Species sheet · The Edible Ocean
Greater forkbeard
It has lost something and has not noticed yet.
- Pan-fried whole in browned butter
- In a bouillabaisse, alongside scorpionfish
- Steamed with a sauce vierge
- In French
- Mostelle
- Scientific name
- Phycis blennoides
- In the water
- Muddy slope bottoms of the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, between 150 and 800 metres.
- Season & buying
- Winter, when the flesh is firmest.
- Common length
- ~40 cm
- How to identify it
- Long, soft body
Two long filaments under the throat
Barbel on the chin
On the plate
Very fine, melting, almost creamy flesh that falls apart easily.
Avoid: Handling it after cooking: it collapses at the slightest touch.
Those two filaments are not decorative fins. They are its pelvic fins, turned into taste detectors that it drags across the mud.
In Umay recipes
One Umay recipe calls for it.
