question about unthawed crappie

[CrappieCrazed]

hello all, had a fish fry yesterday, thawed fish under running Cold water at about 3
oclock yesterday. we didnt cook all of it. it was in cool water outside for a
few hours while we were cooking. So the water didnt stay refrigerator cold but didnt
get hot neither. Temp got to about 58 outside yesterday and we cooked outdoors.

after that we put the bowl of fish back in frig and was gonna do some tacos tonite with remainder
but wasnt sure if it was a smart call or not so im asking the pros!!

fish be okay yas think??

[Cray]

If 58 was the warmest they got shouldn't be a problem. I have taken fresh fish when cleaned, put in water and set in fridge for couple three days then cook and never had a problem. Fridge in garage is set around 50/52 so not much dif in temp.

[dandeman]

I wouldn't worry about the fish if they never got over 58 degrees

[kycreek]

I'd cook them babies & wouldn't think twice.

[Bowbender]

You know what they say, what don't kill ya will only make ya stronger, of course that guys dead now.

[jigfisherx]

If you have quite a few, go ahead and bread them and refreeze then. I use Louisianna fish mix and cut it 3 ways with corn flour and corn meal. Lay them out on plastic wrap and don't them touch each other. You can add as many layers as you want. When the are frozen you can break the layers apart with a table knife and bag them in zip lock bags. I just served some last week that had been bagged up since Feb 2012 and they are just fine. I just take them out of the freezer and right to the fryer. This works great for a big fish fry. It is real quick cooking and they keep at least 6 to 8 monthsfrom my experience.

[polarcrafter]

If you have quite a few, go ahead and bread them and refreeze then. I use Louisianna fish mix and cut it 3 ways with corn flour and corn meal. Lay them out on plastic wrap and don't them touch each other. You can add as many layers as you want. When the are frozen you can break the layers apart with a table knife and bag them in zip lock bags. I just served some last week that had been bagged up since Feb 2012 and they are just fine. I just take them out of the freezer and right to the fryer. This works great for a big fish fry. It is real quick cooking and they keep at least 6 to 8 monthsfrom my experience.

You "DO NOT" thaw the fish before dropping in hot oil???? This seems as if it would cause the oil to splash out or splatter everywhere!!! Please advise.

[jigfisherx]

No I don't. Now I will qualify that with the fryer I am using. I use a large 4" deep roasting pan over a turkey fryer burner. I keep a thermometer set between 350 to 375 when I load the pan. With this setup you can cook between 10 to 15 fillets at once. Once you scoop them out it will heat back up in just a minute or so. We use 4 of these cookers and can fry up about 10 t0 12 gallon bags of fish in less than 30 minutes. It takes 2 persons to keep one fryer running at max capacity, but I have never found a better way to cook that much fish that fast. We are feeding over 100 people at a wild game dinner, so timing can be a problem. The thing I like about this system that everybody takes different amounts of care when they fillet a fish. I will look over each fillet to remove any bones before we bread them to refreeze. You will have to play with the dry mix, but once you get a blend you like mix up a bunch and keep it in the freezer. I don't like a lot of spice on my fish so most blends have too much pepper for me. That's why I start with a prepared mix and mix equal portions of corn meal and corn flour, then add Lowrey's or garlic salt to taste. We use the fish breader pan you can buy at most outdoor stores and layer the fillets into aluminum pans. Use plenty of cellophane between the layers or you will loose the coating as you bag them up. Good luck and enjoy.