Thread: Question about rinsing fillets

Clean them good but in zip lock bag filled with water then burp the bag never leave air in the bag

Neon, I've always done it same as you. In KY when you have enough you got "a mess"! Got company, better lay out 2 messes!

Originally Posted by MrPaulAR

I rinse all stuff off them, pat dry, and vacuum seal with no water.

Me, too.

They last forever, you can pack em flat in layers, take out just as many fillets as you want, and reseal the rest without having to thaw anything or mess around with all the extra water. And you can get more fillets in the same area of your freezer too. Wash well in cold water not just to clean off any scales or slime but also to wash out any remnants of blood AND to firm up the fillet to remove any residual body heat. A stack of unwashed fillets on the corner of the cleaning table will heat up, and you can feel it. That destroys the meat quality as much as anything else. You tend to get mushy fillets if the fish have been dead and warm too long before going to the knife. Best to butcher while still alive. Our fillets go right into a pan with cold water running through it right after the ribs and skin is removed. We do not get mushy fillets, except from long dead fish. As far as I am concerned they aren't worth trying to salvage for the table in the first place.

If you haven't tried vacuum sealing, you owe it to yourself to do so. One step before the sealer, though, and that is to layer the fillets flat between wax paper on a cookie sheet in the freezer to firm them up or you end up sucking juice.

For those who are required to transport fillets with a patch of skin on like we do for some species here in Minnesota, the vacuum sealed flat bags make that very easy to display that patch without having to keep the packed frozen fillets off the ice any longer than necessary.

Vacuum sealer is what I want for x-mas. LOL But, I have always just washed them in cold water (right after filleting, I put them in a pan of cold water also) and then dump into a freezer zip-loc. Never worried about adding water, just get the air out. Never had any freezer burn.

We normally just rinse them quickly and put them in the ziplock bags, fill with water and freeze them as quickly as possible. I always go over them very closely once they are thawed out before I cook them.

Never had a problem doing it this way in all the years I have been fishing.

I rinse fillets after cleaning,then put them in a ziplock full of water and burp the air out of the bag. Its a no brainer

what dose the salt do.

I drop my just cleaned filets into icy salt water. The salt will remove any blood remaining. Then I pour off the salt water, one quick rinse, and dry on papertowels before frying or vacumn freezing.