Help ... question ... worm in my chinook filet

A

anorthernhunter

Active Member
So, thawed a nice piece of Haida Gwaii chinook to cook on the barbque and when I was fileting it and deboning it I saw a small "bruise" in the flesh ... cut it open ... a dead worm. Small 3 mm.

Sooo now what?

1. Examine the rest of the fish ... no more "bruises" ... cook away, heat kills all?

2. Discard it ... worms and possibly eggs ... yesh ... let it go, parasites can transfer to humans?

Thoughts?

Northern
 
anorthernhunter said:
So, thawed a nice piece of Haida Gwaii chinook to cook on the barbque and when I was fileting it and deboning it I saw a small "bruise" in the flesh ... cut it open ... a dead worm. Small 3 mm.

Sooo now what?

1. Examine the rest of the fish ... no more "bruises" ... cook away, heat kills all?

2. Discard it ... worms and possibly eggs ... yesh ... let it go, parasites can transfer to humans?

Thoughts?

Northern
Click to expand...
Just cut the worm out and cook away, most fish have worms most of the time you just don’t know. Halibut are particularly bad for worms. The worms are more then dead after being frozen and especially after being cooked will do you no harm.

Cheers,

Michael
 
I like to cook meat like that a bit more than meat that obviously doesn't have worms. I'm not sure about the temp, but let's just say 'well done'.

When I cleaned some River's Inlet springs last year, they all had looooong tape worms in their bellies. Not sure why but damn it was disgusting to see them slowly move when I took them out.
 
anorthernhunter said:
So, thawed a nice piece of Haida Gwaii chinook to cook on the barbque and when I was fileting it and deboning it I saw a small "bruise" in the flesh ... cut it open ... a dead worm. Small 3 mm.

Sooo now what?

1. Examine the rest of the fish ... no more "bruises" ... cook away, heat kills all?

2. Discard it ... worms and possibly eggs ... yesh ... let it go, parasites can transfer to humans?

Thoughts?

Northern
Click to expand...
Buy and eat Farmed Fish. Lots of bruises but never the odd worm to deal with because even a worm wouldn't go near it.
 
Just finished prepping two slabs (2 different fish) of chinook ... only found that one worm ... cut the filets
up and nothing else.

Was worried about eggs but I guess freezing the filets since July last year and cooking them now will
kill the eggs?

A queasy thought, but had I not noticed it by fluke (like probably hundreds of pounds of salmon I ate before)
I would have cooked it and ate it and been done with it.

Will now think twice about sushi though ...
 
Lots of nematodes in salmon. Sockeye and Pink are worse than Chinook and Coho... but still lots there. Most you never notice. I love raw salmon and eat more than half of all my rec fish raw (sashimi, sushi, poke, etc....). The rule is to freeze at -20 for at least two weeks. Honestly for raw eating I tend to leave it longer just to be safe. If you are cooking it then you are fine. That said, I consider perfectly cooked salmon to be 'just' cooked through. When I am cooking fresh, unfrozen salmon for my family I will cook it slightly more than I would consider perfect just to be safe.

Never eat raw salmon that has not been in the freezer.... but definitely don't throw out fish due to worms... if you looked close enough you would be throwing out everything (particularly bottom fish)
 
anorthernhunter said:
So, thawed a nice piece of Haida Gwaii chinook to cook on the barbque and when I was fileting it and deboning it I saw a small "bruise" in the flesh ... cut it open ... a dead worm. Small 3 mm.

Sooo now what?

1. Examine the rest of the fish ... no more "bruises" ... cook away, heat kills all?

2. Discard it ... worms and possibly eggs ... yesh ... let it go, parasites can transfer to humans?

Thoughts?

Northern
Click to expand...
hali and cod are full of worm,just take the fillet and hold them above a bright light you can see them true the flesh,once they cooked ,you don't get sick from them,never seen them in salmon but I guess it happens,its not going to kill you lol.
 
As many said don't look too close. Once cooked most pretty much dissolve and are harmless once cooked or froze for 48 hours.
I "recycled" a coho that had that tapioca disease once, no way I could have eaten that, although it would have been a perfect fish for the father in-law.
 
I read up on prepping salmon for sashimi last year. The article I read said to freeze at -20c for three days.
Proportionately longer time recommended if the freezer maintained less than -20.
It also stated that the flesh worms in salmon wouldn't cause harm to a human, but could be "disconcerting" if a live worm started wiggling around in the diner's mouth or throat.
 
When I cleaned some River's Inlet springs last year, they all had looooong tape worms in their bellies. Not sure why but damn it was disgusting to see them slowly move when I took them out.[/QUOTE]

I've noticed these large tapeworms in the bellies of about 10-15% of Chinook caught of the Fraser mouth in August. These are different from the little worms found in the flesh. These big suckers still slither and look viable even after getting cut up into smaller pieces - did some research and it is pretty fascinating stuff. Their final target lifecycle species are mammals - seals, bears, killer whales. Once established (can be well over 8 feet long) they can release up to a million eggs a day - which are eaten by zooplankton - which are eaten by baitfish - which are eaten by salmon - and then back to the mammal. So 4 layers up the food chain for a full life cycle.

There are documented case of humans getting this tapeworm, but with proper food handling would be next to impossible.
 
See lots of tape worms in Chinook salmon and last year began thinking I should wear gloves from now on when cleaning them. Never see tape worms in the other salmon species.
 
profisher said:
See lots of tape worms in Chinook salmon and last year began thinking I should wear gloves from now on when cleaning them. Never see tape worms in the other salmon species.
Click to expand...
Maybe that’s what causing problems in the SRKW’s
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top