The cut of meat from behind a fish’s clavicle is hard to beat for bone-sucking succulence. Perhaps you’ve fallen for fish collars already, at a Japanese American restaurant, where simply grilled or broiled hamachi kama (yellowtail collar) has become fairly common. Smoky with char, their savory juices cut with a wedge of lemon, grated daikon, and shoyu, kama inspires a kind of carnality, as anyone who’s found themselves picking for the remaining meat on the bone knows. It makes perfect sense that Marcus Samuelson and Osayi Endolyn, in their headnote to a recipe formarinated croaker collarsinThe Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food,call fish collars “the spareribs of the sea.”
“Eating meat from the bones is always the best way to eat, because it never dries out,” says Yuji Haraguchi, chef, fishmonger, and owner ofOsakana, a no-waste fish store in Brooklyn. And because of this, the fish collar is an ideal cut for all levels of home cooks to prepare: Its bone, skin, and high fat content make it harder to dry out than fillets. “Honestly, it’s kind of hard to overcook it,” says Kimi Werner, a Hawaii-based freediver, chef, ocean advocate, and spearfisher.
There’s another compelling reason to cook collar at home, over the more popular fish fillet or steak. “Even if you’re eating what’s considered ‘sustainable’ seafood, people still throw away half of [the fish],” says Haraguchi. “Fish collars are one of the things that people have been throwing away.”
“If all we know as consumers is this rectangular cut of skinless, boneless fish, and that’s all we're going to ask for, then we are literally changing the yield of that animal,” says Werner. “If we can increase the yield of any fish, that’s a good thing for the ocean, and if we can increase the delight that we take in flavor, that’s a good thing for us in the kitchen.”
Because it’s less in demand, the price per pound for a collar is about half that of a fillet, says Seiichi Yokota, a seventh-generation ikejime fishmonger who owns Yokose Seafood in Los Angeles and sells fish sourced from California and Japan. The price varies a little by region and species, and hamachi, also known as buri or yellowtail, is the most in demand, due to its popularity in restaurants. Both Haraguchi and Yokota say they wish that demand for collars of all varieties were higher; usually, they’re asked for hamachi kama or no kama at all.
“Eating hamachi collar is a good way to make people aware [that] fish collar can be good, but on the other side, people only want to buy hamachi collar, rather than other fish collars,” says Haraguchi.
Besides yellowtail, any medium- to large-sized species—such as black cod, salmon, tuna, seabass, grouper, or snapper—will yield enough meat on the collar. The flavor will vary by fish, of course, hewing closely to the taste you’d expect from a fillet, but, like other dark meat, it will cook juicier and deeper in flavor. “If it’s an under-ten-pound fish, like salmon, it will be a little treat, like the drumlet of a chicken,” says Werner; you’ll need a few to make it a main part of your meal. “The bigger the fish, obviously, the more substantial the collar becomes.”
