Mullus barbatus and M. surmuletus, are among the most prized fish of the Mediterranean, distinguished by their crimson colour and delicate flesh. They are also found in the Atlantic, M. surmuletus as far north as the south coast of Britain. A Black Sea version of M. barbatus is recognized as M. barbatus ponticus.
M. barbatus is smaller (maximum length 25 cm/10″) and paler than M. surmuletus (maximum length 40 cm/16″). The latter often bears horizontal yellow stripes on its sides; and its common names usually mean ‘of the rocks’ (thus, French rouget de roche, Italian triglia di scoglio).
Into the western end of the Mediterranean another red mullet pokes its nose. This is Pseudupeneus prayensis, a species which belongs to the west coast of Africa, from Morocco to Angola. At the eastern end of the Mediterranean there has been a more interesting incursion. When de Lesseps built the Suez Canal, he was of course creating a passage for ships, not fish; and the salinity of the Bitter Lakes which punctuate the Canal was anyway too great to allow fish to pass through. However, a century or so later, the flow of water in the Canal had diminished the salt level considerably and Indo-Pacific species began to swim up from the Red Sea. These included two red mullet (or goatfish, as they are known in the Indo-Pacific), Upeneus asymmetricus (formerly U. tragula) and U. moluccensis (formerly Mulloidichthys auriflamma). These species are now established as breeding populations in the E. Mediterranean.
The Romans of classical times would have greeted these new arrivals, had they come 2,000 years earlier, with great enthusiasm. Many Roman authors testify to the red mullet fever which gripped their contemporaries in the first centuries ad. One symptom was an undue preoccupation with size, which caused the price of large specimens to rise to absurd heights, equivalent to many hundreds of pounds in the 1990s, for a really big one. Another was the habit of keeping red mullet in captivity and arranging for guests to enjoy the highly specialized aesthetic experience of watching the colour of dying fish change. The moralist Seneca attacked the practice with savage irony, claiming that a Roman would no longer attend the bedside of his dying father, however much he desired the father to die(!), if the rival attraction of a dying red mullet was on offer.
Red mullet may be grilled or fried. Their delicate but firm flesh needs no sauce or stuffing, although these are sometimes supplied. The liver is a delicacy.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
