Frozen fish

[Kleyny]

How long can fish stay in the freezer for before its not wise to eat????

I was cleaning out the freezer and found a slab of filleted fish. I think its around 2-3 months old.
thanks
neil

[ifishcq1]

Hi HD there is no one standard ... I always check for freezer burn... if there isn't any freezer burn it should be fine subject to the sniff test.. when it is defrosting, if it smells put it in the berley pot

SL

[Vindicator]

I opened a container of fillets the other day and ther was some freezer burn around the edge of the exposed fillets. They have been in the freezer for about six weeks, but they still tasted good.

Cheers
Kezza

[reel scream]

Packaged right, have eaten as last in the box, 4month old cobe fillets with nil burn. Missus is a fussy boss, but she didn't complain.

Cheers Scott

[Noelm]

as long as the Fish was fresh when frozen, was well taken care of after capture, and was properly cleaned and washed then a few Months is certainly OK and even longer is still considered to be OK, remember some frozen commercial Fish have use by dates in late 2009.

[kingtin]

The deckie has regularly eaten fish frozen over 12 months old.........freezer burn or not. She microwaves it, so it'll taste like crap even if it's fresh ;D

kev

[Noelm]

Freezer burn does not have any effect on the fish, but it looks like crap.

[disorderly]

My missus just organised a charity cookup for our kids primary school last friday.(we do it a couple of times a year).
On the menu were Fish burgers made from spanish mackeral I caught 11 months ago(we date the bags).She used a few kilos,there were no complaints and none left over.
Like Ifishcq suggests give it the sniff test..and a visual inspection just to be sure as we defrosted some a while back that had a fishy smell about it ...somehow it had not been dated or ID'ed so god knows how old this was (could have been up to 2 years.http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/shocked.gif)

The dogs got a feed anyhow.

Scott

[Noelm]

hhmm Fishburgers, when is the next School cookup?

[sparkyice]

i've had em over 12 months and were ok.
the quicker they go in the freezer after they're dead, the better. if you have em in the fridge a couple days and then freeze them "before they spoil" they won't last as long.
a very good way to freeze them, it's extra work but much worth the time, is to lay your filets in a single layer on a metal baking sheet in the freezer til they set up.
then spray them with a water misting bottle (like the boss uses on her plants) and put them back in the freeze. repeat this 3-4 times til you have a layer of ice encapsulating the fish.
then i put them in ziplock freezer bags to store them.
when they thaw out, the layer of ice slides right off, zero freezer burn. some commercially prepared seafood is done like this.
give it a try!
tight lines,
joe

[Poodroo]

Hi Neil, the "Food Storage Guide" in my freezer states a maximum period of 3 months for fish. Like mentioned already I always pack my fillets by wrapping them in glad wrap so there is absolutely no air in the packaging. Something I also do is when I come home with a feed of fish I never wash the fillets or fish in fresh water. I always bring enough of their own saltwater home with me to rinse them in because I firmly believe that the fish stay fresher and cleaner and taste better when I do this. Fish fillets rarely stay in the freezer much past a week in my family anyway because the kids and I can pretty much eat fish for dinner every night of the week. Your fillets in that time frame that you mentioned should have been fine. On a totally different subject I am planning on doing a trip to the Bribie Passage sometime soon if you are interested in that little squire spot I know of. Can stick some fresh fillets back into your freezer. ;)


Cheers,

Poodroo

[FNQCairns]

Common standards are dumbed down to a worst case scenario (retail sold), I have eaten 1 year old fish lots of times in the past, never a problem, noone would know if you didn't tell them.

If you know the history and treatment from the water to the freezer, just eat it:)

cheers fnq

[Kendall249]

Hi Neil, the "Food Storage Guide" in my freezer states a maximum period of 3 months for fish.

I can remember one of those tv chefs stating that the values that displayed on the freezer are in relation to the quality not whether it is safe or not. If they're packed well then the quality should be good for much longer than 3 months. I recently ate some 6 month old fillets and they were ok, maybe a bit dry though, but this could of been due to over cooking.

I would hate to know how long some of the imported fillets such as nile perch etc... have been frozen for.

[ronnien]

when we get a few bags of fillets, we finish wraping them in glad wrap & have eatin them up to 5 months later & they taste fine.

ron.

