Walleye Ceviche

[salt and pepper]

 

[Dawgluver]

That's beautiful, S&P. Do you freeze the walleye first? I grew up on the stuff and would never have had considered using it for ceviche!

 

[salt and pepper]

Dawgluver,
Yes , I vacuum pack the filets and freeze them for about 2 weeks.

Joe

 

[Timothy]

Dawgluver,
Yes , I vacuum pack the fillets and freeze them for about 2 weeks.

Joe

Hey Joe, as long as your freezer maintains Minus Four Degrees Fahrenheit or lower, 7 days at that temp or lower will rid it of any of the parasites common to walleye. Vacuum packing helps extend the life of the frozen fish, but does little to counter parasites and almost nothing in the case of bacteria already present.

Using very clean handling during the cleaning and storing of the fish will help a lot with any bacterial induction.

Above Minus Four Degrees Fahrenheit, or for lesser amounts of time, and you risk infecting yourself with one of many parasites that are common to that species. Tape Worm is the most common. It won't show up after infection for as much as years. You don't want this for sure.

The preparation of ceviche does nothing to rid it of parasites. It creates an environment that will deter *more* infestation of parasites, but does virtually nothing about those already in the meat.

The acid of the citrus in ceviche preparation will make the meat *appear* to be cooked, but the meat is just as raw as when used in sushi. The cooked appearance is deceiving. It's not cooked at all.

Please make sure you freeze the meat at Minus Four Degrees Fahrenheit or lower, for a minimum of 7 days. This will kill all known parasites, (with the exception of a few very uncommon types), that are already in the meat.

You do not want to become infested with Tape Worms. The treatment is nasty, (read about it, but luckily have never had it happen).

 

[Rob Babcock]

Most of the walleye you find will have been frozen in that manner unless you caught it yourself.

 

[Luca Lazzari]

I never prepared a ceviche, and I never heeard anything about walleyes before reading this post!
What kind of fishes are they? I mean, what freshwater fish can I use that would be similar to a walleye to prepare this ceviche recipe? A trout, a bass, a carp?

Thank you very much, comrades

 

[Timothy]

I never prepared a ceviche, and I never heeard anything about walleyes before reading this post!
What kind of fishes are they? I mean, what freshwater fish can I use that would be similar to a walleye to prepare this ceviche recipe? A trout, a bass, a carp?

Thank you very much, comrades

Frankly, if you do a "Google" on "Eating Freshwater Fish", you'll find literally thousands of professionals in the health-care field that will tell you to never eat any freshwater fish raw.

Freshwater fish are the fish that most commonly have parasites in them.

I know that freezing saltwater fish to below Minus Four Degrees Fahrenheit for the proper amount of time, will kill all but a few uncommon parasites, but I've not researched if freezing also does an acceptable elimination of parasites in freshwater fish.

My best advice to everyone is to NOT eat raw freshwater fish. In ceviche, the acid used does nothing to kill parasites. This is a common misconception among those who eat ceviche. Neither does it "Cook" the fish. The coloring produced from the acid bath is a chemical reaction, not cooking.

Being infested with Tape Worms is not fun. The treatment is disgusting and painful. That is the most common parasite found in freshwater fish.

Please, don't believe me. Look it up yourself with a Net Search or just call your local Doctor and ask. You'll find that what I've said is true.

 

[CWS4322]

I can't think of a freshwater fish that would be like walleye. Freshwater trout is not walleye. It is good, but it isn't walleye. I'd say cod is similar re: texture and taste. I have a bunch of walleye in the freezer that we caught at Lake-of-the-Woods. I don't have access to enough walleye to get adventurous with it. I will say this, however, that my parents have eaten walleye for almost 80 years, and my grandparents before them, and I grew up on walleye as did all my friends and extended family (the joke in northern MN is that there was a baby-food factory that sold pureed walleye in jars and we all grew up eating it--before we cut teeth. Thankfully, lutefisk as a baby-food never caught on!). Anyway, I don't know anyone who has ever gotten tapeworm from walleye. Bones caught in your throat maybe, but not tapeworm.

We always threw the perch back--they were wormy, and my grandmother refused to clean/cook/eat Northern Pike--she called them snakes.There were folks who had the cabin down the road from (a state I won't mention) and they'd eat the Northern...my poor brother had the misfortune to catch a Northern as his first fish. My grandmother told him to take it to the neighbours because "we don't eat snakes." Poor lad. I was luckier--the first fish I ever caught was a walleye.

 

[ChefJune]

You're making me sad and jealous! I LOVE walleye, and we cannot get it here. Whenever I'm in the Upper Midwest, I gorge myself on walleye.

 

[CWS4322]

@ChefJune--gorge is the word!. I ate so much fresh walleye while in MN--my dad said that the recommendation is to limit eating it to once a week (mercury levels). I said that I don't get it often enough to worry about mercury. And, I've got 7 meals of it in the freezer...wish I'd had room to bring back more. And the cheeks are the very best part!

