelt

In the first place in terms of having a fresh cucumber aroma is smelt, which in Russia is found in the waters of the northern seas - the White, B altic, Okhotsk, their estuarine rivers, as well as throughout the Yenisei River basin and in the Far East. Freshly caught fish has a particularly strong smell. Because the old name for smelt is borage, or cucumber fish.

The smelt family has about 10 species, and all of them are found in the waters of the Northern Hemisphere.

In those days when the northern capital of our country was called Leningrad, smelt fishing began inMarch. The peak was in mid-April and marked the arrival of spring for the indigenous people. Nowadays, St. Petersburg fish still smells like cucumber, but, alas, there is no such dense, persistent spring smell in the city on the Neva. Now it can be found only in the places of catch on the embankment and in the fish rows of city markets. But smelt is still a symbol of the city, and massive city festivities are held in its honor.

For example, in May a grandiose holiday is held dedicated to the king-fish, as Peter the Great called smelt. On this day, fry are traditionally released into the Neva. And the authorities of St. Petersburg even plan to erect a monument to this fish, the favorite of all the townspeople.

What fish smells like cucumbers, except for smelt? Read the article further.

grayling

In second place in terms of cucumber smell is another northern fish - grayling. Like smelt, it is also from a noble fish family and prefers the cold waters of the Yenisei and Lena rivers for its habitat. Grayling is classified as a delicacy due to its low content of thin soft bones and its tender flesh.

If smelt marks the spring, then this fish, on the contrary, the arrival of winter cold. After all, its main catch falls on the winter months.

Colin

Somewhat unexpectedly, but capelin belongs to the smelt family. And she, respectively, like her relative, in a freshly caught form has a cucumber smell, but weaker. So much so that you can recognize it only by closing your eyes.

If, after defrosting capelin, you feel that the fish smells like cucumber, it means that it was frozen fresh, just caught.

Other fish

It is impossible not to mention other fish that tend to exude a delicate cucumber aroma - this is red mullet, an inhabitant of the Black and Azov Seas, char and some representatives of the salmon and whitefish genus. True, it should be noted that these fish have a barely perceptible smell, almost imperceptible, and it quickly disappears.

What smells like cucumber?

Fish smells like this because of the content of cucumber aldehyde in it. It is thanks to this substance that the smelt exudes such a smell. Once in the open air, it begins to actively evaporate and spread its persistent pleasant aroma around.