[Scott nthQld]

deleted....Ausfish does not own my thoughts and opinions

[skipalong]

not for me it goes dry i think

[Kleyny]

Hi Neil, the "Food Storage Guide" in my freezer states a maximum period of 3 months for fish. Like mentioned already I always pack my fillets by wrapping them in glad wrap so there is absolutely no air in the packaging. Something I also do is when I come home with a feed of fish I never wash the fillets or fish in fresh water. I always bring enough of their own saltwater home with me to rinse them in because I firmly believe that the fish stay fresher and cleaner and taste better when I do this. Fish fillets rarely stay in the freezer much past a week in my family anyway because the kids and I can pretty much eat fish for dinner every night of the week. Your fillets in that time frame that you mentioned should have been fine. On a totally different subject I am planning on doing a trip to the Bribie Passage sometime soon if you are interested in that little squire spot I know of. Can stick some fresh fillets back into your freezer. ;)


Cheers,

Poodroo

Thanks Poo,

I have five days off starting this friday;D so give me a pm on when your expected to head up this way. As long as its not Saturday I'm there;)

Hopefully i get out in the water more than once. I do have a slight drama with my boat as the tank decided to crack at the thread of the where the fuel line goes on.:'( >:(

neil

[Kleyny]

fish never lasts long enough in my freezer to worry about it. When there's a few caught a feed is had about 3 times a week, longest I've had fish in the freezer was about 2 months and that was after a reef charter. We had about 40-50kg of fillets to get through of trout, nannygai, red emperor, cobe, sweetip and red throat emperor, I only kept the tasty stuff

Yeh normally they dont last long but i forgot they were in there:-[

neil

[Dirtysanchez]

On my way back from a swains charter several years ago the owner of the boat came out of the blast freezer chuckling away and showed us a big bag of Lipper fillets he found at the back.. He estimated they were 12-14 months old, but the freezer goes down to -40
He cooked them up and there was nothing wrong with them!
I think it boils down to how good your appliance is

[baitmaster]

hey

the only thing that i have found that actually benifits from being frozen is trag jew they taste so good after being frozen

baitmaster

[disorderly]

Things are getting tough with the endless windy weather and too many houseguests this week so with only a few bags of trout left, this week it was time to pull out the spanish mackeral dating back to the last years school holidays (12 months ).

Eaten side by side with 2 month old trout it is not as good (but I much prefer trout anyway)but still quite nice and absolutely nothing wrong with it....
In fact a Korean houseguest has polished off a heap of it and said it was great..

The one thing my missus does when cooking older fish though, is to cook it before it has thawed through (while still a good part frozen)...this seems to retain the moisture .

Scott

[nigelr]

I'm with Poodroo and disorderly's missus.
Avoid fresh water like the plague when preparing saltwater fish for the freezer.
Try and expell as much air as possible from around the fillets by using glad wrap or just sucking any air out of the plastic bag used. Cry-o-vac would be best.......
These days I've learned to freeze the fish as slabs of 'meat' rather than fillets. Come eating time and while de-frosting, I cut these slabs to suit while they are still at least 1/2 frozen, and then cook immediately.
Like Mrs Disorderly, I believe cooking frozen fish while it is still 1/2 frozd gives a far superior result, most definitely retains more moisture.
Bit of an art-form, successful fish freezing, but well worth learning!
Got to catch the bu@@ers first tho.............hehehe
Cheers.

[Manjilad]

Yea most posters are on the money. When I had the seafood cafe commercially packed (frozen on the fishing vessel) fillets were dated with expiry dates to 18 months out (actually fish will keep longer 24 mths+) BUT the proviso was the temp MUST be below -22 degrees C. ALL THE TIME. Most domestic freezers can't do that temp hence MUCH shorter fillet life. Of course the prep before freezing has LOTS to do with taste and quality when defrosted. Hope that helps, just wish I could catch enough to freeze for that length of time!!!!

Cheers

Manji

[Braddles]

I think preparation, as many have said is vital - freeze them ASAP (within a day). Fish frozen wet will not keep as well, as water crystals expand, destroying cell membranes and thus tissue.

The other factor is the type of fish. Oily fish or fish with lots of blood (tunas) will not freeze as well as whiter fish such as pearlies.

I recently ate 12 month old cobia that was frozen in fillets within 6hrs of capture in layers of glad wrap - and it was perfect.

[Mrs Ronnie H]

Hi
We all know fish is best fresh but if you need to freeze it there is no reason if packaged right and no freezer burn you can't eat it. As said if you don't like the smell of it when defrosting put in the burley bucket.
I have one of those krovac sealers and find it is great for storing fish in the freezer.

Ronnie

[Matheson]

A mate gets fish sent down from up north which is vacumn packed and sealed. He has eaten it over 12 months old and it has it has been fine. I have seen vacumn package/sealing units are now getting a lot cheaper and might invest in one myself. I believe that if it is fish you have caught yourself, and bled and iced down as soon as caught it should last at last 6 months if well sealed before being frozen without any problems

Matho