Freezing Fish for Long Term Storage

Fishing is a great survival skill and something everyone should spend a little time doing. After all, practice makes perfect and there aren’t too many things that are more fun to practice than fishing, unless of course you’re pumping a few rounds through your 12 gauge shotgun. The main problem is that when you become proficient enough to catch a lot of fish; you can’t eat it all and need to put some up for later. One of the best ways to preserve your extra fish you’ve caught for later use is by freezing.

Fish won’t keep very long when frozen if you don’t take a little time to do it right. Just wrapping it in tin foil (save that for your hat!) or plastic wrap isn’t going to do you or your fish a lot of good. After a couple of months, it will hardly be worth cooking because much of the moisture and a lot of the flavor will be gone. This is due to the fish drying out because of what is usually referred to as “freezer burn”. The technical term for this is called sublimation.

Now if you weren’t paying attention in high school chemistry class you probably don’t remember what sublimation is all about. It’s simply a process where ice turns to water vapor without becoming water first. This is made even more difficult to control when freezing fresh meat items because most modern day freezers now have automatic defrosting mechanisms.

It’s not really a big secret on how to properly freeze your fish for long term storage and the technique can be used for other types of fresh meat as well. Simply clean, fillet and skin them as you normally would and it’s best to remove the heads and tails also. Then using a proper storage container for freezing food items, which can be easily purchased most anywhere, you are ready to freeze your fish.

The trick is to completely cover your fish with water in an appropriate container. Leave a little space at the top but make sure your fish are completely covered with water. You may want to tap the side of your container to make sure there aren’t any air bubbles trapped inside your container with the fish. Then freeze your storage container. It’s that simple! Your fish will be frozen in a solid block of ice that will prevent moisture lost, or freezer burn, and you will have fish that will retain its flavor for a year or more when frozen in this manner.

To prepare it for cooking simply let it thaw at room temperature in a colander or strainer which will allow the water to drain away as it thaws. After your frozen fish has completely thawed, simply pat it dry with some paper towels and prepare it according to your favorite recipe.

Staying above the frozen water line!

Riverwalker