Yellowtail collar
Seriola quinqueradiata · Fish
Top 10 pairings
The yellowtail collar — hamachi kama in Japanese — is the wedge of rich, fatty meat behind the gill plate that wraps the base of the pectoral fin and the collarbone. Two come from each fish. It is the most famous fish collar of all: the classic izakaya cut, salt-grilled until the skin blisters and the fat renders and bastes the meat, eaten hot off the bone. If any single dish made the fish collar a delicacy in its own right, it is grilled hamachi kama.
Picking a good onedrag
Just cut, glossy and firmOff: sour, soft, darkened
Counter freshBuy itCook to 145°F (63°C) inside. Pregnant people, children, older adults and the immunocompromised avoid it raw, sashimi-grade included.
Cut face and blood lineMoist and pale, the blood line still red
Press the fleshFirm, the dent fills back quickly
SmellMild, faintly marine
How it is keptOn thick fresh ice, uncovered
These cues are Yellowtail's, and hold across its cuts; where this one differs, its own page says so.