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Welcome to Steinbutt.at

YOUR comprehensive source on turbot by Fisch-Gruber!

Turbot is a fascinating fish and a real delicacy! In our view it deserves more attention – therefore steinbutt.at opens you a door to the world of turbot.

Where to buy

online: http://shop.fisch-gruber.at
or: http://www.fisch-gruber.at

Steinbutt (ger.) – Turbot (engl.) – Turbot (fr.) – Rombo/Rombo chiodat (ital.) – Rodaballo (span.) – kalkan balığı (turk.) – sterlyad (russ.) – 가자미류 (korean) – piggvarer (swe.) – cái húc đầu (viet.) – 比目鱼 (chin.) – Pighvarre (dan.) – Skarp Czarnomorski (pol.) – Nagy rombuszhal (hung.) – Piggvar/Steinbit (norw.) – Piiki Kampela (finn.) – Kambala (slov.)

Champagne of the flat fish, truffle of the deep – Turbot the king of flat fish!

The comparison with champagne and truffle is not hyperbolic, because turbot is for sure one of the most exquisite delicacies of the sea. We show you what makes it so extraordinary!

His strange appearance makes gives him a rather exotic image, a strange jewel of the sea. His flat, trapezoid-shaped body attributes him to the family of flat fish.

lat. psetta maxima

Turbot is a left-sided flat fish, having both eyes on this side. The body has no scales and is on the downside white. On the olive green upside, small stone-like humps are very characteristic and giving the turbot his name in many European languages (e.g. German – Steinbutt).

Habitat

Turbot prefers moderately warm and not too deep waters, living in depths of 25 to 60 meters on stony or sandy ground. Turbot usually grow up to 12 kilos and 20 years of age. With a diameter of 30-40cm it is sold as “baby-turbot”.

Precious, luxury good

Not without reason turbot is considered one of the most exclusive fish and part of every international high-class menu.

The famous German TV-cook Johann Lafer called turbot in one of his shows “Champagne of the flat fish, truffle of the deep”. These ones, who generally consider turbot a luxury good will find themselves for some reason confirmed, because only 40-50% of the total weight are precious and delicious meat.

It may be his firm, white meat with its unconventional spicy-nutty nuance in taste that makes turbot so special. Even so special that sushi-lovers in Japan and Korea love to eat their turbot raw. Well known as „hirame“ (鮃) it is considered one of the most noble fish.

The king of flat fish!

About 3000 tons of bred fish add up with wild fish – mainly caught in European waters. On the west coast of Jütland/Denmark for example, turbot is caught with special turbot-nets. There turbot fishery is an important economic factor.
Also European gourmets start to like turbot more and more as a classic of high-end fish cuisine. Together with sole it is considered the best of all flat fish.

Fisch-Gruber imports every week living turbot from France (Aquafarm), Denmark and Morocco (wild) to Vienna. Turbots starting with a weight from 1.2 kg are available during the whole year on the Vienna Naschmarkt.

A fascinating predator: His Habitat and his living

Here the steinbutt.at team gives you information about the biology of the turbot. There are many fascinating details about these predators of the deep! Explore them with us!

The turbot is a left-sided flat fish, meaning he has both eyes on the upper side. Turbots can grow to a maximum weight of 25kg, a length of 100cm and an age of 25 years. In shops you will usually find turbot with 50-70cm length. Very small turbots (up to 500g) are called “baby-turbot”.

The habitat

Throughout the whole north-west Atlantic you can find turbot. It is also found in the Mediterranean sea and on all European costs until the northern polar circle. In most parts of the Baltic sea, turbot is also found. A near related species (psetta maxima maeotica) can be found in the Black Sea.

Aquamap Turbot
Habitat of turbot. Map: www.aquamaps.org

Legend:
Aquamap Legend

An adaptable predator

Their body surface makes turbots the ideal stealth predators: Their downside is white. If they swim and another predator sees them from below, he can hardly see them against the light. On the other hand, their upper side with its muddy and olive-green colors and the surface without scales but with humps (looking like stones) fits the turbot perfectly to the sandy and stony ground of the sea. In depths of 20-70 meters the turbot hunts for small fish, crayfish and mollusks.

