Yesterday I had the opportunity to buy a few items from the top wholesale gourmet food supplier in LA.
They had caviars, A5 wagyu, delicious smoked salmon etc. For dinner, I prepared some of their premium salmon filets. They were very nice, but I couldn’t help but think that it would have been better if they weren’t previously frozen. I know some food like steak freezes very well and I don’t think I can tell the difference for properly-frozen steak, but when it comes to fish, I think it’s a different story.
Am I crazy or is the best-tasting fish never frozen, just ‘iced’ during it’s journey from the sea to the store? Can you all tell the difference? What effect does freezing fish typically have?
I had Mahi Mahi sashimi on a boat cut from a live, just caught fish. The setting, expectations, etc all contributed to my enjoyment. In order to compare that sashimi to similar sashimi sold at a local landlocked restaurant would require the two offerings be tasted side-by-side.
Colonna said the results reflect how flash-freezing technology has gotten better to lock in freshness right at sea or minutes after hitting the dock. By contrast, that seafood labeled as “fresh” at the grocery counter may not actually be all that fresh, having possibly spent many days in transit and refrigerated storage.
Absolutely the best salmon I ever had was filleted along the banks of the river in Alaska where we just caught in and cooked over an open fire within 20 minutes of it swimming around freely.
When I commercial power trolled for salmon we would ice them in salt water slush (25ish deg?). When I pulled them from the slush to pack them with ice they were stiff as a board.
Mmmmmmm, yes. I ate a ton of salmon when my son and I did an Alaskan cruise years ago. We did a few of the catch/prep/cook/eat deals. By the end of the trip we were sick of salmon and bald eagles were like pigeons to us.
I never get tired of seeing Bald Eagles, although I get what you’re saying. In some parts of Alaska they’re everywhere. We have a few living near our home currently, and probably see them most days, but I always stop and watch them. Maybe because they were so rare when we were young.
It’s worth noting that the OP bought the fish at an outlet in L.A. While I have absolutely no doubt that fish cooked within minutes of catching, The distinction in the OP is between fish flash-frozen minutes after catching, and fish that has not been frozen on their journey to a store.
ETA:
There’s a bald eagle nest a couple of blocks away from our house. We can see it from the deck. They like to eat the sole that I’ve seen in a creek down the beach.
True. I assume that flash frozen fish is a better alternative than shipping it unfrozen. I have no facts, but it just makes sense to me. Like the OP, I can’t tell the difference with steak.
I was under the impression that fish caught at sea was not frozen, but rather covered in ice to keep it cool and to prevent spoiling. I would assume the fish arrives at the dock very cold, but not actually hard frozen. Even though water freezes at 32 degrees, I’m not sure fish does since there’s going to be a lot of other compounds mixed in with the water in the fish. Fish kept in this cold state could arrive at your store never actually been hard frozen like you would get with a freezer. I would assume that fish kept cold at 32 degrees would taste better than fish that was frozen hard in a freezer.
I’m not sure about fish specifically, but often the reason that frozen food tastes worse is that the ice crystals which form in the cells of the food cut open the cell walls. This can cause the food to lose flavor, have a strange texture, or lose firmness. For optimum taste and length of storage, you would want to keep the food as cold as possible without having these ice crystals form.
The thing about seafood, particularly shellfish, is that it ammoniates very quickly. If even a freshly caught fish smells at all of ammonia it is going bad. For this reason I prefer my shellfish frozen.
And sure, fish is iced down a short time after it is caught on the boat, but that can vary too. If they have loaded enough ice before going out, or if they have ice making machines on the boat and they are working, and any number of other factors on the boat. They are trying to catch as much fish as possible in a short window of time and compromises are made.
Your fish should not smell like fish, and certainly no ammonia smell. Sometimes frozen is better.
I’ve never noticed much difference between “fresh” and “fresh frozen” from the store, but there is definitely some texture and sometimes odor issues if I freeze it myself.
FWIW: Shrimp/prawns that I buy frozen tend to taste better than the unfrozen ones displayed in ice. I may try the ‘fresh’ ones again, but put them in cold water for 10 or 15 minutes to see if that makes them taste better. (Aside: The pre-cooked shrimp, used in such things as shrimp cocktails, in the cold case needs to be soaked to get rid of the objectionable flavour.)
In a store, I prefer frozen (for reasons already noted). Best is right out of the water (fresh or salt) and cooked on the spot. Best salmon I had was in Cordova, AK. The restaurant got their fish delivered fresh every day from a local trawler and within a couple of hours of being caught. I had a king salmon steak that was pure ambrosia.
Assuming that the fish is truly fresh and has been handled properly, it will be better than frozen. But I’ve found that even if you live near a coast, it can be hard to find high quality fish. You really need to find a place that turns over product fast.
If I found myself in the middle of Ohio, I’d probably be looking for flash frozen fillets.
Depends on the fish and how it’s caught. Some deep sea fishes are caught, processed, and frozen on the boat itself. Others put it in a live well, until they can get to a processing facility, where it’s processed and frozen almost immediately.
But if you’re eating literal fresh fish, at best it was caught that morning, and then processed that same day, and then shipped to wherever you bought it from, and then sat in the case for a while, then you took it home, it stayed in your fridge for a while, and then it gets cooked.
So it’s likely that the frozen version has had less time at temperatures that fish flavor and texture degrade- probably a matter of minutes or a few hours on the boat, and then as long as it takes you to defrost and cook it. Meanwhile the “fresh” fish may have had many times that in its journey between being caught and being cooked.
Of course, if you can buy it closer to the boat (or catch it yourself), you’re more likely to have fresher fish.
