Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Hake along with all the Hake containing recipes presented on this site, with 17 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Hake recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Hake as a major wild food ingredient.



Hake — The hake is typically taken to be one of twelve species of edible sea fish belonging to the genus Merluccius of the family Merlucciidae. They are found in the northern and southern oceans. Hake belong to the same order (Gadiformes) as cod and haddock. They are relatively small fish (typically 0.5 to 4kg in weight) and are undiscerning predators that feed on species found near or on the bottom of the sea. The male and female hake fish look almost the same and are not easily differentiated.

Hake has traditionally been most in demand as a food fish in Europe, Demand is greatest in Spain, followed by France and Portugal. Like cod, hake is suitable for salting and the fish can be purchased in fresh, frozen, frozen filleted, smoked and salted forms. It is a deepwater fish typically caught by trawling. The main fisheries being: the Southwest Atlantic (Argentina and Uruguay), Southeast Pacific (Chile and Peru), Southeast Atlantic (Namibia and South Africa, New Zealand), and Mediterranean and Black Sea (Italy, Spain, Greece and France).

In Europe, the European hake Merluccius merluccius is most commonly caught. It is native in a region from the Baltic down to Senegal and west to the Atlantic coast of Britain and Ireland. There is also the Senegalese hake (Merluccius senegalensis), found in Atlantic coast of western North Africa and the Benguela hake (Merluccius poli), found in South Africa. Sometimes these species are sold as European Hake.

The Argentinean hake (Merluccius hubbsi), found in Argentina is one of the most commonly caught in the south Atlantic, but over-fishing has depleted the populations. The Southern hake (Merluccius australis), found off the coast of Chile is also fished commercially.

Hake has has a firm white flesh and can be cooked in the same manner as cod. Hake is also used to form imitation crab meat.