BajaNomad

soaking fish before cooking

willardguy - 4-21-2012 at 10:44 AM

after eating fresh grouper for a couple weeks im into the frozen stuff and its not so good. Ive always heard of soaking fish in milk and now im hearing some folks are happy soaking their filets in beer or 7up. I know theres plenty of nomad soakers out there but what do you soak your fish in?:?:

Skipjack Joe - 4-21-2012 at 10:52 AM

I never eat frozen fish and there is nothing like fresh fish. I hear that fish frozen in seawater is damaged the least. Can't confirm.

willardguy - 4-21-2012 at 11:09 AM

not a frozen fish guy either but there is alot here. "what are we gonna do skipper,feed it to the birds?" (perfect storm)

DENNIS - 4-21-2012 at 11:36 AM

I eat frozen fish all the time...battered and deep fried.....poached....whatever.
Halibut filets, frozen solid....56 P's per kilo.............Comercial Mexicana/Pelican Store.

desertcpl - 4-21-2012 at 11:40 AM

I also agree that fresh fish is the best, but really some times fish must be frozen to enjoy another time.

eating the Grouper that is frozen, you might think about using it in a fish chowder, as Grouper tend to be a little firmer fish any way

Cypress - 4-21-2012 at 11:41 AM

Frozen fish? Fresh fish don't need to be soaked in anything. If they're frozen properly, they'll be OK. Depends on how they were frozen.;)

willardguy - 4-21-2012 at 11:50 AM

put in a airtight freezer bag in the water they swam in, put in the freezer? so what is "frozen properly"? im not buying a shrink wrapper or a commercial freezer.

Cypress - 4-21-2012 at 12:18 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by willardguy
put in a airtight freezer bag in the water they swam in, put in the freezer? so what is "frozen properly"? im not buying a shrink wrapper or a commercial freezer.

That's what I'd call "frozen properly".

baja1943 - 4-21-2012 at 01:23 PM

How do you guys feel about farm raised Indonesian frozen lobster at Puerto Nuevo para 25 bucks usd?

sd - 4-21-2012 at 01:31 PM

7 up reduces the fish smell when cooking. I have had this when eating fresh trout. No taste difference in my opinion.

willardguy - 4-21-2012 at 01:35 PM

now who do suppose first thought of putting a fish in 7up?

Cypress - 4-21-2012 at 01:38 PM

baja1943, Not knowingly gonna eat any Asian seafood. They aren't held to the same standards as US farm raised seafood products. Get visions of a septic tank full of you name its crawling around. And off to the market the next day.:O

Cisco - 4-21-2012 at 01:43 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
I eat frozen fish all the time...battered and deep fried.....poached....whatever.
Halibut filets, frozen solid....56 P's per kilo.............Comercial Mexicana/Pelican Store.


""It's easy to sell a piece of fish as one species when in reality it's another species," says Kircher. Farmed fish also get advertised as more expensive wild versions. Sometimes, it gets even more creative than a simple mislabel. Scallops, for example, might actually be punched out circles from a whitefish fillet, she says. Faux fish represented the top fraud in the Journal of Food Sciences study of media and other public records, at 9% of cases. And some may be unhealthy. A recent Consumer Reports study included a "grouper" sample that was really tilefish, a species that contains enough mercury to make the FDA's list of foods that pregnant women and young children should avoid. Experts suggest buying whole fish when possible which are harder to fake."

http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingerrticles/880/8-...

woody with a view - 4-21-2012 at 01:46 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by baja1943
How do you guys feel about farm raised Indonesian frozen lobster at Puerto Nuevo para 25 bucks usd?


i love the thought! maybe there will still be some wild stock left on this side of the pacific!

Cisco - 4-21-2012 at 01:56 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Cypress
baja1943, Not knowingly gonna eat any Asian seafood. They aren't held to the same standards as US farm raised seafood products. Get visions of a septic tank full of you name its crawling around. And off to the market the next day.:O


The growing number of imported foods consumed by Americans makes it harder to identify the frauds, experts say.... Currently, imports account for 85% of seafood, 39% of fruits and nuts and 18% of vegetables.

fishingmako - 4-21-2012 at 03:16 PM

I can tell you I do a lot of tuna fishing, and I freeze up to 200 lbs plus annualy.

