Dear Seafoodies Thanks to everyone who responded to the survey - sorry it took only a minute of your sentence but every little helps. It seems recently quizzes are seeing a resurgence in popularity. At least having to participate from isolation prevents us beating up our team-mates for giving a stupid answer. No, I'm wrong, we can now launch the assault via social media. Anyway, having sifted through the survey's responses, a couple of interesting themes did emerge. But before reading too much into them it's important to recognise that the sample size was extremely small and very Seafoodie-centric. It's almost laughable to think how different the results might be were the survey to have gone to the UK as a whole. |
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These first few charts just summarise the sample's cooking and eating behaviours. |
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It's not really much of a surprise to find that preferred recipes are ones that prioritise convenience. And it is helpful to know that the majority of respondents generally feed 1-2 mouths, as the majority of the recipes on the blog are written to serve 2. But it is pleasing to know that of those households with children, 87% of those children do eat fish. The first item on the survey was a broad question about which types of seafood each respondent liked. The categories were predefined and as many or as few as applied could be selected. |
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Somewhat in keeping with what is generally recognised as a UK-wide phenomenon, the mild-flavoured round fish (cod, haddock etc.) were the most popular, though tied with crustacea (of which, peering ahead into the next question, lobster and prawns appear to be the main protagonists). But it was quite surprising to see that oily fish were the least popular category of fish, less popular than molluscs and even cephalopods. Yet if there were to be one category of fish the medical profession would recommend we eat it would be oily fish. I wouldn't mind hazarding a guess that this lower popularity would be echoed in a country-wide survey. The next question built on the previous one and invited respondents to say what was their favourite seafood, and there was no restriction at all on what could be put forward (which is possibly why dolphin appeared in one response), neither the number of favourites. The top 5 responses included within them: - Lobster
- Mackerel
- Sea bass
- Turbot
- Scallops
OK! This sample is not short of a bob or two! At the more humble end of the scale there were appearances for plaice, cockles, sardines, gurnard and mussels (which were 7th on the list). Generally speaking, campaigners continue to argue that the more humble, generally more sustainable species that are landed in the UK are not really making much of an impression on the consumer - species like pollack, plaice, whiting, flounder, dab, gurnard and grey mullet to name a few. But let's just note that at least a couple of these have appeared on a 'favourites' list from within this Seafoodie community. |
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I did my best to put the favourites back into their categories, though dolphin was a challenge so I had to include a separate category for 'Other'. In case you're interested I did suggest that the dolphinphile consider Tesco's tinned tuna as a way of fulfilling his appetite. What changes when respondents are asked to name their favourites rather than what they will eat is that mild-flavoured round fish move to near last place, and oily fish move to joint-second. This suggests that oily fish invokes a certain Marmite-effect on its consumer whereas mild white fish are possibly the least offensive way of getting some fish in the diet. As a separate exercise I marked each response as being a species that is or can be sourced from UK waters (slightly different from whether they can be bought on the stall because certain species tend to be caught in waters other than those on the central south coast, e.g. hake, octopus) and indeed the majority, 78%, are such. This is a little misleading because, for example much of the cod or salmon consumed in the UK has not been sourced in the UK, rather it has been imported. Sadly, the quality of UK cod and salmon is too high and therefore too expensive for the UK consumer so is exported, and the UK eat cheaper, lower-grade imports. The final question simply asked what seafood wasn't or couldn't be eaten and there was quite a broad range of responses. There isn't a lot to say here apart from the fact that is pleasing to see that the most popular answer was that there were no seafoods that weren't or couldn't be eaten. And for those wondering what Clown Fish is doing on the list, perhaps you now have a fitting idea of the character of the dolphinphile. |
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Unsurprisingly this lock-down means I am spending more time than usual in the kitchen and, for a Seafoodie, it's not a bad time to be doing so. We have a number of species already in, or coming into, season - cuttlefish, black bream and sea bass among them, and it's only about 4 weeks before the clam fishery reopens. So here are a couple of recent recipes which might appeal, especially if shellfish, and particularly cockles, are among your favourites. Left to right: |
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