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Rockfish

Rockfish: Main Image

Related Topics

  1. Rockfish Fillets ‘Kinship’
  2. Baked Stuffed Rockfish
  3. Recipes with Fish

Buying Tips

Quality rockfish is easy to recognize. Fresh rockfish never smells fishy; it smells fresh like the ocean. The eyes should appear bright and clear, almost alive. The gills should be fresh, and the skin moist and with tightly adhering, shiny scales. Fresh rockfish flesh will give slightly when you press it with a finger, then spring back into shape. Top-quality rockfish should have a thick body and have been line-caught rather than netted. When choosing rockfish fillets, look for white flesh free of pink color.

Varieties

Atlantic ocean perch (also called redfish) swims in cold waters in the North Atlantic. Pacific rockfish, including widow, canar, chilipepper, China, vermillion, yelloweye, quillback, and bocaccio rockfish, are available on the West Coast, and are sometimes wrongly called Pacific red snapper. The scorpion fish (or sculpin) has poisonous spines that must be cut off with scissors. Rockfish are available as whole fresh fish, or as frozen fillets.

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The information presented in the Food Guide is for informational purposes only and was created by a team of US–registered dietitians and food experts. Consult your doctor, practitioner, and/or pharmacist for any health problem and before using any supplements, making dietary changes, or before making any changes in prescribed medications. Information expires December 2025.