Murray cod a menu hit in Melbourne restaurants

Murray cod is making a return to our dinner plates thanks to ingenious improvements in commercial fish farming.

Murray cod producers – 12 in NSW, three in Victoria and others in Queensland and South Australia – are farming more than 600 tonnes of fish a year in an industry with sales around $10 million. But those numbers are growing rapidly.

"Post COVID, we can't keep up with demand," says Ross Anderson, chairman of Aquna, which produces Murray cod near Griffith in NSW. "By 2030 we are looking at growing 10,000 tonnes."

Anderson's company has solved the fish's muddy taste conundrum.

"The problem with farmed Murray cod in the past was that fish were always too small, too soft, too muddy tasting," says Sydney seafood retailer and restaurateur Josh Niland. "Then Murray cod growers worked out how to grow great cod," he says.

Muddiness in fish is caused by a compound produced by algae and bacteria called geosmin and MIB. They accumulate in the flesh and, although harmless, cause an unpleasant earthy taste.

"We got water health right," says Anderson. His Murray cod are raised in some 40 dams spread across different farms, all fed by waters of the Murrumbidgee.

"Our team worked out how to get all the right microscopic algae and bugs working together so they keep the water clean. Clean water equals clean-tasting fish."

"These farmed Murray cod taste just like the wild-caught cod we used to get when I was an apprentice years ago," Niland says, referring to the native fish that used to be commercially caught in the Murray-Darling system.

Commercial fishing was banned in 2000 by the NSW Government after over a century of overfishing, and environmental degradation saw numbers plummet.

According to the Good Food Guide editors, Murray cod has gone from relative obscurity to becoming a fine dining staple this year.

"High-end restaurant kitchens have embraced Murray cod," says The Age Good Food Guide 2023 editor Roslyn Grundy. "I'm seeing it on menus all over town, whether raw in tartare, gently set with other native ingredients or baked with brown butter."

The Guide's Sydney editor, Callan Boys, concurs, "I would be surprised to find a restaurant, one hat or above, that doesn't have Murray cod on the menu," he says.

"The fish farmers finally nailed it," says chef Aaron Turner from Igni in Geelong. He is known for a dish of Murray cod rubbed with emu bush, wrapped in young cabbage leaves, grilled over river red gum coals and served in a golden chicken broth enriched with rendered cod fat.

Turner says the fat component of the fish can be rendered and used in the kitchen like duck fat.

"It tastes so clean," says Turner. "It tastes like the river."

Five Murray cod dishes to try in Melbourne

Murray cod with sherry sauce at Freyja

Chef Jae Bang cuts no corners. First, he buys whole fish and dry-ages them for up to six days, then he seasons the fish inside and out via a quick brine. Then the fatty fish is cooked skin-side down on a flat-top grill to get a chip-like crunch on the skin. "The way we cook it, the skin almost pops," says Bang, describing it like pork crackling.

477 Collins St, Melbourne, freyjarestaurant.com

Laap pa at Jeow

Laaps – zingy and herb-forward salads – are a cornerstone of Lao cooking. At Jeow, Murray cod is tossed through generous quantities of lime juice, fish sauce, chilli and herbs such as rice paddy, finished with an aromatic smoked eggplant dip.

338 Bridge Road, Richmond, jeow.net.au

Murray cod with mussels, ginger and carrot at Stokehouse

Executive chef Jason Staudt, buys whole fish to make the most out of its versatility. For this dish, fillets are wrapped with carrot and steamed, then the fish is topped with local mussels and carrot-ginger veloute sauce. The rest of the cod? Bones are used for stock, the belly smoked for the seafood platter, and the head goes into crunchy croquettes.

30 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda, stokehouse.com.au/melbourne

Fish and chips at Brunswick Ballroom

This northside performance venue is casting the native Australian fish as the lead in its fish and chips. The firm-fleshed Murray cod holds up well in the fryer.

314-316 Sydney Road, Brunswick, brunswickballroom.com.au

Murray cod, seaweed, beurre blanc at Pretty Little

Fillets are steamed then finished with a seaweed-infused beurre blanc sauce.

296 Carlisle Street, Balaclava, prettylittle.com.au

with Emma Breheny