My fish tastes as good almost as fresh.

You have to seal it correctly is the keyyou have to have some moisture on it not dry and then seal it, you can't use a cheap model sealer it has to be the best on the market.

Of course the best way is canning also only the best canner can be used.

fishingmako - 4-21-2012 at 03:18 PM

Also talking about pond raised seafood... not good...Reason being it is fed pellets with antibiotics as well as color and harmones.

MitchMan - 4-21-2012 at 05:15 PM

When I catch fish and filet it right at the beach, particularly yellow tail or Dorado, I do not put the freshly cut filets in fresh water or sea water, I put them straight away and kind of bloody into a freezer bag and then put it on ice until I get home. Once at home, I quickly rinse the fish, then further cut the filets into smaller uniform pieces, wrap them air tight in plastic wrap, and then into the freezer. The operative words are "air tight".

When I want to eat the fish, I take it out of the freezer, unwrap the filet, and put it in water to thaw. When finally thawed, I rub the filets with fresh water, and put the filets back into fresh water and let them stand for one hour. Now it's ready to sautee and then eat. I get good results this way and the fish taste very close to fresh fish.

Most of the time when the pangueros filet fish for me at the beach, they soak and rinse the filets in sea water. That tends to "stiffen" the filets and ruins the texture; texture being at least 50% of the flavor experience IMO, don't think it does the actual taste any good either. A fishing buddy of mine said that while human blood does not coagulate in water, but in air instead, the blood in fish does the opposite, that is, the fish blood coagulates in water but not in air. Tends to support my procedure on not putting freshly fileted fish in water as the unsoaked bloody filets maintain their flexibilty and suppleness while filets put in water immediately after fileting get stiff.

willardguy - 4-21-2012 at 05:23 PM

once at home, I quickly rinse the fish.......with fresh or seawater?

MitchMan - 4-21-2012 at 05:35 PM

Last year I was in Pichilingue near La Paz and I came upon a hut on the beach owned by a Panguero. He was preparing Dorado for his family and friends (a lot of Dorado). He was cutting the filets into small filets of 3" by 2" rectangles that were 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch thick. He looked like he knew what he was doing and that he had obviously done it before. I tried that at home and sauteed these little filets very lightly, about 1/2 a minute on each side over a medium flame (in butter, salt and pepper, and many many slivers of fresh garlic). Very tender and delicious.

castaway$ - 4-21-2012 at 07:58 PM

If you don't have a vacuum packer put your fish in gallon ziplocks cover the fish with water then close the ziplock about 95% push all of the air out and finish closing then freeze, works pretty good to keep the flavor and texture pretty close to fresh.

mcfez - 4-21-2012 at 10:43 PM

Dry ice freezing with super-cold dry ice prevents large ice crystalline structures from forming in your filets. These large crystals cause the “mushy” texture of frozen items, due to partial thaw and re-freezing, or very slow freezing

redhilltown - 4-21-2012 at 10:56 PM

If you get it on ice soon after you catch it I am of the opinion that no matter HOW you bag/ziplock/wrap/vacuum pack etc your Baja fish it is going to taste better than 90% of the fresh or frozen fish you can buy anywhere in the states (there are some Alaskan fish exceptions but even "fresh" they can be many days old...fresh frozen is often better than old fresh.) Plus you have the knowledge of exactly where it was caught, in what kind of water, and with what methods.

Fresh Tilapia is almost ten bucks a pound!!!! Give me a friggin break!

volcano - 4-22-2012 at 06:45 AM

a marinade of tamari (soy sauce),and maple syrup, thinned with water

DavidE - 4-22-2012 at 10:39 AM

I like to stick a large cast iron dutch oven or frying pan in the freezer if it'll fit and then do the wetted-down ziploc treatment noted above. When the iron sits awhile in the freezer it'll help the fish get frozen faster (flash freezing). Having lots of already frozen food in the freezer then cranking the "freezer-only" thermostat seems to help as well. "Flash freezing" seems to be a real key. Commercial wild salmon processing plants did it.

