Puffer fish is also known as Timba fish, street fish, good fish, air drum fish, puffer fish, turtle fish, wax head, etc. Class Fish, order Pupilloniformes, family Pupidae. The fish body is mostly cylindrical, thick and short, and looks particularly fat. Each jaw has 2 upper beak-shaped dental plates, which are suitable for chewing hard food and eating shellfish, crustaceans and small fish. It has no pelvic fin and 1 dorsal fin. One, located in the rear half of the body, with no scales or spiny scales. The body generally has bright multi-colored patterns or spots. It has air bags that can inhale and inflate, float up to the sky, and escape enemies. There are many species, most of which are warm-temperature offshore bottom fish, and some species also enter inland rivers and lakes. Common species include insect-patterned pufferfish, star-spotted pufferfish, dark-patterned pufferfish and striped pufferfish. Mainly distributed in the two parts of the North Pacific, there are many species visible along the coast of my country. The meat is delicious, but the blood and internal organs are poisonous (the skin of some species is also poisonous). Ingestion by humans and animals can cause death.

(1) Tetrodotoxin

The meat of puffer fish is tender and delicious. There were once sayings that "if you eat puffer fish, you will never taste fresh" and "eat puffer fish to the death". Some people along the coast of my country There is a custom of eating puffer fish in this region, and the Japanese regard puffer fish as a delicacy. People who lack experience in cooking puffer fish should never eat it. Deaths from puffer poisoning are common at home and abroad. Even the Japanese, who have a lot of credit for puffer fish, are said to have hundreds of poisoning deaths every year.

Puffer fish contains a type of tetrodotoxin and tetrododoxic acid, which are two extremely toxic substances. It has been determined that its toxicity is equivalent to 1,250 times that of the highly toxic sodium cyanide. It is one of the most toxic non-proteins found in nature so far. The toxins in puffer fish are mainly concentrated in the ovaries, liver, and blood, followed by the eyes, gills, and skin. The muscles of some species also contain toxins. The chemical properties of this toxin are relatively stable. After ordinary frying, boiling, and salting, It cannot be destroyed quickly by exposure to sunlight, etc., so the poisoning mortality rate for humans and animals is extremely high.

The toxicological effects of puffer fish toxin are mainly to paralyze nerve endings and central nervous system, resist cholinesterase in the blood, cause severe paralysis of the neuromuscular system, prevent neuromuscular transmission, and cause central nervous system disorders. Symptoms of poisoning are: in mild cases, numbness starts at the tip of the tongue and lips, then further from the upper limbs to the toes, leading to general paralysis, physical fatigue, inability to open eyelids, blurred vision, hearing loss, and coma; in severe cases, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain , headache, pale complexion, pupils unable to respond to light, numbness all over the body, cold limbs, slurred speech, decreased blood pressure, weak pulse, difficulty in breathing and gradually stopping, and finally death, usually 4-5 hours after the onset, but no more than 8 hours at the latest Death within hours.

People who are poisoned after eating puffer fish can still be rescued if they are discovered in time. After eating, if symptoms of puffer fish poisoning are discovered, they should be sent to the hospital immediately for rescue. Baking soda solution can be injected subcutaneously or intravenously to quickly detoxify it. Adrenaline, digitonin, camphor, caffeine, etc. can also be injected to see the effect. It's also ideal. There are many detoxification methods spread among the people in my country, such as: eating raw eggplant, taking sepia ink orally; drinking the juice of mashed sheep's hoof leaves; decoction of ivy; decoction of Malan grass (whole plant), etc.

Most puffer fish muscles are non-toxic. After strict detoxification treatment to remove the head, skin, internal organs and blood, they are then pickled, dried and stored before being eaten. It is relatively safe. If you use fresh puffer fish, you must be particularly careful. Cut off the head, remove the internal organs, blood, and blood after a laparotomy. Peel off the skin, remove the spine, cut into thin fillets with a knife, and rinse in clean water. Clean, add a small amount of baking soda when cooking, and boil for about 2 hours before eating. People who are not familiar with the characteristics of puffer fish must not eat fresh puffer fish casually.

(2) Dried puffer fish

Most coastal areas in my country stipulate that puffer fish is not allowed to be sold fresh in the market. It is generally processed into dried salt products, with the head, skin and When it comes to removing dirt, it can only be done by removing dirt and taking the lead in processing. However, the later processing must be done after drying in the sun before being sold to avoid danger.

1. Sanzhi Dried Pufferfish

(1) Raw materials: The raw materials processed in the same place should be fresh, because most of the pufferfish meat is non-toxic. If the fish is of poor quality, its visceral toxins will penetrate into the muscles and cannot be used. for processing.

