Freezing abalone

I use the "freeze in a gallon zip lock full of water" method on the few I don't eat immediately too.  The one addition is a tip I got from my father in law of 70+ plus years old who got me into ab diving years ago.  Though technically illegal, I remove them from the shell and clean them.  They do immediately tense up and beecome very firm.  My father in law showed me to wrap them at that point in a towel and use a little bat or fish billy to beat them hard on both sides while they are whole.  After that they go in the bag of water, remove the air and freeze them.  I have found that this pre-pounding results in fork tender 3/8 to 1/2 inch slices when cut after thawing.  They don't require much additional pounding after slicing either.  The real trick to tender ab is to not overcook, 1 to 2 minutes on each side in hot oil is plenty.

Good eats!

I slice and pound them, layer them in wax paper, vacuum seal meal size portions, then freeze. Tried the water and water-milk method years ago; slicing seems better but I was a novice then so who knows. One thing that's nice is that the ab is ready to bread and cook this way. The labor is done up-front.
Another thing I do, contoversial I know, is to put the whole abs in ice water (freshwater) to kill them, sometimes on the way home from diving. That seems to keep them from tensing up as much.

I have had good results wrapping them live in tinfoil and popping them in the freeze. I tried a couple other ways but this seems to have the best flavor.

I slice and pound them, layer them in wax paper, vacuum seal meal size portions, then freeze. Tried the water and water-milk method years ago; slicing seems better but I was a novice then so who knows. One thing that's nice is that the ab is ready to bread and cook this way. The labor is done up-front.
Another thing I do, contoversial I know, is to put the whole abs in ice water (freshwater) to kill them, sometimes on the way home from diving. That seems to keep them from tensing up as much.

They are kind of hard to slice though after being dead from freshwater exposure

I guess I am an old aber grabber too. I do the plastic bag with water trick and I over fill the bag with water and zip it shut. Than I stand / tilt the bags in the freezer and the few air bubbles left rises to the top corner of the bag. No Ab slime and no freezer burn. 

Here's a video on freezing abalone (not my video...)

How cool would it be to be able to use RSW???? 

Agree with " nothing beats fresh " , although the other 2/3 of my limit gets vacumm sealed while alive in their own slime . I wait until the slime starts to go into the sealand hit the seal only button to finish . Found a pack of guts / trimmings ( bait ) that was 4 years old and looked to be in the same conditions as some only a month or 3 frozen and a ab 2 years old in the same condition - no freezer burn at all !

If you freeze them whole (as you are required to), the shell and the outer skin will help prevent freezer burn on the inside, especially if you only freeze for a week or two.

Heres what I have found after diving for the last35+ years. Once you ahve eaten fresh abalone, nothing absolutely nothing compares with fresh. Clean slice pound all meat and eat till you are sick of abalone or eat half and give some to a friend. Maybe I am too fussy about taste but I have a lot of freinds.  You cant have more than one limit in the freezer unless you gift to your immediate family anyway. Buy frozen whatever but eat your abalone fresh.

Not only are you dating your self( 35+yrs.) but now we know who your friends are I've never had ab at your house.
Sorry for the jack couldn't resist , also put mine in food saver bag with water freeze then vacuum