howgate (phowgate@rsc.co.uk)
Wed, 2 Feb 2000 19:44:07 -0000
Dear Juergen
In Britain, the word 'catfish' is applied to the marine catfishes,
Anarhichas spp. In German, French and Spanish, their names are Katfisch,
loup or loup de mer, and perro del norte respectively. In English, the name
might be construed as meaning fish suitable for the cat, but I do not think
this would apply in other languages. Catfish is often called in the trade,
and on retail sale, as rock turbot or rock salmon, perhaps to avoid this
connotation. There is legislation in existence listing permitted names for
sale of fish, but I can not find my copy of the regulation to check that
the rock ** names are permitted. (I moved house just over two months ago
and I have not sorted or found some of my papers - they have probably
disappeared into the black holes that exist in homes and will appear
through a worm hole millions of light years away.). The ocean catfishes are
considered as fine fish in fish cookery books and there is no need to be
derogatory about them.
A small amount of freshwater catfish - the American catfish Clarius
gariepinus - is cultivated in mainland Europe, but I do not recall ever
seeing it for sale in Britain, at least under that name. I have very
occasionally seen fillets of freshwater catfish, clearly ex-frozen, on sale
on supermarkets 'wet' fish counters. I can't recall how it was exactly
labelled, but I had no doubt it was channel catfish. It was priced markedly
higher that fillets of fish like cod and haddock so sales must have been
directed to the more gourmet market.
I do not see any problems in Britain in using the name catfish preceded by
channel or, probably better bearing in mind the proximity of the English
channel, Mississippi to distinguish it from the marine varieties.
Peter Howgate
----------
> From: Juergen R. Ahlmann <thecatfish@excite.com>
> To: seafood@ucdavis.edu
> Subject: Catfish under another name?
> Date: 01 February 2000 13:18
>
> Dear Listers,
>
> Catfish is an excellent fish. We all know that but, there is still the =
> derogatory connotation. Does anybody know of other names for catfish =
> that sound perhaps a bit more inviting to the majority of the people out
=
> there? We are particularly interested in finding another name for =
> catfish for England and Germany. In Germany, the catfish is generally =
> known as "Wels". As an example: in England, "shark" for fish & chips is
=
> referred to as "huss" and "rock salmon" has absolutely nothing to do =
> with salmon. In Germany, "Schillerlocken" have nothing to do with Mr. =
> Schiller's locks, a verbatim translation. Is it possible to introduce =
> the catfish under a completely different name? Existing or made up? =20
>
> Juergen R. Ahlmann
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________________
> Get 100% FREE Internet Access powered by Excite
> Visit http://freeworld.excite.com
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Wed Feb 02 2000 - 12:16:05 PST