Making salmon/other fish “sushi safe”

So, I (very fortunately) have two salmon I recently caught (non yak) and wanted to make some lox. As most of you are aware, to kill parasites the FDA  recommends -31 degrees F for 18 hours, or -7 for 7 days to kill tapeworm and nematodes....which *a lot* of pacific salmon carry (one source I found years ago while doing a paper on the subject in school said nearly all salmon and pacific rockfish are infected, but I can’t find it). Well, that’s kind of a bummer to me because I really love Lox.  Somebody here, I think it was Moo, purchased a scientific freezer to bring the temperature down to the specified levels. I came up with an alternate method… I filled the bottom of my yeti cooler with solid Styrofoam I bought at Home Depot and cut it to fit the cooler. I then placed the fish on the Styrofoam (vac packed and already frozen at 0 F)) with a raised wire tray above that. On top of that I put 8 pounds of dry ice and a few more blocks of insulation on top of that and shut the cooler. And viola....my salmon has been at -61 degrees for the last 19 hours. It totally worked!

Seems like overkill. The FDA recommendation is -4 F for seven days, which should be achievable in most freezers.
https://www.fda.gov/media/80777/download

And even that is probably overkill.

Most home freezers don’t get to -4 and they specifically warn against doing it in a home freezer...and ill take 9 bucks of dry ice overkill over a tapeworm any day!

I’m pretty sure tapeworms are in freshwater fish only. I’ve never seen one of those round worms in an ocean salmon. Halibut and rockfish, yes, but never in a salmon. I’ve also made lots of poke and sashimi with fresh salmon with no problems. I think this sounds like overkill, too. If I’m worried about parasites in a fish I’ve caught, I’ll do a visual inspection and then freeze it for a week in my chest freezer just to be safe.

This is how I flash freeze my fish, when I know I want the super duper when they come out of the vacuum seal. Vacuum em, put em in the bottom of the cooler, and dry I em. Freeze so freaking fast no nasty ice crystals.

My chest freezer gets down to about -14*F on the coldest setting (best investment ever...). For comparison, my fridge freezer only gets down to about -4 or -5. The increase in quality and longevity of frozen foods kept in the chest versus the fridge freezer is very noticeable.

Do a little research before you buy - they aren’t all that cold.


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Thank you for the experimentation!  That sounds like the best easiest way to flash freeze some good fish for some sashimi!

Lots of freezers can go well below -4F and that’ll kill parasites if you leave it for a week.  The issue is that if you don’t flash freeze, then ice crystals form and that changes the texture if it’s later eaten raw (no such issue if cooked). So putting non-flash frozen fish into a super-cold cooler only shortens the time until it’s safe to eat, but you still have the issue that it was not flash frozen to begin with.

If you can can achieve such a super-cold temp in your cooler, why not put the unfrozen fish in? That would truly flash freeze it.

Wow thank you!
As always great info specially when Salmon season will open the next July 16 in Benicia. I’m trying to get familiar with Benicia bay on my old prowler 13. I didn’t catch anything yet more on I want to feel more confident on and practice anchoring and get just to the high winds. Anyway if I catch a salmon now I know how freeze it and be safe eating good sashimi.
 Thank you!
JC

Wow thank you!
As always great info specially when Salmon season will open the next July 16 in Benicia. I’m trying to get familiar with Benicia bay on my old prowler 13. I didn’t catch anything yet more on I want to feel more confident on and practice anchoring and get just to the high winds. Anyway if I catch a salmon now I know how freeze it and be safe eating good sashimi.
 Thank you!
JC

Once a salmon hits brackish water it instantly becomes inedible.

Once a salmon hits brackish water it instantly becomes inedible.

???

Wow thank you!
As always great info specially when Salmon season will open the next July 16 in Benicia. I’m trying to get familiar with Benicia bay on my old prowler 13. I didn’t catch anything yet more on I want to feel more confident on and practice anchoring and get just to the high winds. Anyway if I catch a salmon now I know how freeze it and be safe eating good sashimi.
 Thank you!
JC

Once a salmon hits brackish water it instantly becomes inedible.

agreed.  once salt reduces below 31ppt salmon is no longer edible.

I sashimi chromeys from rio vista. Scales gotta be intact.

Wow thank you!
As always great info specially when Salmon season will open the next July 16 in Benicia. I’m trying to get familiar with Benicia bay on my old prowler 13. I didn’t catch anything yet more on I want to feel more confident on and practice anchoring and get just to the high winds. Anyway if I catch a salmon now I know how freeze it and be safe eating good sashimi.
 Thank you!
JC

Once a salmon hits brackish water it instantly becomes inedible.

agreed.  once salt reduces below 31ppt salmon is no longer edible.

Ikura!!!

Here is the info of what brackish water means and ppt = parts per thousand now what I didn’t find are ppt levels in Benicia bay to complete info

Wow thank you!
As always great info specially when Salmon season will open the next July 16 in Benicia. I’m trying to get familiar with Benicia bay on my old prowler 13. I didn’t catch anything yet more on I want to feel more confident on and practice anchoring and get just to the high winds. Anyway if I catch a salmon now I know how freeze it and be safe eating good sashimi.
 Thank you!
JC

Once a salmon hits brackish water it instantly becomes inedible.

agreed.  once salt reduces below 31ppt salmon is no longer edible.

Ikura!!!