Fishermen were cooking fish on charcoal grills probably set up inside their boats, as an on board, the grill was an essential tool. A minimalist and basic way to cook, fishermen became experts on mastering how to cook the fish they caught and you can imagine the conditions.

The cooking we experience on a charcoal fire is less popular in cities the world over. Although in Japan cooking with charcoal is still permitted many chefs use gas, a horrible alternative. And in Spain and Turkey fires are still the preferred method to cook fish and meat.

The Turkish turbot over fire is comparable to Spain’s grilling yet the Spanish are better known for grilling and using baskets to have more grilling control. If we compare the Turkish Turbot it has big wart like bumps on both sides and are distinguishably ugly, yet delicious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scophthalmus_maeoticus

During cooking they are coated with oils which adds to the browning coloration and maillard chemical reaction as seen below. The Turbots skin is an obvious advantage for cooking due to the fact it acts as a gelatine barrier helps maintains the fish’s tenderness. This gelatin is maintained under the skin during cooking, causing the skin to blister in spots, while keeping the flesh moist cooking with convection, radiation and conduction over the coals and on the grill.

These fish do very well on a grill with charcoal fire and are heat resistant and do not dry out despite their slim bodies and why?…..my opinion is based on experience and observing the fish before and after cooking.

Is it the mucous in the skin or the gelatine and or the other chemical properties?….its all the above and the skin characteristics are the obvious factor. You can see the fish stays in tact and the skin after cooking is still elastic and in Spain they remove it just before serving at the table side, and use the cooking juices to emulsify a sauce using spoons.

The biochemical composition of the turbot skin was investigated. The moisture level of the skin was found to be 51.4%. Based on dry matter content, there were relatively high protein (82.1%) and lipid (13.1%) concentrations in the turbot skin. Mineral element analysis revealed that the turbot skin had high Calcium content (2069.0 mg kg). The sodium do-decyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis showed that acid-soluble collagen (ASC) extracted from the turbot skin was type-I collagen. Type I collagen is the most abundant collagen of the human body, consisting of around 90% of the body’s total collagen in vertebrates.

The Turkish turbot is also called Kalkan in Turkish and is notably different than the turbot fish that I order in France, Spain (Rodaballo) and Italy (Rombo), and I find the turbot from the Atlantic in general as good and similar to the Mediterranean variety, and on par with the Black Sea Turbot caught in the Marmara sea. Just a fact, the sea of Marmara is the smallest sea in the world, in active exchange in the north with the Black Sea through the Bosphorus and in the south with the Aegean Sea through the Dardanelles.

But one would argue the turbot from the cold waters of Brittany, and most unfortunately the increasing popularity and astronomical prices of this fish have led to its widespread farming, and fish markets in Istanbul are now filled with turbot farmed in the Balkans, especially Bulgaria. Although it is still a tasty fish, farmed turbot, which is brownish in color, is quite bland compared to the wild version ad has a distinctive taste.

I remember, I recall when I was sitting in Monaco with my son at Gaia, a well-known fish restaurant and ordered what I consider to be one of my favourite fish, Saint Pierre. When the fish arrived, and I tasted it, I could easily distinguish it was farmed. So I called the waiter over and simply said “it’s no problem, I will pay for the fish but I just want to let you know that it’s not my type because it’s farmed”.

The waiter insisted it can’t be farmed and I left the table, and a few minutes later the manager came over and apologized and said, “yes it’s farms and explained in to get regular supply, we use both”, which is the case in most restaurants all over the globe…. so don’t be surprised if you’re eating fish which is farmed.

It can take hours to explain the difference between a Black Sea turbot and a Black Sea flounder, but there is also a quick explanation: turbots are big and flounders are small.

But if we decide to go into details after all, it can be added that Black Sea turbot is a big flatfish living offshore, while flounders prefer coastal waters and enter limans sometimes. There are other differences, but there is no need in bothering one’s head with them.

Interestingly, the Hydrogen-sulphide-rich layer is about 50 meters thick and lies at a depth of approximately 200 m. As a very rich source of hydrogen sulfide, the Black Sea is distinctly different from the world’s oceans with the appearance of the hydrogen sulfide at its lower boundary.

The Limans are enlarged estuary formed as a lagoon at the wide mouth of one or several rivers, where flow is nearly fully or partially constrained by a mouth bar of sediments (peresyp), as in the Dniester Liman or the Razelm liman. 

The Turkish fishery for the Black Sea turbot began in 19th century and the fish were caught in
relatively shallow waters of 40 to 150 meters using gill nets specially made for turbot. When the turbot fishery became a more profitable venture, some gill nets were replaced by trawling in some areas during the late sixties, the latter being a more efficient and economical method of catching turbot.

In fishing of turbot in deep water above 51 meters, although the nets stay in the sea longer than the other groups, some factors are effective in keeping the turbots captured, alive. First, deep-water fishing is continually performed in spring and the weather conditions are good in these months. Therefore, fish in the net remains alive. Because fishing of the other groups is performed in winter and autumn, the nets in the sea are dirty due to storms. So, turbots caught in the net are not able to breathe normally. And because of the strong current, fish in the net are drifted and get injured due to being rubbed along the ground of the sea. That’s why their rate of survival is less. It is known that the nets are lost under such weather conditions.

source internet: https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/141983

Our favourite restaurant is Kiyi ihttp://www.kiyi.com.tr

T. +90 (212) 262 00 02
info@kiyi.com.tr
Kıyı Çalışma Saatleri
Haydar Aliyev Caddesi
186 / A Tarabya / İstanbul
Hours: 12.00 – 24.00

There is also Yuksel in Tarabya: https://www.yukselbalik.com.tr and or https://www.yukselbalik.com.tr which I have never tried and will put into the planning of my next trip to Istanbul.