Skipjack Joe - 4-22-2012 at 11:03 AM

The fishy smell comes from cells breaking down during thawing. The fresher and the quicker it's frozen the better shape they are and the less this occurs. That's what I've gleaned so far.

woody with a view - 4-22-2012 at 11:08 AM

bring a vacuum sealer if you expect to bring home good quality filets.

Bajame - 4-22-2012 at 11:17 AM

My son worked at a hotel a major one and they soaked the fish in salt water to release the worms they get? Anyone hear of this before?

durrelllrobert - 4-22-2012 at 11:22 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Skipjack Joe
I never eat frozen fish and there is nothing like fresh fish. I hear that fish frozen in seawater is damaged the least. Can't confirm.

When I used to catch too many salmon outa HMB I always smoked the fillets or froze them whole and ungutted. As soon as you open them up they start deteriorating but thawed whole and gutted they tasted much fresher.

saoking fish

captkw - 4-22-2012 at 09:02 PM

Hola as in the first part of this thread..soaking in milk is what we do with shark's.. and some times I'll use a pinnapple/apple juice mix..shark's don't pee like other swimmer's,, they ecert it out through their skin and if ya dont soak um they taste like amoina/pee.....thresher shark is a awsome fighting/eating fish done in this manner...btw today in santa cruz ca. they had limet's of salmon by 9:00 this morning for ALOT of boat's.like 60 boat's..smoking hot salmon fishing..yeeeha !!! K&T :cool:

[Edited on 4-23-2012 by captkw]

CortezBlue - 4-22-2012 at 09:14 PM

I didn't read through all of the responses, but I soak frozen fish in a brine/salt water solution.

willardguy - 4-22-2012 at 09:44 PM

well I tried soaking a grouper fillet in milk for a few hours and it was delicious,completely took away the funky fishyness and tasted like the fresh stuff.:P

goldhuntress - 4-22-2012 at 10:30 PM

In my freezing experience, it is all about getting the air out, no matter what you freeze. I seal my all my fish, no exceptions. Well, except Albacore, I can that. And, you can't freeze fish or anything else indefinitely even if you seal it. I know some people say a year or more but, imo, if you want it to be top quality I'd say only a couple months. I've never soaked fish in anything so I can't speak about that.

Cypress - 4-23-2012 at 04:22 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by goldhuntress
In my freezing experience, it is all about getting the air out, no matter what you freeze.

My experience also.:yes:

Skipjack Joe - 4-23-2012 at 11:32 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by willardguy
well I tried soaking a grouper fillet in milk for a few hours and it was delicious,completely took away the funky fishyness and tasted like the fresh stuff.:P


It sounds as though the milk is just compensating for a fish that isn't fresh to begin with.

Oso - 4-23-2012 at 12:00 PM

Once, years ago, at my place on the upper Cape Fear near Raleigh, I caught an almost record Carp. I had the same prejudice against Carp as most people, but it was such a nice big fish that I couldn't bear to waste it. I knew that many people in the world; Chinese, Japanese, British, ate Carp, so there must be a way to make it edible. Unfortunately the only recipe I knew was the classic one involving a board, straw and manure. I started calling around and when I contacted Fish & Game I lucked out and got a female agent who was from the Midwest. She told me to clean it, cut the meat into chunks, soak them overnight in saltwater and smoke them. I did and it tasted great. There was a lot more than I could eat in a month, so I took most of it to my office and put it on a tray in the breakroom with some Philly cream cheese and crackers. All day I kept hearing comments about the "gourmet fish". Finally I confessed that I had put it there. "What kind of fish is it?" everyone demanded to know.

"Cape Fear Salmon", I said.

Cisco - 4-23-2012 at 12:58 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by captkw
Hola as in the first part of this thread..soaking in milk is what we do with shark's.. and some times I'll use a pinnapple/apple juice mix..shark's don't pee like other swimmer's,, they ecert it out through their skin and if ya dont soak um they taste like amoina/pee.....thresher shark is a awsome fighting/eating fish done in this manner...btw today in santa cruz ca. they had limet's of salmon by 9:00 this morning for ALOT of boat's.like 60 boat's..smoking hot salmon fishing..yeeeha !!! K&T :cool:

[Edited on 4-23-2012 by captkw]



I have found if the shark is bled completely immediately upon catching that the uric acid is not a problem.

