Diamondscale Mullet

When Caught

Year round, but supply of diamondscale mullet is limited

Important Features

Wild/Farmed: Wild
Habitat: Saltwater, estuarine and freshwater; Sea mullet is mainly estuarine, but also found in saltwater and freshwater. Sea mullet live mainly in estuaries, then move out to sea from April to July to spawn. There are two types of sea mullet fishery ocean beach (
Recovery Rate: Fillets: 45% from whole sea mullet (gut in), Skinless fillets (wing off): 38% from whole yelloweye mullet

Diamondscale Mullet Research

FRDC provides a comprehensive search of the latest research papers and images on Diamondscale Mullet

Remarks

The lining of the abdominal cavity should be removed completely and the fat along the abdominal wall should also be scraped away.

Edible parts include roe and milt, which are delicious smoked. These are favoured by the Japanese.

Imports

nil

Common Size

30-50cm

Overseas Names

GB, USA: diamondscale mullet; GB: super-tail mullet; J: oni-bora; USA: blackfin mullet, squaretail mullet; ZA: squaretail mullet, stompstert-harde

Grading

Mullets are rarely graded, but the following is a guide to selecting whole mullet.

Diamondscale Mullet (Liza vaigiensis)

Photograph by CSIRO

Nutrition Facts

per 100g of raw product

Kilojoules	549 (131 calories)
Cholesterol	28mg
Sodium	131mg
Total fat (oil)	0.4g
Saturated fat	32% of total fat
Monounsaturated fat	15% of total fat
Polyunsaturated fat	53% of total fat
Omega-3, EPA	34mg
Omega-3, DHA	87mg
Omega-6, AA	26mg

Cooking Ideas

Bake	Boil	Deep Fry
Grill/barbecue	Poach	Raw
Roe	Roe & Milk	Salted
Shallow Fry	Smoke	Steam/microwave

Note: Cooking Ideas identified by dark bold text are relevant to this species

Mullets are flavoursome fishes that are well priced and widely available.

Bake, grill or smoke mullets with rich flavours for best results, or use them to produce a tasty finfish p tÈ. Marinate with grilled fennel, bake with mushrooms or grill with oranges. Try them baked, wrapped in oiled brown paper. When the paper starts to crisp, peel and flake into large pieces. Toss in balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing and use it to crown a bed of rough-chopped, garden-fresh vegetables. Other appropriate ingredients to complement the strong flavour of mullet include onion, garlic and tomato.

For a treat, try mullet stuffed with wild rice, dried currants and pine nuts and baked in a chunky tomato salsa.

It is a good idea to deep skin mullet, removing amounts of oil and red muscle, to give a uniform flavour.

Flavour: Strong; Distinctive flavour. The flavour of the flesh varies slightly according to species. A lighter-flavoured fillet can be produced by deep skinning the mullet and discarding the fatty layer of tissue immediately under the skin.
Oiliness: Low to high, Mullets have a seasonally high oil content. They have a higher oil content during their migration (April and May), leading up to spawning.
Moisture: Moist
Texture: Soft to medium
Flesh Colour: From pinkish to grey
Thickness: Medium fillets
Bones: Not markedly bony
Price: Mullets are low-priced finfish., The ocean-run sea mullet is higher priced than sea mullet caught in estuaries. The diamondscale mullet is also higher priced than most other mullet species.; Smoked mullet roe is very high priced.

Suggested Wines

Because of mullets natural and healthy oil levels, dishes containing mullet are relatively easy to match with white wines of high acidity. These styles of wine usually come from the cooler Australian growing regions where the advent of winter halts the ripening process, leaving grapes with high acidity that is later transferred into the wine.

With marinated mullet, select wines such as crisply acidic rieslings from Tasmania or cooler mainland regions.

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