Put up your fish? Mine is always packed in water...does anyone freeze dry?
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Put up your fish? Mine is always packed in water...does anyone freeze dry?
I pack mine in water because I am too cheap to buy a good vacumn sealer
Water, haven't caught any since I got the vacuum sealer.
Washin machine
have never done anything to mine other than filet, wash off, stick in a Baggie, seal, wrap in aluminum foil, and thaw later to eat. eat all mine within 4 months. never had a problem, can't tell any difference between 4 month old and some I caught today. not worth the effort to do much more unless you are catching way too many and hoarding them. just my :twocents
I am 66 tomorrow so I have been making it easy on myself for several years.
Don't forget to put in bout half bottle of hot sauce n the water before you freeze them. Yummmmm!!!
ummm, now I might add that to the bag :cheers2
I vacuum seal mine.....most everything(crappie...bream...) just dry fillets....except catfish, I'll throw in a lemon slice and that'll pull out the fishy taste.
Vaccum sealer here.
I just rinse them off and put them in a plastic bag wet and into the freezer. Never noticed a drop off in quality and I've kept them up to six months or so.
I clean and eat!!!
freeze mine in water
Vacuum sealers...do you add any water, or just fillets
zip lock quart or gallon freezer bags. i like the one's with zippers on them. much easier. fill up with water and then start zipping it closed and squeeze air and excess water out. you don't need a lot of water. just enough to keep them covered. i've kept fish for 2 years and tasted fine to me. friends use the sealers but seems like a lot of effort to me. and added cost for bags. back in the day, my dad used plastic or the old cardboard milk cartons. cut the tops out.
just fillets dryQuote:
Originally Posted by KnightShadow10
Vacuum seal
Just fillets
Just the filets
i believe i read somewhere where feelay dries them and puts them on a cookie sheet in the freezer to firm them up before he vacuum seals hisQuote:
Originally Posted by KnightShadow10
I have seen fish frozen on a cookie sheet then put in vacuum bag and sealed .I put all of mine in water . biggest advantage that I see is space taken in freezer with water in bags .They claimed freezing them keeps water in fish .
Pat dry fillets, put in bag and a range to get flat as possible, fold a paper towel to fit across inside mouth of bag to catch moisture then vacume seal. Sealers are hard to clean if you get any of that moisture into actual vacume chamber. Pulls them flat and really increases the amount you can store. I find no difference in them and ones stored in bags of water.
Also, back in the day, growing up on the White River at Newport, AR, we used to have a lot of bass, crappie, catfish, and buffalo. My mom and dad also used half-gallon milk cartons to freeze em. Never had any problems.Quote:
Originally Posted by 27458
nope.....dry vacuum sealedQuote:
Originally Posted by blueball
Dry ziplock quart freezer bag. I never keep any longer than a year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueball
If you are going to do this go ahead and baste them with mustard, the corn meal them, then put the on a cookie sheet and freeze individually. Then u can vacuum seal them. If you do this.....you dont have to wait for the filets to thaw before cooking. Drop em in hot grease frozen stiff. Makes a beautiful crispy crust. Only problem is.....Takes quite a bit of freezer space while "flash freezing" them. Doesn't take long to flash freeze them though. But if you do this to a bunch of fish it will get old fast. I just freeze in water now mostly.
this is all good advice. it will be helpful if I ever catch enough to keep.
Vacuum seal
dry them then vac seal they will keep for a while
To keep from pat drying them I put them in a colander then the colander in a bowl and cover with plastic seal over night. The next day they'll be dry enough to vacuum seal without having to use paper towels. By the way, I bought the cheapest vacuum sealer, with the best ratings I could find on Amazon. I've used it several years now and love it. Saves space in the freezer by not using water. I also weigh my fish packages and write date caught and weight on them. This makes it easy to know how much fish to thaw out for a fish fry. I thaw out a half a pound of fish per person. This usually will leave some but very little fish left over.
Just buy a good vacuum sealer and the moisture isn't a problem. I use a double pump unit with a big drain trough. I think it's the Sportsman Silver series sealer. Bout 200 bucks. Just throw the fillets in and let her rip.
https://jet.com/product/pdp/d46fd4e5...FYElgQodtcgFTQ
This is the one I have. They do make better ones, but this one works great and this is a decent price.
One more tip for the moisture. If you fold a paper towel and put it above the fillets in the sealer bag, (on the end you're sealing) it will stop the water from running into your machine. I did it this way before I bought a better unit. The moisture killed the pump in my 99.00 machine. I didn't learn about the paper towel in time. [emoji4]
vaccum seal
Food Saver for me. Place a piece of paper towel in the end that is being sealed to keep the Food Saver from pulling any liquid out of the bag and into itself! Used to freeze them in water in Zip bags made for the freezer.Both work well!
Adding the paper towel also gives you a lot better seal. Sometimes the liquid causes a poor seal in spots and they gain air over time.
I cut my fillets to bite size, batter, lay in a cake pan, put wax paper between each layer, put in freezer, takeout and stick in a zip lock bag an put back in freezer.. My wife doesn't eat fish so I just grab bag out of the freezer, reach in and get a couple handfuls throw in fry daddy and I don't have to thaw out a bunch of fish, just what I want. Throw the bag in the freezer till the next....