Freezing or otherwise keeping your fish

TenMile

TenMile

Well-Known Member
Hey all,

I'm interested in what everyone does to freeze and/or keep your fish for fresh eating over the winter.

Personally, I fillet my catch (at home, never at the cleaning stations as I am concerned about bacteria -- gut them and bleed them either on the boat or at the cleaning station tho'). I then place the fillets in a ziplock bag and fill the bag with water until the fillets are covered and then freeze. I find this method prevents freezer burn and you can thaw the fish in about a half hour or less by simply dropping the bag into warm tap water. The fish stays in good shape for about 6-12 months this way. You have to be careful not to let the fillets bob above the waterline -- if the meat gets exposed to air, it burns.

This weekend, I am trying to cold smoke some pinks for the first time. Found a great recipe here for Lox (I am a cold smoked fan, don't really like the hot smoked stuff -- at least the varieties I've tried). http://www.sausagemania.com/loxmania.html I have a Weber BBQ with a smoke-tray that I've never used and will see how it works -- just have to keep the temp below 90C.

What do you do? Vacuum pack? Smoke? Sushi? Other?
 
Hi T.M. , I use a "foodsaver" vaccuum sealer to freeze any fish that is not eaten fresh or smoked. (which is not usually a lot)
i freeze prawns using the same method as yours and it works well.
 
Vacuum sealer all the way,and a good quality one at that.The extra 50-100 dollars is easier to swallow than 50-100 dollars of spoiled salmon.
 
food saver vaccume sealer. I also freeze part way then seal to prevent juices being sucked into the sealing band and then ad a double seal, never had one leak. Also, get that freezer lower then 20 below and the fish oils stabilize and you can get two years out of it. Fridge freezer is too warm and short term only.
 
I freeze my prawns in water, using the vac sealer to make bags out the rolls of bags that you can buy at the tackle shop...way cheaper than using the foodsaver bags.

I freeze my halibut in sea water . I have just tried the prawns in salt water and I will have a verdict in a couple of months.

I just freeze the salmon whole in the fish bags. The skin and membrane protects against freezer burn. I fillet them just before using.
 
I bleed the fish right after the bonk, either gut the thing on the boat to see what he's eating or at the launch site or cleaning table and remove the gills, leave it in the cooler on ice over night head and tail on, in the morning I filet the fish put the filets in a pyrex dish covered with stretch wrap , back on ice I go straight to st Jeans or Pipers for vacuum sealing, I thought about a foodsaver but I figured the 300 I spend on a vaccum sealer and the 45 I spend on bag refills will go a long way at st jeans plus I know they are being done by a commercial grade machine and they are going into a flash freezer which preserves the meat better. I usually go to St Jeans but if I want the fish back fast Pipers is the way to go.
I'd never thought of freezing the fish in water but that's how I freeze my prawns works good.
 
Zip locks in water works great, an extra trick to get all the air out is to take a tall bucket of water, and dip the zip lock bag all the way into the water with the zip lock line at the water line or just below it, all the air rises out of the zip lock bag!!!! now fully zip/seal the bag while it is sumerged in the bucket of water!!. Now you have an air free/freezer burn free piece of salmon to freeze. Also by duing this way you need very little water in the zip lock bag to cover the piece of fish, this saves alot of freezer space! You can do his for freezing any thing really!! It is so easy and your food will last much longer! If every one did this it would put the vaccume packing systems out of business!! This way is better than Vacum packing.. the bags are expensive to boot, a box of 30 zip locks are only a few bucks. The vacum pack bags will puncture being tossed around in the freezer.. once air gets in its toast... I through my vacum packer out... zip locks in a bucket of water is the way to go.. simplicity is some times better...
 
So I tried that Lox recipe this weekend. It's pretty easy. There is lots of waiting between steps, but total labour is about 30 mins max. We were out with the kids and I happened upon an apple orchard so picked up some apple wood (branches and twigs) and used it for the final smoking. It's not Empress Hotel quality in terms of appearance, but it tastes great and the kids loved it. A little salty however.

The best part is the second from last step....one cup of Rum for the fish, one cup of Rum for the fisherman, one cup of Rum for the frish, onsh cshup of Rhushm for the fhisheerman and show onsh.
 
Put 'em in a salmon bag in the round, squeeze the air out and freeze 'em like that.
 
Bleed'em before bonking.
Clean'em at the dock.
Wash down at home before freezing in family portion size.
Eat a lot fresh the same/next day.
 
We freeze our prawns in water using tubs that we buy from the bulk food section of the local grocery store. The tubs are reusable over and over and are easy to stack in the freezer. We mark the catch date on the plastic tops and you can count on six months in the freezer without a problem.

For fish we use two methods. If we are going to eat the fish within the next few weeks we do filets and wrap them in freezer paper. If we are going to keep the fish for up to six months we clean the fish but leave them whole skin on. We dip the fish in water, wrap them in several layers of newspaper and then freeze whole. The newspaper acts as a thick barrier to freezer burn. Dipping the fish in water ensures a tight bond between the paper and the fish again ensuring no freezer burn. This method is very inexpensive and will keep a fish for up to six months.

Like the vacume pack thing but don't like the price and actually think the paper does as good a job if wetted and wrapped tight.

Happy freezing.
 
I think SIR touched on a method that I have been using for years, it's called glazing. Commercial freezer boats use it as well. For home application, I fill up a large foam fish cooler or anything that will hold enough water and ice to totally submerge the fish, I place this in front of my freezer and dunk the recently frozen fish in it and then place it on a appropriately sized board in my freezer. I then let it setup for half an hour and repeat the process until I have built up a solid glaze of about a 16th to a 1/4 inch. I then wrap it well in heavy duty plastic. This fish will be just as ocean fresh as the day you caught it, for up to and longer then a year. I generally only do whole fish but it will work on frozen fillets steaks etc. Try it it works great.;) eman
 
Eaglemaniac is correct, glazing works very well and has been used by the Commerical guys for a long time. When I lived in Alberta, on occassion a client or friend would generously bring by a large spring that sometimes might go 30 lbs. I would glaze the fish like Eaglemaniac stated and go out to the freezer and cut off a nice steak every once in a while for dinner. Immediately after cutting off a steak, I would dip the cut end in a five gallon pail of water and repeat this process over a couple of hours. The salmon was most edible until it was completely consumed with nothing wasted. I believe that what SIR is doing is very similiar.:) Striper Sniper
 
I think the key to this technique is to ensure that the water you are immersifying the fish into, should be very cold. I usually throw in a bag of ice and let it sit for awhile. The combination of the frozen fish and the very cold water sets up the glaze quite quickly. you can also add freezer packs etc. to keep the water as cold as possible. Insulated gloves help too.;) eman
 
I found that if you put a folded piece of clean paper towel inside the vacuum seal bag between the fish abnd the machine the paper towel will absorb most if not all the water before it enters the sealer and extend the life of the machine.
 
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