By Chris Anderson
Chefs who feature it regularly on their menus say there is no better-eating fish than escolar, a firm and dense white fish with a mild flavor that is equally at home on a grill or in a sauté pan. Escolar’s relatively high oil content makes it easy to cook and adds a pleasing texture when eaten.
But that which makes it so tasty — the high oil content, or what is referred to as “waxy esters” — has dogged escolar’s reputation for many years as reports of its purgative effect on diners regularly circulate. Because the human body can’t absorb the waxy esters, they can act as a laxative for some, resulting in stomach cramps and diarrhea.
Reports of this effect had the Food and Drug Administration scrambling to ban escolar imports in the early 1990s, though the agency eventually backed off, since the fish is not poisonous.
Importers, wholesalers and chefs who sell escolar say the reputation the fish has developed over the years, while not necessarily untrue, is based on a variety of factors, including mislabeling of a related species, mishandling of the fish before cooking and selling portions that are too large.
Escolar is the common name for Lepidocybium flavobrunneum. A member of the mackerel family, it is found in warm tropical waters and is a bycatch of longliners fishing for tuna and swordfish, so it’s available year-round. Its skin is smooth and brown to black, which is one of the differences between escolar and its close cousin, the “oil fish,” or Ruvettus pretiosus, which has a similar body shape and color but a scaly skin.
John Barrett, South Pacific specialist for New Zealand Seafood Marketing, an escolar importer, says this is an important distinction for those looking to buy and sell the fish.
The oil fish, he explains, “should not be used or sold as escolar.”
John Victoria, president of Pittsburgh-based Western Edge, which imports frozen-at-sea escolar loins, agrees that proper identification of the fish is important.
“There are potential problems with people not knowing the difference between the two fish. What we look for and sell is the smooth-scale, black-skin escolar, and we import it from South America, South Africa and Singapore,” says Victoria.
“Today we have educated ourselves about the difference between oil fish and escolar, and we are very careful who we buy it from,” says Steve Foltz, vice president of sales for Chesapeake Fish Co., a San Diego wholesaler that sells about 300 pounds of the fish each week.
“Now we have little or no problems with it.”
Selling the proper fish is a start, but purveyors say that strict attention to handling and proper portion control also need to be considered. The recommended portion size should be in the 6- to 7-ounce range, as anything over that has the potential to cause adverse reactions in a small number of consumers, say purveyors.
Because portion control is of the essence, escolar’s availability at retail is spotty, at best. The small recommended-portion sizes make it a good fit for upscale, white-tablecloth restaurants.
“It’s not something we would encourage at retail, because you don’t want to have a customer coming in, buying 2 pounds and eating it all at once,” says Foltz. For that reason, Chesapeake sells escolar only to foodservice accounts.
Because escolar is a bycatch fish, the chefs who feature it say it’s not well-suited to being a regular menu item. They find escolar works better as an occasional special that can be bought in small quantities to sell within two or three days.
As with any seafood item, proper handling is vital, but that goes double for escolar. Because of its high oil content, the flesh has a shorter shelf life than leaner fish.
“You need to make sure it stays iced down, in a drip pan with ice on top, so it isn’t sitting in water,” says Renya Lundberg, chef at the Lazy H Ranch in Pauma Valley, Calif. “That’s not unlike how I would handle any fish.”
Typically, Lundberg buys about 10 pounds of escolar, which equates to roughly 30 entrée portions, on a Thursday and plans to have it all sold by the end of the night on Sunday.
At the Golden Truffle in Costa Mesa, Calif., chef/owner Alan Greeley takes a different tack to keep his escolar at the peak of freshness. After receiving the order and cutting it, he uses a vacuum sealer to package the portions, which are stored at temperatures very close to freezing.
“We like to keep it dry and very cold and pull out each package as we need it,” Greeley says. “But it is a very perishable fish, and I think chefs should look for a local supplier they trust if they want to bring it in.”
What restaurants get, the chefs agree, is a fish that can be prepared any number of different ways and can stand up to full-flavored sauces as well as hold its own grilled with little more than olive oil and lemon.
“Escolar has a great texture and will stand up to almost any way that I want to prepare it,” says John Tiplitz, chef/owner of Little Fish, a 20-seat seafood-specialty restaurant in Philadelphia. “I can prepare it with something fairly strong, or with sautéed spinach with a vanilla butter.”
Tiplitz began serving escolar about four years ago at the suggestion of one of his purveyors. Now it is a regular on his ever-changing blackboard menu, because his customers love it and the price is reasonable.
Escolar’s average wholesale price of $6.50 per pound allows Little Fish to sell it for around $20 per serving. In all, Tiplitz estimates he sells 20 escolar entrées each week.
Chef Greeley has been serving escolar at the Golden Truffle for about 15 years, and is not aware of any diners having problems with it. His weekly volume for escolar, roughly 25 pounds, indicates that his customers are not shy about ordering it.
His preparations range from simple grilling to let the flavor of the fish stand out, to a recent special that included a thick cut of the loin served with a lobster Newburg sauce.
To ensure its freshness, Greely takes escolar deliveries on Tuesdays and Thursdays and sells it all within two or three days. His advice to other chefs who might have heard some of the bad press about escolar in the past?
“I would tell them not to be afraid of it,” he says. “It is a very user-friendly fish and has the ability to take on the profile of what you prepare it with, whether it is curry, or butter, or parsley or lemon.
“So don’t be afraid of it, but use it quickly.”
Chris Anderson is a freelance writer and editor in Scarborough, Maine