Obtuse Barracuda

Like other Barracuda, this fish is a fearsome predator with strong jaws and sharp teeth, but only attacks smaller prey. It is an Indo-West Pacific fish, common from the east coast of Africa and the Red Sea through the Pacific islands, possibly as far as Hawaii, and from Japan all around Australia. The Yellowtail Barracuda has a similar but slightly more restricted range.

Obtuse Barracuda can grow to almost 22 inches, but is commonly 12 inches. Yellowtail Barracuda can grow to almost 24 inches, but is commonly less than 16 inches. Both these fish are harvested commercially, and are both IUCN Red List NE (Not Evaluated). These small Barracuda are not considered a Ciguatera risk, but if not properly handled they can present a Scombroid (Histamine) risk. For more on this subject see Health & Safety.

More on Barracudas.

The flesh of this fish is light in color and medium in taste. There is a very dark strip down the centerline just under the skin, with a considerably darker flavor, but it is not unpleasant. Barracuda should be kept refrigerated and eaten as soon as practical after thawing. Like other Barracuda, if improperly handled it can cause histamine poisoning. For details see our Health & Safety notes.

Cooking:   Because of its small size, this fish offers somewhat restricted cooking choices. It can be filleted, but skinning is not practical as the skin is what's holding the very tender fillet together. Fortunately the skin has only moderate shrink, so both fillets and pan dressed fish can be poached or fried.

I prefer this fish fried, rather than poached. For frying, you will need at least a light powdering of rice flour on either fillets or pan dressed fish to prevent sticking. For pan dressed I also dust the inside of the cavity. Fillets should be fried almost through skin side up, then turned over to finish. For Pan Dressed, fry well on one side, then turn to the other side for about the same time. The body cavity will probably be wide open, so I then turn it cavity side down for a couple of minutes, and generally plate it in that position.

Eating:   For Pan Dressed, the first thing to do is to pull out both dorsal fins. If the fish is fully cooked, they will come out without effort. I eat fish with pointy chop sticks, which allows me to break the fish up easily, and will reveal most pin bones that may be in the flesh so they can be pulled. Some will escape and have to be removed from the mouth. In Victorian England, fish bones were the only thing you were allowed to remove from your mouth without being banished from polite society.

Buying:   I have found Obtuse Barracuda in the frozen cases of a large Asian market in Los Angeles (Hawaii Supermarket, Alhambra). They were about 10 fish to a plastic bag, product of Vietnam - 2 pound bag for 2019 US $3.99.

Scales:  This fish is almost completely covered with small scales with moderate adhesion. The skin is tough, so they can be scraped off vigorously.

Cleaning:   The body cavity is long, extending a little behind the vent. I recommend this process:

1. Remove the head with kitchen shears, cutting behind the pectoral fins and forward of the pelvic fins.
2. Cut off the pair of pelvic fins with the shears.
3. With your filleting knife held sharp edge out, insert where the pelvic fins were and cut through the skin all they way back past one side of the anal fin. Now it is easy to make a short cut on the other side of the anal fin and just pull it out.
4. Pull out all the innards. They come out easily, including the blood works between the swim bladder and the backbone. You can now go on to fillet the fish, or do the next step for pan dressing.
5. For Pan Dressing:   I take long nose pliers and insert the point just under the internal membrane next to the backbone and pull out all the thin ribs, a couple at a time, for the length of the body cavity. The tiny centerline pin bones will be hard to find and need to be dealt with on the plate.

Fillet:   This is not a particularly difficult fish to fillet, but there is very little to guide you between the top and the backbone, so cut carefully. Handle the fillet gently because it is very tender and prone to coming apart. Cut down to the backbone, then over the backbone at the tail and work forward. When you get to the rib cage, cut the ribs from the backbone with kitchen shears and pull them from the fillet with long nose pliers - they pull easily. There are a few sharp centerline pin bones, but they are not hard to find in the soft flesh. Use long nose pliers and pull then straight forward.

Skin:   The skin doesn't have a strong or "off" flavor, and has moderate shrink. It is pretty much impossible to remove, even from fillets, because it's what's holding the fillet together.

Yield:   A 3-3/8 ounce fish yielded 1-3/4 ounces skin-on fillets (52%). I did not get a skin-off weight because the skin is what's holding the fillet together. You'll get slightly more yield from a pan dressed fish.

Stock:   I did not evaluate this, because even 10 fish didn't leave much to simmer, especially since I used most of these fish pan dressed.