Yes, it will taste better if the live fish is slaughtered and left for a period of time before cooking! However, it should be noted that the storage time should not be too long. Fish, shrimp, and crabs that exceed 8 hours may be spoiled to varying degrees. After the fish dies, the surface, gills and intestines of the fish contain a certain amount of bacteria, and the dead fish is more likely to become a place for bacteria to multiply. If the fish body is elastic and has no mucus, the time to death is shorter and it can be eaten. If the fish body is loose, soft, floating, and has mucus, it is basically certain that the dead fish has deteriorated. It is recommended not to eat.
Many people believe that eating live fish immediately after slaughter is the most delicious and nutritious. In fact, on the contrary, it is not scientific to eat live fish. So, when is the most nutritious and delicious time to eat?
After the fish is slaughtered, although the breathing stops, a series of biochemical changes and physical changes are still going on in the body, which are usually divided into three categories: stiffness, autolysis and putrefaction. stage. When the fish just dies, it is in the stage of rigor mortis, with its jaws and gills tightly closed, but the energy metabolism in the body is still going on, and the body temperature may even increase by a few degrees. At this stage, a small amount of lactic acid and phosphoric acid will be produced in the fish meat. Therefore, the meat is weakly acidic, which can inhibit the reproduction and growth of spoilage microorganisms. However, the fish meat is hard at this time, which is not conducive to digestion and absorption by the human body. The protein in its muscle tissue has not yet been broken down to produce amino acids, which are the main components of umami.
After a few hours, the fish meat will reach the autolysis stage. During this process, a variety of proteolytic enzymes in the fish begin to work, breaking down part of the protein into peptides and various amino acids. These substances have umami and sweet flavors and are important reasons for making fish more delicious. If the autolysis stage continues, the elastic muscles will begin to soften, the meat will not taste good, microorganisms will begin to multiply, and the fish will enter the stage of putrefaction, making such fish inedible.
From the above three stages, the best time to eat live fish is 2-6 hours after slaughter, that is, the late stage of fish stiffness stage and the early stage of autolysis stage. The fish meat at this time is both tender and delicious, and is conducive to human body digestion and absorption. Until then, it's best to store freshly killed fish in the refrigerator.
Most of the marine fish we usually buy in supermarkets are frozen. Such fish are not stale because they have been refrigerated at low temperatures after being caught, which prolongs the stiffness period of the fish, so it is still fresh. It can maintain the delicious taste.