Best Way Thaw Out Frozen Salmon

[samba123]

while this may sound like a dumb question, the more I think about it the more I think it's a legitimate question that has been lingering on my mind for some time. Most of us spend lots of money on boat, gear, gas and more importantly, TIME to get out on the water to get the lines wet. If we are fortunate enough we get to bring home a salmon or two. We spent lots of time processing our catch including portioning and vacuum sealing. When it comes time to enjoy our frozen catch, I have always run the tap for 5 mins until the water gets as cold as it will get.. I then put some of that cold water in a large enough bowl or baking tray, put my salmon filets(still in unopened in vacuum sealed bags) into the tray with water and everything goes into the fridge until it thaws out. Since this is how I have always thawed out frozen salmon, I don't know any better. Therefore, I ask those who know better, what is the best way to thaw out frozen salmon to maximize the quality and taste?

1. Do as I have always done and explained in the paragraph above?
2. Leave salmon in vacuum sealed bag and let thaw out in fridge without being in a water bowl? This would obvious likely take 2 full days to get it full thawed out
3. Run it under cold water continuously in the sink until it thaws out?
4. Another method?

 

[tubber]

Put it on a plate on the counter, slit the bag (some say moisture won't get sucked out now), throw it in the fridge once it's almost thawed, (or eat raw just as it is almost thawed).
I'd put more thought into how you cook it than how you thaw it, but what you do works fine and is more food safe.

 

[sir-vivor]

The last 35 yrs all I have done is left it in the bag , in the fridge until thawed and then cook , can, smoked or whatever, still alive and never got sick over it. I have heard never thaw our while in bag sealed, in fridge , hmmm ...never hurt me or my loved ones

 

[scott craven]

Overthinking this one, thaw, cook and eat.

 

[Rain City]

I put mine in a bowl of room temp water and leave it on the counter. I dump the water and put fresh room temp water about a half hour later. From frozen to ready to cook in about 45 minutes. My logic is, I have an hour to do whatever I want. If it's going to be longer than that I do the slow thaw on a plate in the fridge. Safety first

 

[Newf]

If I were to talk to an expert (my mother) she would says, "Well my son,,I don't know what everyone else does but for the last 50 years since we had electricity and could actually freeze fish and meat, I just take it out of the fridge, put it on a plate and let it thaw on it's own. If I wanted it to thaw a little faster I would put it in water straight from the tap. Your brother and sisters all turned out OK didn't they??"
Could always rely of Mom for common sense.

 

[wildmanyeah]

take it out of the freezer in the morning before work and put it in the fridge, get home from work only to find its still frozen and end up cooking something else.

 

[Damn Ugly]

Reviving this old post. When this first popped up on my news feed this morning from some small unknown US media site, I thought it was typical click-bait BS old-wives-tale crap some idiot dreamed up to draw traffic to their website. Doing a bit of research led me to a significant number of published scholarly articles and government warnings that make me believe this is likely true and this information will change how I thaw vacuum sealed meat & fish moving forward.

The advice is simple - before thawing fish or meat open the bag to allow oxygen into the bag which will help prevent harmful bacteria such as botulism from forming, and keep it consistently below 38F during the thawing process. I've always done this for older vacuum sealed fish & meat that might be a bit freezer burnt so as to not have the meat thaw in some unpleasantly flavoured juices but moving forward I'll make this a regular habit when thawing any of my vacuum sealed fish & meat.

https://datcp.wi.gov/Documents/StoringThawingVacuumPkgdFish.pdf

Open your vacuum packed fish before thawing

Thawing vacuum packed fish correctly.

www.canr.msu.edu

 

[wolf]

Thawing ANY protien at room temp is really not a food safe thing to do, plan ahead !!! we take out things on sunday night usually a moose roast /steak/burger, pork chop.salmon/halibut , chicken and place in fridge and cook during the week.
makes meals easier