Puffer Fish-Poisonous but Delicious Food

What’s puffer fish

Puffer fish, a familiar title for Tetraodontidae fishes, is highly poisonous (1250 times of potassium cyanide with equal dose), But due to its extraordinary delicacy it is rated, together with the Longsnout Catfish and Ribbonfish as “Top Three Delicate Fishes of the Yangtze River.” Acquaintance with pufferfish could be dated back to 2500 BC. On the inscriptions of graves of the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt unearthed, there was a record on poisoning caused by eating puffer fish.

Delicious puffer fish in Jiangyin

In Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province (refer: Jiangsu Cuisine), there is a custom, people would eat puffer fish around Tomb-sweeping Day. As Jiangyin people say, "Once you had a chance to have a taste of the puffer fish, you would never eat other fishes around the world." However, apart from the delicacy, it is well known that puffer fish itself is highly poisonous.

Although the poisoning case after eating puffer fish occurs from time to time at the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, puffer fish is still a delicious delicacy that resonates across the people in Jiangyin. Some people are too cowardly to eat (puffer fish), but Jiangyin people are not afraid of death. People prefer to abandon their lives just to eat the puffer. After a taste of the delicate puffer fish, you ill have not interested in other food, because the rest are not delicious to you anymore.

The puffer fish would not be edible without the professional skills of the chef because it is hazardous. Its poison will be removed after the efforts of cleaning. Spring is the season when puffer fish is on sale, Health Monitoring Bureau of Jiangyin City would always early warn the citizens to be cautious about the poisonous puffer fish.

The history of Jiangyin people eat puffer fish

Jiangyin people have a long history of eating puffer fish. The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) pharmacologist Li Shizhen, during his taking office in Danyang, for writing the section on puffer fish in the Compendium of Materia Medica (part 7), studied dining habits along the Yangtze River. He had ever seen a scholar died from poisoning after eating puffer fish. When he went to the area of Jiangyin along the river. Although he learned from books that the local people all ate the deadly fish, that is all families here cooked puffer fish, he never saw a person who was poisoned or died.

Being surprised, he knocked on all their doors seeking the secrets of safe puffer fish cooking Some family said, “add a proper amount of reed root when cooking,” some said Bracken was needed, and the others said, the puffer fish should be cooked for about 15min. He finally concluded: the Jiangyin people process the seeds with plenty of salt, the white meat with vinasse, and the fish with wine, then cook it. Only after drowning in the wine, could the puffer fish be taken out and cooked?

From the words, people can see that people desperately lived the puffer fish, and they would rather trade a taste of the puffer fish with their precious lives. This is the origin of risking the lives to eat the puffer fish, and it could be found in this book. As a poem written by the poet Su Dongpo in Song Dynasty describes, Peach blossoms away from the bamboo grove begin to bloom, Ducks playing in the river perceive the warmth of spring first. The buds spring up from the withered artemisia selengensis lying on the ground, and it is the right time to eat the puffer fish. This made puffer fish significantly known.

Why Jiangyin was a particular area of puffer fish

In the 1950s, a specific reason made Jiangyin become a specific area of puffer fish along the Yangtze River. During the 20 years from 1959 to 1979, Jiangyin was a specific area of puffer fish. 

From the mouth of the Yangtze River in the east to Ma’anshan Mountain and Hexian County in Anhui in the west, all puffer fish was collected together in Jiangyin for supply. According to the documents issued by the provincial authority, puffer fish was banned to be eaten. The fishermen’s co-operative societies established just then were not allowed to sell the puffer fish caught, which influenced their life.

So it was regulated that all puffers could be sold in Jiangyin. During the three-year natural disasters, as for Jiangyin people, a lot of puffers exactly improved their life. People who are just a little old all remember in their childhood, a large barrel of puffer fish could be caught once and a large pot of puffer fish was cooked every time.

Today, people here still like to make a large plateful of puffer fish, which just follows the custom in those years. In the past, puffer fish was seen everywhere in Jiangyin. All food markets sold this fish, and the price was not high. Puffer fish was cooked in all restaurants, and a big bowl of puffer was priced at only RMB 0.5. In those special years, puffer fish was cheaper than grains, so all families here were good at cooking puffer fish. They are particular about cooking puffer fish, which also adds a mystery for the puffer.

The custom of eating puffer fish by Jiangyin people

In the past, in Jiangyin, if a family is eaten the puffer fish, the old would repeatedly tell that do not pour away the chamber pot. If someone has the signs of poisoning, he will turn fine after vomiting by drinking a little urine. The killed puffer fish should be washed clean, especially the poisonous viscera, which can’t be littered just like rubbish, but buried in their filed. If a guest comes, when the puffer fish is cooked, the guest would give a coin, meaning he buys the fish, and there is nothing to do with the host if he is poisoned.

In the past, all families along the river would have such a rope on their cooking bench. This rope was for supporting the umbrella. People were very particular about cooking puffer fish. They would use an umbrella to avoid the dust from falling when the pot is steaming People pay close attention to the sanitation when making this fish. When cooling puffer fish at home, people here only use some simple ingredients. The typical wine, and the cheap soy sauce and crystal sugar are enough. They said the essence of eating puffer fish lies in its delicate flavor.

