Like green corn through the new maid...
January 4, 2010 5:06 PM Subscribe
Is there anything special about sturgeon that might cause ... um ... intestinal distress?
I don't eat much fish, and of that, very very little is sturgeon. But the first time I ever had it (a couple of years ago, at an upscale restaurant) I spent the next several hours looking for (and sitting in) bathrooms. Thought little of it: shit happens, and all. Fast-forward to New Years Day, when I saw some delicious-looking smoked sturgeon in a shop, so I ordered it sliced, on a bagel. And spent another few hours on the can.
Is there some reason for this, other than personal incompatibility with ancient fish species? (If it matters, I've had caviar on about the same number of occasions, but never with such unpleasant consequences. I'm not allergic to anything else, AFAIK.)
I don't eat much fish, and of that, very very little is sturgeon. But the first time I ever had it (a couple of years ago, at an upscale restaurant) I spent the next several hours looking for (and sitting in) bathrooms. Thought little of it: shit happens, and all. Fast-forward to New Years Day, when I saw some delicious-looking smoked sturgeon in a shop, so I ordered it sliced, on a bagel. And spent another few hours on the can.
Is there some reason for this, other than personal incompatibility with ancient fish species? (If it matters, I've had caviar on about the same number of occasions, but never with such unpleasant consequences. I'm not allergic to anything else, AFAIK.)
Often it is the case with fish that poor food handling causes illnesses that are later blamed on allergies. The fish was probably sitting in the shop a little longer than it should have been, and that is why it didn't agree with you. It is a little difficult to tell when smoked fish (particularly cold-smoked fish) goes bad because the smoke masks some of the obvious aromatic cues. Smoking of fish can also allow opportunities for different types of pathogenic growth that don't give off the classic bad fish smell, which would have clued you in in an instant. So it's more likely that you got a bad piece of fish rather than you being incompatible with a unique sturgeon protein, especially if you had no reaction to caviar.
The only commercially harvested and sold fish that I know of that gives many people the symptoms you describe is escolar. If you see it on a menu, run. More on that here.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 5:25 PM on January 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
The only commercially harvested and sold fish that I know of that gives many people the symptoms you describe is escolar. If you see it on a menu, run. More on that here.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 5:25 PM on January 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
thirding the escolar hypothesis.
posted by NikitaNikita at 6:08 PM on January 4, 2010
posted by NikitaNikita at 6:08 PM on January 4, 2010
I used to find that, when I wasn't eating fish on a regular basis, doing so would cause this kind of distress....
Don't rule out your situation as being a factor of a change in diet.
posted by HuronBob at 6:22 PM on January 4, 2010
Don't rule out your situation as being a factor of a change in diet.
posted by HuronBob at 6:22 PM on January 4, 2010
Best answer: My guesses are, in order:
1. Allergic (like the salmon example mentioned above) reaction to specific food chemistry
2. Food poisoning (coincidence that they both happened to be sturgeon, smoked or not)
3. Escolar marketed as sturgeon (But I was under the impression you have to eat enough of it to result in digestive problems)
posted by polymodus at 6:38 PM on January 4, 2010
1. Allergic (like the salmon example mentioned above) reaction to specific food chemistry
2. Food poisoning (coincidence that they both happened to be sturgeon, smoked or not)
3. Escolar marketed as sturgeon (But I was under the impression you have to eat enough of it to result in digestive problems)
posted by polymodus at 6:38 PM on January 4, 2010
The intestinal symptoms associated with escolar are very distinctive. If you weren't pooing yellow, oily weirdness, I don't think it was escolar that did this to you. Speaking as someone who has suffered through it, while the aftermath was awful (and we didn't know to expect it), it was one of the most delicious things I had ever tasted at the time I ate it (I was 8). Indeed, I got the diarrhea faster and worse than the rest of my family because I had packed away like a pound of the stuff on my own.
I would not say "run the other way" about it - I'd say "eat it on the Friday night before a three-day weekend and make sure you don't have any fun plans with anyone you want to impress". Just, you know, to stick up for escolar.
Fish can be tricky. That's just how it is. If you want to see whether the issue is with sturgeon specifically, next time you're near a coast, go to the most reputable fish market in town and get some that you're sure is fresh.
posted by crinklebat at 7:30 PM on January 4, 2010
I would not say "run the other way" about it - I'd say "eat it on the Friday night before a three-day weekend and make sure you don't have any fun plans with anyone you want to impress". Just, you know, to stick up for escolar.
Fish can be tricky. That's just how it is. If you want to see whether the issue is with sturgeon specifically, next time you're near a coast, go to the most reputable fish market in town and get some that you're sure is fresh.
posted by crinklebat at 7:30 PM on January 4, 2010
Response by poster: My memory isn't what it used to be, but I think I would have remembered orange anal leakage! I guess I'll have to try sturgeon again, in the name of Science!
posted by spacewrench at 8:09 PM on January 4, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by spacewrench at 8:09 PM on January 4, 2010 [2 favorites]
I've had the orange oily nastiness situation after eating butterfish. Now I google 'butterfish' 'escolar' and discover that escolar is often sold under the name butterfish.
That explains that. It tasted wonderful, I assumed my digestive tract was incapable of coping with the oil in it.
posted by tomble at 9:02 PM on January 4, 2010
That explains that. It tasted wonderful, I assumed my digestive tract was incapable of coping with the oil in it.
posted by tomble at 9:02 PM on January 4, 2010
If you want to see whether the issue is with sturgeon specifically, next time you're near a coast river, go to the most reputable fish market in town and get some that you're sure is fresh.
I thought most sturgeon we eat were fresh water bottom feeders, which in itself could explain the intestinal foibles.
posted by Pollomacho at 7:27 AM on January 5, 2010
I thought most sturgeon we eat were fresh water bottom feeders, which in itself could explain the intestinal foibles.
posted by Pollomacho at 7:27 AM on January 5, 2010
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A friend of mine breaks out in hives when she eats salmon. But she can eat tuna and other seafood without suffering any consequences. Our bodies are strange and wondrous things!
posted by cecic at 5:24 PM on January 4, 2010