Species sheet · The Edible Ocean
White seabream
It comes to see what you are doing, and it is afraid of nothing.
- Scale it carefully, the scales are hard and cling
- Baked in a salt crust, 25 minutes for a one-kilo fish
- Or grilled whole, scored twice on each flank
- In French
- Sar commun
- Scientific name
- Diplodus sargus
- In the water
- Rocky bottoms and exposed shorelines, Mediterranean and east Atlantic, down to 50 metres.
- Season & buying
- All year, best from spring to autumn.
- Common length
- ~25 cm
- How to identify it
- Nine dark vertical bars on the silver flank, alternating wide and narrow
Sharp black saddle on the tail base
Small protruding incisor teeth
On the plate
Firm fine white flesh, one of the best of the rocky-shore fish.
Avoid: Filleting it before cooking: it loses all its moisture, it wants to be cooked whole.
Its incisors are strong enough to crush sea urchins and whole mussels, shell included, which is why the Provencal coast calls it the stone breaker.
In Umay recipes
One Umay recipe calls for it.
