Species sheet · The Edible Ocean
European hake
A twilight hunter with golden eyes.
- Fried in fritters
- Grilled on the plancha
- Cooked in tomato or Armoricaine sauce
- In French
- Merlu
- Scientific name
- Merluccius merluccius
- In the water
- A demersal fish of the north-east Atlantic and Mediterranean, living between 18 and over 1000 m depending on life stage.
- Season & buying
- Winter for the largest catches; choose fresh fillets with shiny skin.
- Common length
- ~45 cm
- How to identify it
- Large mouth with long canines
Characteristic golden eyes
Two clearly separated dorsal fins
On the plate
White, firm, flavoursome flesh, highly prized in the Mediterranean.
Avoid: Buying pale or discoloured fillets, a sign of poor freshness.
Hake moves inshore at night to hunt, making it a classic of nocturnal fisheries.
In Umay recipes
7 Umay recipes call for it.
