Dissolving lingcod meat freaking me out

I opened up my refrigerated lingcod meat from 5 days ago and it did not have the slightest fishy smell. But as I was preparing to cut it into strips I noticed that it had lots of small light-colored areas where the flesh had turned to slimy mush. I had never seen such a thing. I don’t do a saltwater rinse on my fillets but do sprinkle some sea salt immediately on the wet fillets to offset the effects of a freshwater rinse. But if somehow I missed some areas, would freshwater really dissolve the meat into slime? I’ve never seen this. It doesn’t smell. I tossed it into the frozen crab bait bags. I’m worried that I’ve uncovered some sort of flesh- eating bacteria or something. Anyone have an idea of what caused it? See pic.

Haven't experienced that. When you fileted - was it a smooth cut or did you need a sawing motion? The bit on your finger doesn't look off, but could just be a loose bit that's coming off the filet. I would be interested to see if they continue to dissolve if that's what they're doing.

Cheers,
Brad

The bit on my finger is like a paste, not a small piece. I've never had fish turn into paste before. It's like it lost all structure in those spots.

The effect of fresh water on salt water fish flesh has to do with osmosis causing breakdown of the flesh, as I understand it.  So maybe sitting there for 120 hours or so with some fresh water on it did break it down a bit.  If it doesn't smell bad I'd say it's fine to eat, but 5 days is pushing your luck, in my book!

Good luck.   

I cleaned Lingcod fillets with fresh water before and never experienced this condition even it frozen for over a week.

It could potentially be something like this, described in Milton Love’s book “certainly more than you want to know about the fishes of the Pacific coast”.

The reason your average coastal Pacific hake gets all mushy when it dies is that the muscles of most fish are infected by the protozoan parasite Kudoa paniformis. This microscopic organism is found only in Pacific hakes. It is likely that K. paniformis, along with whatever else it does, continually produces proteolytic enzymes that can weaken muscle tissue but the hosts are continually removing the stuff through the blood stream. When a hake dies, the parasite continues chugging out the enzyme for a while and unless the fish is frozen pretty fast, you get a really soft product. More than 50% of the coastal Pacific hake population is infected and the amounts of these parasites that a hake can carry are impressive. In one study, several individuals had 80% of all their muscle fibers infected. Interestingly, Pacific hakes living in Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia are not infected by this parasite and their meat remains relatively firm.

Was it covered or open to the air? If open, it should have formed a pellicule, not gone mushy. 5 days would have created a thick pellicule in my fridge, but my fridge stays pretty dry.

Salt can have the effect to tenderize and penetrate flesh, and has the largest effect on dense flesh like pork and beef - maybe it behaved the same way with your fish and just tenderized too much over the time period?

That slimy action makes me thing you should have a hamburger or something instead

Keep it dry. No rinse. Fillets will be pristine well over a week wrapped in paper towels, replacing paper towels when saturated.

Keep it dry. No rinse. Fillets will be pristine well over a week wrapped in paper towels, replacing paper towels when saturated.

Yep this is the way, I got some Lingcod the same day as you Joe and made sure not a drop of water touched it then kept it in paper towels in Tupperware. Smells and looks fine at the moment, if you bleed then later remove all the blood line when you filet it can last up to seven days. I would recommend only rinsing in salt water if you have to rinse.

I will keep them drier in the future, but I've kept bled fish for up to 6 or 7 days and have never had the weird mush thing happen. I have had freshwater roughen up the surface a bit in the past. My slightly-salting technique has usually worked, resulting in tight glistening surfaces. Too much salt seems to toughen or dehydrate.
This looked like some sort of rot, without smelling like any rot. Hopefully not a flesh-eating bacteria.

you can also just leave the fillets on the fish in the fridge

if it don't smell right or doesn't look right...why would you put it in your body?

Yup……when in doubt…..toss it out. 

It could potentially be something like this, described in Milton Love’s book “certainly more than you want to know about the fishes of the Pacific coast”.

The reason your average coastal Pacific hake gets all mushy when it dies is that the muscles of most fish are infected by the protozoan parasite Kudoa paniformis. This microscopic organism is found only in Pacific hakes. It is likely that K. paniformis, along with whatever else it does, continually produces proteolytic enzymes that can weaken muscle tissue but the hosts are continually removing the stuff through the blood stream. When a hake dies, the parasite continues chugging out the enzyme for a while and unless the fish is frozen pretty fast, you get a really soft product. More than 50% of the coastal Pacific hake population is infected and the amounts of these parasites that a hake can carry are impressive. In one study, several individuals had 80% of all their muscle fibers infected. Interestingly, Pacific hakes living in Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia are not infected by this parasite and their meat remains relatively firm.

That's interesting. Great book, btw...