Freezing Fish

What is the best method for preserving fish in the freezer?  It seems like something more than freezer ziplocks are needed to prevent freezer burn and dried up surfaces on the fish.  What are other's experiences with vacuum sealing or using water to encapsulate the fish and eliminate air prior to freezing?  Are there any vacuum sealers that are superior/recommended?  What about the water method?  Do you use fresh or salt water?  Are there any species specific tips (do you use different methods for say rockfish vs. halibut or salmon)?

Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

I've had good luck with rockfish up to a year from catch (not ideal to wait that long to eat it!).  Even just in ziplocs, I zip from both ends and then put my lips to the opening at the center of the zip and suck out all the air that I can.  My dad has a vacuum sealer from Costco and it's definitely superior to the ziplocs...  We also wrap the filets in plastic (seran) wrap before doing the vacuum seal.  For salmon I would not leave it in the freezer over a month ideally, and I think 8-12 weeks is pushing your luck - vacuum seal with the pre-wrap in seran is good. 

Before any of the bagging and sealing it's important to rinse blood off really well and also to trim fat - especially on salmon.  Belly meat is going to possibly ruin whatever it's packed with too.  Of course, you should always clean, pack and freeze the same day you catch if possible.  We just had some of the 38#'er the other night and it was awesome - just as good as the day it was caught, but sometimes luck is needed to have a frozen filet taste as good as that...  I think PSpark was right too - salmon may test better the bigger they are.  The "flake" size on that meat was unreal, and I think it adds to both consistency and taste.

After removing a package from the deep freeze my grandmother taught me to rinse well, then soak in milk, then rinse well again.  Apparently the fat in the milk attracts the bad-tasting oils in the fish - seems to help anyway.

We all know how crappy "fishy" tasting fish is...  What's sad is that there are many many people out there that think that's what fish tastes like! 

I don't have a vacuum sealer, so I always use the water method, and press the air out of the ziploc bag above the water.  Works fine, just takes more freezer space and takes longer to thaw.  Minimal meat loss due to freezer burn with that method.  No saltwater... just regular tap water.  Probably the next best thing to vacuum sealing.

Vacuum sealer would be the best option, but you need to buy a decent unit in order to get the best results.  Someone bought us a cheapo vaccum sealer from Target for a wedding gift and it doesn't work very well at all... called it the "suck bag"... and it definitely does suck... or rather does not suck very well.  Whatever... you get the point.

EK

Hey Abking, sounds very famliar. My dad was the cook in the house and when there was any problems with any fishyness he'd give it a quck bath in milk too. Defnitely somethng to it. Does wonders on shark! ...Except Thresher, it's already tasty!

Z

You will want to get a Vac Sealer that cost around $300 to $350.  I like the models that you can control the time you can seal the bag (manual seal).  Some models will not let you seal until it decides to seal.

Always take your time when sealing.  Most Vac Sealer have very small motors.  You need to let it rest.

I have had smoked salmon for 3 yrs in the freezer and most people can not tell it is that old.  I do like to use it all up before a 1 year.

Ken kickfish

If you're going to smoke the fish, you can put it in a ziplock with the brine and freeze it that way.  It'd probably keep for a decade...  A strong brine won't freeze even in a chest freezer, so you can add fish to a gallon bag until you've got a smokerload or you have an occasion to do a batch - but remember that smoked fish needs a few days to cure after smoking for best flavor.  You can use the same brine for quite a while if it's always in the freezer...

I find that various ways of cooking demand different levels of freshness.  Sashimi and fried requires the most freshness, followed by baked/grilled, then cioppio/curry, with smoked being last.  Basically the longer it's been in the freezer the more flavors you want to dump on it along with a reduction in need for quality texture.

I have a cheap vacuum sealer that sucks quite adequately, but doesn't do such a great job of sealing afterwards, though that's probably the bag's fault for being wrinkly.  I suspect that the quality of the bags may be more important than the quality of the sealer.  Fortunately you can use quality bags in a cheap sealer as long as it's wide enough.

I have tried a variety of things, and found vacuum sealing works the best for me if its going to be more than a month or so.  Leah bought me a Foodsaver brand deluxe for my BD on sale for about $100 and it works very nicely.