 

[Timothy]

Anyway, I don't know anyone who has ever gotten tapeworm from walleye. Bones caught in your throat maybe, but not tapeworm.

In a casino one time, I saw "11" rolled 5 times in a row. With reports of 40% of the walleye in Michigan testing being infested with Tapeworms, I think perhaps you've just been lucky so far.

I've found that a quick call to the FDA will tell you if the walleye in your area has ever had a reported infestation of parasites. When I emailed them about a fish here in St. Augustine, they were very helpful.

This report may interest you:

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/tapeworm-walleye_231757_7.pdf

And a quote from a guy who caught a mess of them in Saginaw Bay:

"Caught a few walleye the other night on Saginaw Bay, when we were cleaning them several fish had tapeworms crawling out of them. Did an Internet search and found some info about this from the Michigan DNR. Out of 15 walleyes 6 of them had tapeworms in them."

And another report from the walleye caught in the St. Lawrence River:

"this morning i was filleting some walleye fillets and i discovered 2 tapeworms...these fish were caught on the st.Lawrence river..."

Just a warning folks. You can disregard it if you wish, but it's kind of like playing Russian Roulette with your health.

 

[CWS4322]

I've never eaten raw walleye, nor do I intend to--I don't eat raw fish. And the people I know who eat walleye eat MN walleye. I've never had Michigan walleye. However, I've never encountered parasites when cleaning MN walleye, and I cleaned a fair number of walleye every season when I lived in MN. In MN, golden perch, bass, and northern are more likely to have parasites when you cut them open. Probably why my family always has preferred walleye and why we release everything else (well, we will keep sauger)..

 

[Dawgluver]

Summering on Lake of the Woods in Canada, I too never saw a wormy walleye. Northerns and perch we threw back, as Dad said they were wormy. That said, I would never eat raw walleye.

 

[Timothy]

Actually, I would never eat any fish that hadn't been prepared for eating raw by freezing at Minus Four Degrees Fahrenheit for 7+ days.

I imagine the freezing would work on fresh water fish also. I really don't know though.

I'm glad you folks haven't run into that problem. When eating them cooked, it's not an issue, as long as you don't mind the possibility of eating cooked tape worms.

I think I'll stick with the traditional sushi fish...

 

[powerplantop]

I have ate a lot of saltwater fish that was fresh or even still moving as sashimi. I have never eatten fresh water fish as sashimi but I was going to I would frezze first.

BTW: I love Ceviche....

 

[Timothy]

I have ate a lot of saltwater fish that was fresh or even still moving as sashimi. I have never eaten fresh water fish as sashimi but I was going to I would freeze first.

BTW: I love Ceviche....

The temperature and duration of the freeze makes a huge difference.

If not performed at a minimum of Minus Four Degrees Fahrenheit and for a minimum of 7 days, the parasites are not killed, but just placed into dormancy. When the meat is defrosted, the parasites are alive and well again.

Normal household freezers usually don't get cold enough to properly kill parasites.

 

[powerplantop]

Hey Joe, as long as your freezer maintains Minus Four Degrees Fahrenheit or lower, 7 days at that temp or lower will rid it of any of the parasites common to walleye.

I know that freezing saltwater fish to below Minus Four Degrees Fahrenheit for the proper amount of time, will kill all but a few uncommon parasites, but I've not researched if freezing also does an acceptable elimination of parasites in freshwater fish.

Actually, I would never eat any fish that hadn't been prepared for eating raw by freezing at Minus Four Degrees Fahrenheit for 7+ days.

If not performed at a minimum of Minus Four Degrees Fahrenheit and for a minimum of 7 days, the parasites are not killed, but just placed into dormancy. When the meat is defrosted, the parasites are alive and well again.

Why post the same info 4 times in the same thread?

 

[Timothy]

Why post the same info 4 times in the same thread?

That happens here all the time. It's no big deal. Each time was as a response to a different post.

However, to be more accurate, I did so to make very, very sure that the information was seen by as many people as possible. It's an extremely important process that is misunderstood by lots of people.

Some people think that *any* freezing will rid meat of parasites. It won't.

Some people think that bringing meat just to the point of freezing at below Minus Four Fahrenheit and then using it the next day is safe. It isn't.

If the repeated information bothers you for some reason, I'd suggest that you just skip over it instead of making an issue of it.

My intent was to help people. I'm not sure what your intent is in asking this in the public forum instead of utilizing the private messaging feature of the site.

If you wish, you may PM me and we can discuss it further.

 

[Dawgluver]

Timothy is very passionate about his prep, and also very knowledgible. He also wants to make sure nobody gets sick. I know I appreciate his insight and experience, as well as his recipes!