Black Cod (Sablefish)

Black cod is the trade name for Anoplopoma fimbria, a deep-water fish of the North Pacific that has nothing to do with the true cods of the Gadidae family. The name stuck because its flaky, snow-white flesh looks and behaves a lot like Atlantic cod, but in almost every other respect sablefish is its own creature: a slow-growing, long-lived bottom-dweller caught at 300 to 1,500 meters off Japan, Alaska, British Columbia, and down the Pacific coast to northern Baja. It is sometimes called butterfish, and in Japan it is known as gindara ("silver cod"), the name you will see on sushi menus and in classic saikyo-yaki recipes.

The defining feature is fat. Where most "white" fish like halibut, cod, or snapper run 1 to 3 percent fat, sablefish carries 15 to 20 percent intramuscular fat, putting it in the company of salmon and mackerel. That fat is the reason the flesh stays moist under high heat, smokes without drying, and works raw, and it is also the reason sablefish spoils faster, costs more, and rewards a lighter touch in the pan. Cook it to 55 to 60 °C and the interior is translucent and custardy; push it past 65 °C and the same fat that makes it extraordinary turns waxy and greasy. Once you understand that single fact, the rest of the kitchen playbook follows.

In Japanese cuisine sablefish is the star of saikyo-yaki, marinated for one to three days in sweet white (saikyo) miso, mirin, and sake, then broiled until the surface caramelizes. On the Pacific Northwest coast, indigenous communities have cold-smoked it for generations, and the silky, almost spreadable smoked product is now a chef's ingredient worldwide. Today sablefish is also farm-raised in closed containment in British Columbia, giving a more consistent, year-round supply with a slightly milder flavor than wild fish.