Tilapia Fish

**Tilapia Flavor Scale**
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Tilapia Flavor Profile

Tilapia fish has a sweet, mild taste with lean flesh and a medium-firm, flaky texture. Raw flesh is white or pinkish-white sometimes with a darker muscle layer on the skin side of the fillets. The flesh cooks up to a white color. Aqua-cultured Tilapia tend to have a better flavor than wild Tilapia because Tilapia taste like their environment and wild fish feed on algae.

Alternate Names

St. Peter's Fish (because it's believed that Tilapia was the fish which Jesus multiplied to feed the masses), Sunfish

Tilapia Culinary Notes

Tilapia is very much a product of its environment. If it is raised in poor quality water then it's flavor will be muddy, grassy, or worse. You want to buy premium Tilapia from a quality source.

Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus, O- aureus, O- mossambicus) Description

Depending upon the species, the skin color can range from black & white striped, to green, to red. Average whole Tilapia are 1 - 2 lbs but can grow larger. Most US fresh Tilapia is from south-western states as well as from Costa Rica and Colombia. Tilapia is the second most cultivated fish in the world, beat only by carp (go figure! I've never seen carp on a menu.)

Tilapia
picture (Ornil_m0.jpg) by
Ueberschär, B.

Fresh Tilapia Availability

Fresh seafood availability chart: green areas show peak availability, light green show limited availability, gray indicates not available fresh. Most fresh Tilapia is from Costa Rica & Colombia. Frozen available all year long.

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Tilapia Yield Percentage and Recovery

Item	To Skn/On Fillets	To Skn/Off Fillets	Notes
Whole Head/On gutted	35%
Whole Head/Off gutted
Skin/On Fillets

Range & Habitat

Tilapia are originally from the Nile River, but today they are raised in warm waters throughout the world. Some countries consider them to be an invasive species.

Typical Wholesale Products

Whole, H&G, Skin/On Fillets, Skin/Off Fillets

Tilapia Recipes

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Tilapia Sustainability Info

This window is a link to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program info on Tilapia Fish.

<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.montereybayaquarium.org//cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_factsheet.aspx?gid=69" target="_blank">View the content of this iframe</a> within your browser.

Tilapia Nutritional Information

based upon a 6 oz (171 grams) raw edible serving

* Calories/Calories from fat	165
* Protein grams	34.5
* Fat grams	2.9
* Saturated fat grams	1.4
* Sodium milligrams	89
* Cholesterol milligrams	86
* Omega-3 grams	.3
more Tilapia nutrition info

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Comments [ Add a Comment ]

Tilapia is a common fish here in Pila, Laguna.

Thanks so much for the info, now i appreciate it more...

As always, excellent information...I do enjoy this as a fish selection as I find it to be quite versatile in dishes :)

Very glad that the info is helpful to others! Thank-you for your comments.

I love tilapia so it's nice to see that it's one of those foods that doesn't have a domino effect of damage. Thanks for the post.

The Mom Chef

I really like these fish posts. Before I began cooking fish I had no idea about sustainability. Learning something new everyday. Thanks for the info once again (=

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