(2) Skinning: Lightly cut the skin from head to tail on the back of the fish (to the extent that the skin can be cut), peel off the head skin a little with your hands; then hook the skin Hold the fish head on the fixed iron hook and pull it hard to tear off all the fish skin.

(3) Remove the head and guts: Place the skinned fish sideways on the fish cutting board, with the head facing the human body and the back to the left, and use a knife to remove the belly meat from the spine of the head to the anus. All the internal organs were removed and the liver was treated separately.

(4) Slicing: Cut the abdomen and back along the spine into unfolded meat slices, but the spine and meat are still not separated. Export products require the bones and meat slices to be cut, and the spine to be chopped. Cut it off, leaving only the clean meat on both sides and the tail fin. Wash away the blood stains.

(5) Pickling: Spread salt evenly on the fish fillets. The amount of salt varies according to the size of the fish, generally about 20%. Marinate in a tank or pool for 1-2 days.

(6) Rinse: Soak the marinated fish fillets in flowing fresh water for 1-2 hours to desalt, rinse and drain.

(7) Drying: Place the drained fish fillets on a bamboo screen or mat to dry flat, turn them over frequently, shape them in time after half-drying, so that the fillets are flat, and stack them up when they are dry. , steam for 2-3 days and then dry in the sun.

(8) Finished product quality requirements:

First-class product: light yellow in color, hard and translucent meat, smooth and shiny edges, no blood stains, and smooth and wrinkle-free meat slices .

Second-grade product: The meat surface is slightly salty and dull, the meat is hard, no blood stains, the knife edge is not smooth enough, and the meat slices are not very flat.

(9) Packaging: Packed in plastic bags and assembled in units of 0.5 kg or 1 kg. Finally pack the big carton.

(10) Utilization of by-products: After salting the puffer fish liver, it can be boiled into fish oil for industrial use, the fish skin can be used to make fish skin glue for industrial use, and the head and other internal organs can be used as fertilizer.

2． Dirty pufferfish

(1) Raw materials: Depending on the freshness and individual size of the pufferfish, they are processed and processed separately. Larger pufferfish with good freshness are processed into fillets, and smaller ones are processed into pufferfish knuckles; those with poor freshness cannot be processed and eaten, but can be used as fertilizer, but must be strictly managed to prevent people and livestock from accidentally eating them.

(2) Cutting: Place the fish on the cutting board, with the head facing the human body and the back to the left. Grasp the eye socket and gill slit of the left fish with your left hand. Hold the knife from the back of the head to the left side of the spine with the right hand. Insert the knife through the abdominal cavity, push the knife to cut to the base of the tail, then cut the skull open with the knife, take out the internal organs and blood attached to the bones (be careful not to mix them with the internal organs of other fish). For large puffer fish weighing more than 1 kilogram each, cut them into slices. It is best to prick or cut the salt penetration line to facilitate the penetration of salt and the penetration of water. For small puffer fish with a body length less than 10 centimeters, the head can be cut off with a diagonal knife and the internal organs can be removed. The liver can be used as raw material for fish oil, and the head and other internal organs can be used as fertilizer.

(3) Washing: Wash the cut raw materials with sea water, paying special attention to the remaining cod liver and blood; drain off the water and then marinate.

(4) Pickling: Use about 10% of the salt to clean the fish fillets and place them layer by layer into the pickling pool or tank. They can be taken out of the pool in 2-3 days. If it cannot be dried in time due to cloudy and rainy days, you need to increase the amount of salt appropriately according to the length of time. The headless puffer fish knuckles can be marinated with salt.

(5) Washing: The fish that have been pickled out of the pond should be washed with sea water or fresh water. Those with a large amount of salt should be soaked and dehalogenated appropriately, otherwise the quality of the finished product will be affected. After washing, drain the water and put it in the sun. .

(6) Drying: Place the fish fillets on bamboo curtains or grass boards to dry, dry the flesh side first, then the skin side, turn over in time, dry until 60 to 70% dry, then stack and press. Shape and spread the moisture, then dry it again after 2 days until it is completely dry. Small fish elbows can be spread on the mat to dry.

(7) Finished product quality requirements: The fish fillet has a complete and flat shape, the meat is hard and light yellow, the knife edge is smooth and blood-free, there may be a slight salt frost, the fish fillet is evenly dried, and the dryness is 100%.

(8) Packaging: Fish fillets are generally packed in fish baskets, and fish elbows are packed in sacks or woven bags.