After putting the puffer fish in a pot, they would respectfully burn joss sticks before the kitchen god. After burning joss sticks, the kitchen god will report the good deed in heaven and come to the earth to keep them safe. It precisely means that, when eating puffer fish, everyone should be safe and healthy. In those years, there was no wristwatch, no alarm watch, and a wall watch, so the cooking time was measured by burning joss sticks. When the joss sticks are consumed by 2/3, the delicious smell will start to pervade the kitchen, and the puffer fish is well done. In this way, you can enjoy it with ease.

The poison in puffer fish body

Puffer fish in this season is most delicious. However, what increasingly grow following this delicacy is the toxin in puffer fish body. This is the period when the puffer fish is the most poisonous in a year. Then, where is the poison from? The small puffer fish born by the most poisonous puffer is not poisonous at the very beginning. It doesn’t inherit the toxin and has no genetic poison. Its poison is from the food accumulated in its body over a long period. It eats the poisonous alga in the sea, and poisonous organisms and highly poisonous snail. Then, the food is changed into tetrodotoxin stored in the liver. So the liver of puffer fish is poisonous.

During the pregnancy period, the liver slowly decreases in size, and all toxin is transferred to the egg. The egg is the most poisonous. Different, among other fishes, puffer fish lays the egg in the very vast water of the Yangtze River. It spawns in a group. After spawning, it is the toxin that protects the egg, which can’t be eaten by many kinds of fish, and those eating the egg will die.

So, with the help of toxin, it protects its offspring. That’s why it needs poison. The skin will be broken bitten by it. Its teeth are very sharp on both the upper and lower sides. The puffer fish is fierce and feeds on all sorts of little fishes, shrimps, and mollusks. Once aware of the danger, the puffer fish would promptly expand into a thorny ball, and force the frustrated enemy to leave reluctantly. The toxin of the puffer fish ranks at the top ten of all toxins and is 1,000 times more dangerous than potassium cyanide. From a 0.5 kg puffer fish, at least 0.5mg poison could be extracted, which could kill dozens of adult elephants.

The toxin of puffer fish is a kind of nonprotein neurotoxin, and it works mainly on the nervous system, the peripheral nervous system, and the central nervous system. The lightly poisoned victim would feel numb at their hands, feet, and tongues, and the heavily poisoned would suffer myasthenia of limbs, and difficulty in breathing, thus there are a lot of victims who died from respiratory failure. There are no special drugs that could fight against such toxins. Once the symptoms are diagnosed, the first thing is to use emetics to empty the stomach, and if it does not work, it's better to turn to gastrolavage and catharsis.

Till now, no antidote is found to detoxify the poison in puffer fish, so it is not exaggerating to say to eat puffer fish is at the risk of death. And those selling puffer fish also need to take a risk. The key point of removing the poison lies in the operation of the cook. Since the cooks cooking puffer fish have to bear great responsibility, their income is also much higher than ordinary cooks. There is a saying that a person will be brave if he has a superb skill. Those cook daring to cook puffer fish must have the consummate ability to remove the poison from the fish.

The method for removing poison in puffer fish

There is one thing needed to be informed of before operation If your hands are hurt, you can not operate on the wild puffer fish. When you find it’s a female puffer fish and the roes are pierced and run over the meat, such puffer fish cannot be eaten anymore because the roes have highly poisonous. In fact, all the black parts are blood, which will poison people if it is not cleaned away. The tail also has some blood, which must be extruded out too. That will be OK! Place it here and let the blood trickle down. It will trickle down naturally. It will be fine after all the blood trickles down. The soul tidbit of puffer fish lies on the so-called flavor of it.

And the flavor of puffer fish derives from the liver. However, the liver of puffer fish is something which half is a devil, and the other half is an angel. An angel means the most delicious part of puffer fish is the liver, while a devil implies the liver of the puffer fish is the most poisonous part of it. Cutting the liver does not have any mysteries, but you need to remove this at your first stroke. The purpose is to exhaust the blood. The liver is the depository of blood. If the blood in it is not exhausted, you will be in hot water.

The reason that puffer fish cooked by Jiangyin People is unique in taste is that they are good at cooking the liver of puffer fish. To cook the liver is the critical point to cook the puffer fish. If the cooking time is too short, the poison in the puffer fish cannot be cleared. If you stew it for an overly long time, it is not worth eating this puffer fish at risk of death, as it doesn’t have any difference with ordinary fish except that the meat is fresher and more tender.

The process of cooking puffer fish should be strict

The one who can stew the puffer fish is indeed a cooking master. The primary purpose of cooking puffer fish is to remove the poison from the duration. Once the blood in the puffer fish is no exhausted, if you stew the fish in the pot for more than 40 minutes, there is still a chance to correct the error. In Jiangyin, around 400t to 500t puffer fish is consumed every year.

In the market season of puffer fish, Jiangyin Cooking Association will carry out strict inspection of the puffer fish operation rooms and processing personnel. Different from other food, puffer fish is poisonous, which concerns human life. For this reason, the whole process of killing, cleaning to cooking is conducted by one person. Thus, the staff can account for their work. According to the established custom, after the puffer fish is prepared well, the cook has to taste at first. And ten minutes later, if it proves the fish is safe, it can be taken to the customers’ table. 

Protect the puffer fish

From 2002, in 4 years, Jiangyin people released nearly 2,000,000 puffer fish fry into the Yangtze River.  To release puffer fry is not only to the rescue of a fish or a delicious food but also for the preservation of an unrepeatable species and balanced ecology.