Mondo Knows Facts
Ceviche firms fish without any heat
Lime juice changes the proteins so they tighten and turn opaque Marinating raw fish in citrus juice lowers the pH and causes the muscle proteins to denature and bind, much as heat would, so the flesh turns opaque and firm. The process is often called acid cooking, but it does not kill parasites in the way proper cooking does. Peruvian cooks traditionally use very fresh sea fish and a short marinade. It sits in Mondo's food collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Tags: ceviche, acid, fish
Ceviche firms fish without any heat: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Lime juice changes the proteins so they tighten and turn opaque. The figure is taken from Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a food fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Food shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.