Gray Mullet


Whole Gray Mullet [Flathead Mullet, Striped Mullet, Black Mullet; Aguas, Banak, Gisaw (Philippine); Manla, Kasmeen, Boita, Tirutha, Bhoita, Ain (India); Mugil cephalus]

Found world wide in tropical and subtropical coastal waters, estuaries, and even rivers, these fish are mainly vegetarians, and thus are prey for just about everything else. They can grow to 47 inches and 26 pounds but the photo specimen was 15-1/2 inches, weighing 1 pound 6-1/2 ounces. Very tiny "baby mullet" are also sometimes found in the fish markets. Mullet are caught wild and farmed, and are not considered threatened. They are not often seen in North American markets except along the Southeast Coast and in Asian fish markets in Southern California, but are a very important commercial fish in many parts of the world. It is a good medium flavor eating fish - look for it in Philippine and Southeast Asian fish markets.

More on Varieties of Fish   (very large page).


General:

  Gray Mullet has medium colored flesh and good medium flavor, a bit stronger skin-on. There is a wide but thin region of darker meat under the skin, and a deep dark band at the centerline. The dark meat is part of the flavor of the fish because there is too much of it to remove. Mullet should be purchased as fresh as possible and eaten or frozen the same day.

Cooking:

  Because of its broad head, mullet is most suitable for use as fillets, or "pan dressed" for baking or steaming. The flesh is soft and beaks apart randomly rather than in orderly flakes, and isn't firm enough to use in soups or stews. It is too tender to lift a whole fillet from a baked or steamed fish. For baking or steaming, cut a few diagonal slashes through the skin so it doesn't tear the flesh.

Fillets are good for pan frying and you can fry fillets skin-on, producing a nice crisp skin. Dust both sides with salted rice flour and fry the inside first, then flip skin side down. Hold the fillet down with your turner for a few seconds until the skin relaxes.

IF you are new to dealing with whole fish, see our Cleaning and Filleting Round Fish page.

Scales:

  Gray Mullet is covered with very large strong scales that take a bit of energy to scrape off, and they fly around a lot.

Cleaning:

  Nothing unusual here except the body cavity is large and can be filled with really yucky stuff, and there may be two large pouch of roe. The gills pull out fairly easily, but are not easy to get at. This is not really a problem since you will probably not be using the head, as this is not a good fish for stock.

Roe:


Gray Mullet White Roe In the autumn, mullet may be carrying two pouches of roe. This may be "Yellow Roe" (eggs) or "White Roe" (sperm). You will not be finding fish with yellow roe at your fish market, as it is quite valuable. Fish containing it will be factory cleaned, with the roe immediately shipped to Italy or Asia.

The white roe is of little value, but is consumed locally. It is usually seasoned, dusted with flour and pan fried, then eaten with a squeeze of lemon. It may also be made into patties with eggs and scallions. The photo to the left shows White Roe from two 2 pound fish. These pouches were about 7-1/2 inches long and weighed about 3 ounces per fish.

Durring "mullet runs" in Florida, asshole opportunists join the fishing. They check the fish for roe, and thousands of white roe fish are tossed overboard dead. This is unacceptable behavior.

Fillets:

  This fish fillets quite easily, but treat it gently as the flesh is soft. When you get to the rib cage, cut the ribs from the backbone with kitchen shears and then pull them from the fillet with your long nose pliers - they are large, few, and pull easily. There are also a few centerline pin bones that are a lot larger than pins, but they are easy to find and pull. Once you have pulled the ribs, you can easily peel off the black lining of the body cavity with your long nose pliers.

Yield:

  A 1 pound 6-1/2 ounce fish yielded 9-5/8 oz of skin-on fillet (43%) and 8-1/4 oz of skinless fillet (37%). Results with a couple of 2 pound fish were quite similar, but skin-off yield was just a little higher. Yield is moderate due to the fish's heavy head.

Skin:

  The skin has a flavor just a bit stronger than the flesh. It has very moderate shrinkage in cooking, and quickly relaxes. It can sometimes be peeled off by hand but the usual long knife and cutting board Method works well. For smaller fish, You may lose most of the belly when skinning, but there really won't be much there to lose.

Stock:

  Heads, bones and fins, simmered for about 40 minutes, make a murky, oily, medium flavored stock that isn't one of my favorites.

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