Saturday, January 7, 2012

How to Buy Halibut Online

Halibut is one of the tastiest and healthiest fish available. The Pacific flatfish has sweet, slightly pink flesh that’s ideal for nearly any type of recipe, from sashimi to seafood chowder. Like any other seafood, halibut tastes best when it is fresh from the sea, but if you live away from the Pacific Coast, your options for buying fresh halibut can be limited. Online fish markets are one option that allow you to buy halibut that’s as fresh as if you were living on the sea coast. When you have fresh seafood shipped from an online fish market, your halibut and other seafood will arrive as fresh as if you’d gone down to the docks and picked out the catch of the day yourself.

How to Buy Halibut

When you order seafood online, you don’t have the option to pick out the pieces of fish or shellfish that you’ll take home to cook, so you have to count on the dealer to pick the best fish for you. Before you decide to do business with a particular online fish market, check with its reputation for selling high quality seafood. Social review sites like Yelp are a great resource for this type of resource. They can help you locate places to buy halibut that are actual fish markets that also sell online. A fish market that gets good reviews locally is also likely to make sure that the seafood your order online is the freshest and best available.

How to Check if Your Halibut is Fresh

When you have seafood shipped to your door, it will arrive in a sealed foam cooler, packed with ice packs to keep it chilled. When it arrives, open the package and examine your purchase carefully. Fresh halibut should smell sweet, not fishy or brine-y, and there should be no hint of vinegar smell to it. The flesh should be soft and moist, and have a consistent color. If it has oddly colored spots on it, or if the flesh looks or feels slimy, it has started to go bad.

How to Store Fresh Halibut

If you’re not planning to cook your halibut immediately, you’ll need to store it properly to ensure that it stays fresh until you’re ready to cook it. You can store fresh halibut in your refrigerator for up to two days by taking a few precautions. If the seller includes instructions for storage, follow them – often, you can store the halibut in the refrigerator in the foam case. If not, you can use this method recommended by seafood experts. Place the fish on a bed of ice and put it on the lowest shelf of your refrigerator. Replace the ice frequently as it melts so that the fish is always on a bed of ice.

When you order seafood online, you can buy halibut that is just as fresh as you can get when you live near the ocean. Do your research, find a good online fish market and treat your fresh halibut and seafood carefully when it arrives to take full advantage of the healthy benefits it provides.

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