Technically speaking, fish ceviche is not cooked since cooking requires heat. However, ceviche is not raw. ... The process of denaturation – soaking the fish in citrus juice for ceviche – changes the flesh of the fish from raw to firm and opaque, as if the fish has been cooked with heat.

Can you heat up ceviche?

Ceviche (pronounced "seh-VEE-chay") is a Latin American recipe for raw fish and seafood marinated in citrus juice, mainly lime and lemon. ... So with ceviche, the fish is effectively "cooked" even though there's no heat involved.

What happens if you cook ceviche?

The reason is because ceviche (sev-ee-chay) is still, for the most part, a raw fish dish. The citrus bath the fish or seafood sits in does turn the meat opaque, giving it the appearance of being cooked, and it does kill some of the many wee beasties present in raw foods that can make you sick, notably the toxin vibrio.