willardguy - 4-23-2012 at 02:07 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Skipjack Joe
Quote:
Originally posted by willardguy
well I tried soaking a grouper fillet in milk for a few hours and it was delicious,completely took away the funky fishyness and tasted like the fresh stuff.:P


It sounds as though the milk is just compensating for a fish that isn't fresh to begin with.
yeah you're probably right, that 20 minute boat ride from swimming to freezer was too much.:rolleyes:

desertcpl - 4-23-2012 at 02:15 PM

WE DONT NEED NO STINKING FROZEN FISH

bandido.jpg - 23kB

willardguy - 4-23-2012 at 02:37 PM

he's only angry because someone took a bite of his sombrero

Skipjack Joe - 4-23-2012 at 02:44 PM

It's amazing how quickly fish go bad in baja. I can keep rockfish in a wet gunnysack all day here in HMB and the meat is fresh at the end. But in baja in the summer on the cortez, 20 minutes.

Guys bring an ice chest with that morning's ice. As soon as it's caught it's tossed on the ice. I then head to shore and clean it right there, bag it, and back it goes on the ice. I go back to fishing but am constantly checking that all sides are touching ice.

And that's just to eat fresh fish. It's different in the winter. Grouper is my favorite food fish in baja. It's a shame to not experience it fully.

Kgryfon - 4-24-2012 at 09:55 PM

The panga owner that I always go with in La Paz just throws the fish in a hold tank (no water) until the end of the day. Then we stop on the way back at this island and he cleans and filets them, puts them in gallon ziplock bags, dips the bags in the water to squeeze out all the air, and zips the baggies closed. No water or air in the baggies. The hotel freezes the fish (minus what I have them cook for me while I'm there). When I leave, I buy a cooler, pack the frozen fish in the cooler with newspaper and ice, check the cooler as luggage, and it stays frozen until I get home (N. CA). Seems to work just fine. I started using his baggie method for fish I catch here in the SF Bay and it works fine, too.

I've never had a problem with peey shark. We usually cook them as soon as we get home - sevengill or tiger shark, for the most part.

I have soaked fish in milk before, too. It makes it very mild tasting.

dpwahoo - 4-24-2012 at 11:22 PM

I dont know if this has been posted, but the italian dressing thing works for me.

durrelllrobert - 4-25-2012 at 09:39 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Skipjack Joe
The fishy smell comes from cells breaking down during thawing. The fresher and the quicker it's frozen the better shape they are and the less this occurs. That's what I've gleaned so far.
That's exactly why I used to freeze my extra salmon WHOLE and UNGUTTED. Don't know how rockfish would hold up that way but the salmon never tasted fishy.

MitchMan - 4-25-2012 at 09:54 AM

When I go panga fishing, I usually take, on board the panga, a 48-quart coleman cooler 2/3 filled with ice. The panguero throws ice on the fish we catch in the holding tank on board the panga. That helps keep the catch fresh.

bajaking76 - 4-25-2012 at 10:18 AM

Last year I had a VERY good fishing trip in Bahia Tortuga BCS...the guys at the coop use escamilla ice which is frozen salt water. For a few beers I filled up my 150qt cooler (which was half full of Yellowtail Fillets and a couple whole). This form of ice is ridiculous, it will not melt! I drove from Bahia Tortuga to San Diego and not once did I add ice to the cooler. I did drain it once to keep the whole fish at the button from swimming in the bloody water. That was in September 2011, I used the last of my fillets last month (6 month after being caught) as long as you take the proper precautions, keep them on ice and freeze them as soon as you get home, they will stay decently fresh. I removed any of the darker meat before cooking. By the way, if you haven’t used Knorr Capeador for your fish tacos, you are missing out. The wife adds parsley flakes and some seasoned/garlic salt to the batter. This is what it looks like….we buy this at the Comercial Mexicana.

http://www.unileverfoodsolutions.com.mx/productos-para-profe...

Bajatripper - 4-26-2012 at 05:27 PM

No wonder I never got into fishing much...there's just too damn much to know about it!

redhilltown - 4-26-2012 at 11:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bajatripper
No wonder I never got into fishing much...there's just too damn much to know about it!



No no no no no!!!!! Complete ignorance and stupid enthusiasm is all you need....trust me on this! :tumble: