Species sheet · The Edible Ocean
Tub gurnard
The most colourful gurnard, friend of the soup pot.
- In bouillabaisse or rockfish soup
- Roasted whole with the head on
- Grilled on the plancha
- In French
- Grondin perlon
- Scientific name
- Chelidonichthys lucerna
- In the water
- A bottom-dwelling fish of the north-east Atlantic and Mediterranean, found on hard and sandy bottoms between 20 and 318 m.
- Season & buying
- Available year-round according to landings; choose a fish with bright eyes.
- Common length
- ~30 cm
- How to identify it
- Very broad and colourful pectoral fins
Massive head with bony plates
Blue or violet edging on the fins
On the plate
Firm, flavoursome and faintly briny flesh.
Avoid: Drying it out: prefer a stewed cook or a brief grill.
It can grunt using its swim bladder, which is how it got the common name 'gurnard'.
In Umay recipes
One Umay recipe calls for it.
