Species sheet · The Edible Ocean
Saddled seabream
A black spot on the tail, and nothing else to remember.
- Deep fried for small ones, whole and floured
- Grilled whole for the larger ones, seven minutes a side
- A squeeze of lemon off the grill, never before
- In French
- Oblade
- Scientific name
- Oblada melanura
- In the water
- Open water above rock and seagrass, Mediterranean and east Atlantic, down to 30 metres.
- Season & buying
- Spring to autumn.
- Common length
- ~20 cm
- How to identify it
- Large black blotch ringed with white on the tail base
Slender silver body with a blue-grey back
Very large eye
On the plate
Fine delicate flesh, a little fragile, less firm than the white seabream.
Avoid: Baking it: it dries out before the middle is cooked.
It hunts at dusk in tight schools that rise from the rocks towards the surface, always at the same hour, which shore anglers call the evening run.
In Umay recipes
One Umay recipe calls for it.
