Hamachi Pricing
Eustacio Gadit
Sushi grade yellowtail, more commonly known as Hamachi, is one of the most popular fish used for sushi and sashimi. This Hamachi Loin is raised in a stress-free environment; allowing the fish to gain high-fat content, which results in perfect buttery texture and a rich flavor. Since this hamachi is farm-raised and more available than its wild counterpart, the value and price for this hamachi fish are astonishing. In addition, this Hamachi loin is boneless, skin-off, and has 100% yield. You can feel good for both your stomach and your pocketbook!
Our hamachi experience is outstanding because it is creamy white, fat-filled, and rich in oil. Fresh hamachi will never be bland and will be bursting with buttery deliciousness, making cooking it almost a shame. Skin and bones have been removed from the Japan Hamachi parts for sashimi.
Hamachi collars are considered a delicacy in many cuisines, and are the fattiest and most succculent part of the fish. Popular grilled, broiled, roasted, or steamed, the collar offers a delicate flesh which is packed with delicious natural oils. These collars are from the highest quality farmed hamachi, raised and processed in Japan, and then delivered frozen to us here at Pier 45.
For a very brief time in my early twenties, I worked in a sushi bar in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Don't worry, this isn't a story of air-mailed, flash-frozen fish gone awry, nor is it a tale of a desert seafood-eater's existential crisis. I just want to make sure you know that you might be missing out on one of the best parts of the fish: the collar.
In this sushi bar, the hamachi kama (or yellowtail collar in English) was reserved for friends of the owner, kind regulars and very, very lucky, well-behaved employees. It also quickly became my favorite thing in the restaurant immediately after I tasted it. Don't let the name scare you. The hamachi collar (like on all fish) refers simply to the section just behind the head and gills. If you are not squeamish about seeing fish being butchered, you should absolutely check out this fantastic video of a tuna fisherman breaking down the collars on a yellowtail. As he says, "best part of the fish, right there."
Why is the collar so good? I can't tell you scientifically. I suspect that it has to do with the use of the muscles in that part of the fish, as well as the fact that it is one of the only pieces of fish that ever gets cooked on the bone, which is well-known to make everything taste better. The meat is sweet, tender, full of rich flavor and especially juicy. Hamachi kama is also good for you, since you can cook it with no added fat whatsoever -- it tastes best simply grilled, with at most a sprinkling of salt, soy and citrus. Eating the collar of the fish is also pretty green of you, considering that it uses a part of the fish that a lot of unaware eaters would consider scrap.
Hamachi kama is hard to find in restaurants, partially because it is scarce (there are only two collars on a fish) and partially because cooks are smart and they save the best parts for themselves. If you are in a Japanese restaurant and you see it on the menu, you would be laughing in the face of enjoyment and good flavor to not order it. They still might not have any left, but you always have to ask. Like the satisfaction that comes from picking the turkey carcass on Thanksgiving, eating a hamachi collar is an exercise in patience, rewarding those dextrous enough to dig in with chopsticks or brash enough to use their fingers. Don't miss it. I promise you won't regret it.
Want to craft mouthwatering yellowtail dishes like yellowtail sashimi but don't live near a fish market? This delicious hamachi buri (yellowtail loin) is the perfect solution! This loin arrives frozen to help maintain its freshness. When you're ready to use it, simply defrost it in the refrigerator, and it's ready to go! This sashimi-grade fish is perfect for your next sushi and sashimi endeavor!
Some Bokksu Market products are produced overseas and may have a Production Date printed on the packaging, rather than a Best Buy Date as is standard in North America. If your product appears expired, do not be alarmed! This is most likely the Production Date. All items have been double checked to ensure they are not expired and safe to eat.
Behind the curtain, buri cultivation is thriving in Japan (and throughout the world). More than 80% of the buri on the market is said to be farmed. Because it is not apparent by appearance whether the buri was raised in the wild or by aquaculture, the wild-raised fish is called buri by market affiliates in order to make it easier to understand. That means farmed products have come to be called hamachi.
The accepted theory is that the delicious flavor of Kanburi (wild buri caught during the cold months of November to February that has grown fat for the winter) depends heavily on the condition of high-fat content. The two major brands of Kanburi are caught on the Noto Peninsula and Himi in the Hokuriku region, and buri caught in Hokuriku has a higher fat content and also tastes better than buri caught in other places. This may be because fish that live in the frigid sea have higher fat content than those that live in warm seawaters.
The peak season of the medium-sized class of buri is summer, and the fat content for that season is 5 to 7% in inada and wakashi. and around 8 to 15% in hamachi. While the fat content in farmed buri is overwhelmingly higher than in wild buri, unfortunately, this does not translate to better taste. Throughout the world, buri with soft meat that has fat that glistens above the meat like hamachi sashimi, is popular, but after years of eating it, the wild buri always ends up tasting better.
Winter is the season for wild buri. The lipid content during winter is only around 10%, but this makes both the taste and the aftertaste better. The reason that the lipid content of farmed buri is higher than wild buri, is that sardine fish meal and farmed fish feed oil are used in the formula feed, or sardines, which are high in fat content, are fed as-is to the buri. However, in recent years there has been researched in formula feed for hamachi and buri with higher meat quality, which has improved the results.
When comparing flavor, wild buri has a higher content of umami, such as inosinic acid, in the meat than farmed buri. It is especially high in nitrogenous extractives, histidine, trimethylamine oxide, etc., which makes the flavor richer. In contrast, the meat of farmed buri is soft without much umami. This is probably one of the reasons that it feels greasy.
As an aside, three cousins (closely related species) of buri are often used as sushi toppings in sushi restaurants. In the Fish Name Dictionary, the translations of these cousins are Goldstriped amberjack (Hiramasa: right image), Greater Amberjack (Kanpachi), and Japanese amberjack (Buri). Sushi University also adopts these terms.
The wild fish swim up from the south to the north along the main island of Japan. Yellowtail eat a lot of seafood to obtain as much fat as possible in their flesh for energy to bear the cold waters in the north. The best season is from December to February, when the flesh color turns gradationally pink to white. In March, it ends its peak season after spawning.
Although the wild fish season ends in March, farmed fish is available all-year long. Farmed yellowtail has white flesh with a lot of fat and it is usually delicious. It is called hamachi (farmed yellowtail in Japanese, wild fish=buri, farmed fish=hamachi) and exported all over the world to fill the demand for sashimi, sushi, and grilled as teriyaki.
Wild fish in winter gets as fatty or fattier than farmed fish, and its gorgeous flavor is unbelievably amazing. If you have any chance to try wild fish sized more than 10 kg, from Hokkaido (Tenjo-buri) in Nov to Dec, Ishikawa (Noto-buri) and Toyama (Himi-buri) in Dec to Feb, you must try it.
You can find frozen yellowtail fillets in the US or other countries, but there is no frozen yellowtail distributed in Japan, so when you buy steaks or sashimi loins in the local supermarkets, they should be fresh. Here are some tips to help you when shopping for yellowtail.
Firstly, filets are roughly divided into 2 loins, back or belly. But when the loins are too big to sell, they are cut into upper (head side) portion and lower (tail side) portion. Personally I love the fatty portions, and chose in this order: 1. upper belly 2. upper back 3. lower belly 4. lower back. Usually it is sold without the skin, so that you should learn to know which part is which by the appearance.
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