Species sheet · The Edible Ocean
Swordfish
It arrives blade first and does not apologise.
- Steak grilled with thyme and lemon
- On skewers with an oregano marinade
- Raw, very thinly sliced
- In French
- Espadon
- Scientific name
- Xiphias gladius
- In the water
- Open water in every temperate and warm ocean, from the surface to 800 metres, diving at night to hunt.
- Season & buying
- Summer and autumn in the Mediterranean. Check the origin, several stocks are overfished.
- Common length
- ~200 cm
- How to identify it
- Flat pointed bill extending the skull
Tall crescent dorsal fin held upright
Bare body with no pelvic fins
On the plate
Pale pink flesh, firm and dense, in large flakes, very lean.
Avoid: Cooking it through, which dries it out. Serve it pink.
It heats its eyes and brain with a muscle turned into a radiator, so it can see fast in water at five degrees where its prey has gone sluggish.
In Umay recipes
One Umay recipe calls for it.
