Tips to Fresh Fish

Fresh fish should be cooked within two to three days of purchasing, if you don’t plan on cooking your fish you should freeze it immediately to preserve the freshness. Some methods work to prevent air contact and to lock in moisture :

1. Ice Glazing

Glaze the fish with ice first by dipping the fish into lightly salted ice water and placing it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper in your freezer. At this point, you can place the ice glazed fish into an airtight Ziploc bag or you can vacuum seal and place it into your freezer. By using this method you can preserve your fish up to 6 months in the freezer.

2. Vacuum sealing

Before vacuum sealing your fish pre-freeze your fish for 1-2 hours to preserve the moisture in the fish. You can place your fish into a vacuum bag and seal your fish, once sealed place into your freezer. Vacuum sealed fish when properly stored in the freezer can last as long as two years.

3. Ziploc Freezing with Water

This method is exactly what it sounds like and is a quick and easy method to preserve your fish. For this method, you will need an appropriately sized Ziploc bag preferably not too big and not too small. Next, you will fill the Ziploc bag with lightly salted water, not completely but just enough to fully submerge the fish. Once this is done squeeze the remaining air out of the bag, seal your bag, and place it in the freezer. Using this method you can preserve your fish up to 3 months in the freezer.

The weather in a freezer is just fine for many fish and helps to preserve the taste and texture. Many fish, like cod or haddock, are naturally cold-water fish. So putting them in the will not be as radical a change for the meat as it would be for other protein like a steak or a chicken. If you find yourself with a surfeit of bluefish, vacuum-seal them and know that you will be making fish cakes with them down the road. The texture of the fish will change so a dish like fish cakes will work best with frozen fatty fish.