A perfectly hidden turbot waits for prey. Photo: Júlio Reis/Wikipedia CC

Between April and August turbots procreate. The female sets the roe free into the water in a depth of 10-40 meters. Depending on her size, she leaves 10-15 million (!) eggs. The male inseminates the eggs then. After 7-9 days small larvae are hatching, that start to eat in the flat waters near the cost plankton.

When larvae become more and more asymmetric and reach a size of 8-10cm, they move to deeper water and start to live as predators. After approx. 5 years turbots are pubescent – and the circle of nature starts over again.

One Fish – and so various!

Turbot is turbot – one would say. But the variations depending on the origin are astonishing. Here you find a summary about the different regions of origin and the specialties of the turbot caught there.

Skagerrak and Kattegat. Photo: Wikipedia/GNU

Kattegat/Baltic Sea

Turbot from Kattegat at Fisch-Gruber on the Naschmarkt
Turbot from Kattegat – Front/Back

Turbot from Kattegat is in his shape slimmer than the one from the Northern sea and is also darker and brownish colored. The skin has many small warts-like stones, that can be found on the white side too. Therefore the skin mostly is removed before preparation or eating. Due to the warmer and shallower water these turbots spawn earlier and are in other seasons on the market. It is similar to the turbot from the Baltic Sea. The yield is about 40% of the total weight. The meat is especially good and has a pure taste. Fisch-Gruber offers frozen turbot from Skagerrag/Kattegat, on order also fresh caught.

Morocco

Turbot from Morocco has the fewest humps, and even these are very small. It is rather round and has a beautiful light brown color. The meat of these wild caught turbots is very firm and compact and has a very pure taste. The yield is about 50-55% of the total weight.

Turkey

Turkish Turbot (psetta maeotica). Photo: Kurt Kulac/CC

Turkish turbot has big, warts-like barbed stones on both sides. Before preparation they have to be cut out. The color is very dark and it also has dark spots on the white side. The yield is about 40% of the total weight.

French Aquaculture

Turbot from French Aquafarming – Front/Back

Turbot from French Aquaculture is rather round and green-brown colored. The skin has very small humps, especially along the spine. The yield of meat is about 40%. The meat itself is very firm after slaughtering, after some time it gets softer and it has a pure taste. Fisch-Gruber offers living turbot from French Aquafarms.

Northern Sea/ Skagerrak

Turbot from the Northern Sea (Denmark)

Turbot from the Northern Sea has only few stones and is round. The meat is very firm and vey pure in taste. The yield is about 50% of the total weight. Fisch-Gruber offers turbot from Denmark and Holland (Northern Sea fishery).

Moreover, there is a difference between male and female turbots. Gourmets prefer male ones, because their meat is more firm and compact.

Turbot and Aquafarming – High Tech meets fish

To breed turbot is very complex. Fisch-Gruber has a long lasting partnership with French experts. Here are some insights into the exciting world of aquafarming – that you know what you have got on your plate!

Aquafarms for turbots are elaborate combinations for hygiene technique, agricultural technique, science and economy. All this is needed to bring such a sensible product from the egg until the grown fish in superior quality.

Our partner in northern France therefore has it’s own laboratory to steadily control water quality and hygiene. Furthermore, the genetic selection for breeders and preventive measures are coordinated.

Aquafarm for Turbot in Northern France
Aquafarm in Northern France

How to nurse a turbot

Breeding turbots requires skill and experience. Only a few, selected turbots can be breeders. Gilles, who works as agricultural technician for our supplier, explains: “We literally know the breeders personally. They are precious, a kind of long-time capital that needs special care.” The selection is made based on an analysis of growing and resistance against pathogens. The breeders are older than 5 years and can fulfill their duty for a maximum of 5 years. Therefore they are very precious. For a farm producing 250 tons of turbot a year, there are only a few thousand breeders.

After fertilization, only from a quarter of the eggs hatch larvae. Depending on their stage of growth the larvae are fed with living prey and reach after 4 months a weight of 10g. In this stage, they are held in basins with natural, salty ground water. With 60 days the larvae are sorted by size. With 90 days they are vaccinated and transferred to breeding basins with water recycling. With 120 days they are sorted again after size and quality. From the egg to the grown fish it needs 40 months of intensive care and feeding.

Baby turbot and breeding bassin for bigger turbot

The Breeding process

The turbots are fed 2-3 times a day with food, that contains 60% of fish flour and fish oil and 40% of vegetables. The high amount of fish in the food is needed, because turbots are predators.

