Why Buy From the Harbour Instead of the Supermarket Counter

There is a particular pleasure in planning dinner around whatever came off the boats that morning. Much of the fish on a supermarket counter has travelled for days; a harbour market may be selling something that was swimming at four in the morning. A self-catering break gives you the two things you need to make the most of that: a kitchen and time.

It is often cheaper, too. A whole fish — gutted, scaled and ready for the oven — usually costs less per kilo than the same fish in neat fillets, and asking for it prepared costs you nothing but a few minutes. You also get a conversation with someone who knows the water outside.

Go Early — Fish Arrives on the Tide, Not on a Schedule

Boats land when the tide and the trip allow, which is rarely a civilised hour. In many harbours the quayside is busiest between about 5am and 8am in summer, and a covered market may open at six and be largely picked over by ten. By lunchtime you are choosing from what is left, not from what is best.

A practical approach:

• Find out the previous evening when the boats are due in. Fishmongers, harbour staff and often the person behind the bar will know.
• Set an alarm. It feels brutal on holiday, and it is worth it once.
• Go on a weekday if you can. Saturdays are busy, and Sundays and Mondays can be quiet because of landing patterns.
• Take cash in small notes and a bag or two. Some stalls are simply a table and a till box.

Early also means the person serving has time to talk, which is where the real value is.

How to Judge What's Fresh

Your eyes and nose will tell you almost everything.

• Whole fish: eyes should be bright, full and clear, never sunken or milky. Gills should be pink to red and clean.
• Skin and flesh: press a thumb gently along the flank and it should spring back. Scales should sit flat.
• Fillets: look for a translucent, glossy surface with no brown edges and no gaping splits between the flakes.
• Smell: fresh sea fish smells of the sea — clean, faintly of cucumber or ozone. If it smells strongly of fish or ammonia, walk on.

A short, changing display is a good sign. A counter piled high with the same species all week is less so.

Ask About Seasonality Before You Choose

Fish has seasons just as vegetables do, and the difference between an in-season fish and an out-of-season one is obvious on the plate. Ask what is at its best and buy that, rather than arriving with a fixed idea.

As a rough guide to British waters:

• Spring: plaice, lemon sole, crab and cuttlefish.
• Summer: mackerel, bass, pollack, gurnard, squid, mussels and clams. Mackerel caught that morning and grilled within hours is one of the great British meals.
• Autumn: herring, hake, monkfish and the first good scallops.
• Winter: cod, haddock, whiting, scallops at their best, and native oysters in the months with an R.

Two questions do most of the work: "What came in this morning?" and "What would you cook tonight?" Ask about size and local stocks too, and don't be shy of choosing something smaller or less pressured if you are unsure. Good fishmongers respect the question.

Bring a Cool Bag — and Shop Last

This is the bit people get wrong. A warm fillet in a rucksack on a sunny coast path will lose a day of freshness in twenty minutes, so plan your route with the market as your final stop before the cottage.

• Take a cool bag with a frozen block, and ask for a bag of ice at the stall. Many will add it for nothing, or for a few pence.
• Have the fish gutted, scaled and filleted there. Cottage kitchen knives are usually blunt and the job is messy.
• Wrap it in the paper from the stall, then a bag, then into the cool bag. Keep it out of the sun and never in a hot car boot.
• If you do want to walk first, keep it short, shaded and under fifteen minutes — or better, walk first and buy on the way back.

At the cottage, keep it covered on a plate on the bottom shelf of the fridge, and cook it the same day or the next. Ask the owner whether there is a freezer compartment before planning to freeze anything; cottage freezers are often tiny, and fish needs to be very fresh and well wrapped to freeze well.

Keep the Cooking Simple

Fish this fresh needs very little: season it, cook it hot and briefly, and finish with butter and lemon. A whole mackerel on a baking tray with herbs and sliced lemon takes twenty minutes. Mussels steamed with wine, garlic and cream take five. Scallops need about ninety seconds a side in a very hot pan.

Buy a cooked crab from the quay, too, and pick it at the kitchen table on newspaper — messy, but one of the best lunches a holiday cottage can offer. If you buy shellfish, cook it the day you buy it, and throw away any mussel or clam that stays open before cooking, or refuses to open afterwards.

Keep the bones and heads, as well. Fifteen minutes in a pan with an onion, a carrot and cold water gives you a stock for a risotto or a fish pie later in the week — the sort of holiday cooking that makes self-catering feel less like catering and more like a treat.