Fish - Bream

Sea BreamWhite Bream
Pretty close; very similar you'd think. But no-o-o.
I was planning to do a Dorada (Sea Bream) and Fennel (after all, I'd been practicing - remember?). But they were out of Sea Bream so, since the White Bream looked so close I decided to take those. 1/2 a mistake.
There was no fennel to be found either - so I bought leek (not even close) and slow cooked/poached it, fine julienne, in a little butter for a half hour, to provide a bed for the fish presentation.

White bream is 1) bonier 2) smaller fillets 3) less 'fine' a meat 4) greasier (I think).

They also curl dramatically as compared to regular (Sea) Bream. I cut crosses / lines in the skin side of the fillets but they curled up anyway. By the way, the skin's harder than a Sea Bream's too.

And, in the excitement of doing 8 fillets simultaneously, I under-cooked 2 of them - drastically. I really completely failed to check on the doneness before plating them. Idiot!

So, with a little care you can use White Bream instead - but it takes experience (and using bigger fish to get similar sized fillets). Learn from your mistakes. I hope I've learned from mine.

White Sea Bream: Diplodus sargus sargus (Linnaeus, 1758); Family: Sparidae Order: Perciformes