In one tank there are 2.5 tons of turbot, about 50-70 piece per square meter. Die living conditions are constantly monitored and the water permanently circulates and is recycled. The goal is, to keep the water as still as possible and the temperature at an optimal level of 16-20 degrees. The personnel is highly specialized explains Gilles: “In case of a pump defect we only got 15 minutes, then all fishes are dead. The specialists must react immediately and monitor the fish permanently.” So on a 250-tons farm there are 14 people alone for monitoring and caring for the fish.
Turbots reach their weight for slaughtering starting with 500 gramms. Gilles explains: “The size doesn’t say automatically something about the age! Turbots from 500g-3kg have the same age, they just come from different breeding lines, with different rates of growth.”

The Transport

Due to his slow metabolism turbot is very resistant. Before shipping, the turbots are reach controlled by Hand and brought into smaller basins. There the temperature, the light and the oxygenation are slowly reduced. The turbots have to fast to empty their guts completely. So the metabolism of the turbots is “shut down” and optimal transporting conditions are guaranteed. This process takes 2-6 days. Then the turbots can be transported in special containers and cooled trucks.

Containers for transporting living turbot

The “Label Rouge” Certificate

To guarantee the maximum quality of our living turbots, we only sell “Label Rouge” certified products. The “Label Rouge” guarantees on all levels – food production, breeding and transport – highest standards that are controlled regularly. So the optimal water- and environmental conditions are ensured. The certificate also ensures, that no traces of land animals are contained in the food. Last but not least it provides traceability for every single fish from the egg to sale. To keep the quality on highest level the parameters are constantly controlled and documented and the “Label Rouge” Society also does regular tastings on the final product.
Living turbot is a very complex and sophisticated product. Fisch-Gruber always struggles to provide you with the best Quality!

Turbot – a nutritious delicacy !

Turbot is not only a finde delicacy, but also a great source of vital vitamines and trace elements. Moreover the meat is rich with Omega-3 fatty acids! That you know what you actually eat, we provide you on the nutritional facts of turbot. Please note that these can vary according to origin and method of catching (wild/breed).

Turbot - Nutritional Facts

100g of turbot (eatable parts) contain:
335 KJ/80 kcal

Basic composition:
Water 81.6g
Proteins 16.7g
Lipids 1.7g
Cholesterol 54 mg
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PFA) 0.84mg
Omega-3 fatty acids 0.7g
(composition of fatty acids: 23% saturated, 31.9% monounsaturated, 35.9% Omega-3, 6.2% Omega-6 fatty acids)

Minerals and trace elements:
Sodium (Na) 73-114 mg
Potassium (K) 290mg
Magnesium (mg) 19-45 mg
Calcium 17 mg
Phosphor (P) 159 mg
Iron (Fe) 0,2-0,4 mg
Selenium (Se) 0.03 mg
Zinc (Zn) 0.6 mg
Manganese (Mn) <0,05 mg
Copper (Cu) <0,06 mg

Vitamins:
Vitamin A 4 µg
Vitamin B1 0,02 mg
Vitamin B2 0,15 mg
Vitamin D 1,7 µg
Vitamin E 0,6 µg
Pantothenic acid 1,0 µg
Pyridoxine 0,3 µg

Amino acids:
Aspartic acid (Asp) 1.3 g
Threonine (Thr) 0.7g
Serine (Ser) 0.6 g
Glutamatic acid (Glu) 2.1 g
Proline (Pro) 0.5 g
Glycine (Gly) 0.7 g
Alanine (Ala) 0.8 g
Valine (Val) 0.6 g
Methionine (Met) 0.4 g
Isoleucine (Ile) 0.6 g
Leucine (Leu) 1.1 g
Tyrosine (Tyr) 0.5 g
Phenylalanine (Phe) 0.7 g
Lysine (Lys) 1.3 g
Histidine (His) 0.3 g
Arginine (Arg) 0.9 g
Tryptophan (Trp) 0.2 g

How to filet turbot

The Fisch-Gruber team from the Vienna Naschmarkt shows you in a video how to filet fresh turbot. Cut filets easily with this video-guide!

Please note some general tips:
• Always keep your workplace, your knife and the fish clean and hygienic.
• For cutting don’t use a too sharp knife, because you could cut the fish bones.
• Don’t try to be quick – be thorough. There should be left no meat on the bones.

Enjoy trying and working with you fish!

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