Why You Should Be Buying Frozen Seafood (and Tips for Buying Frozen Seafood)



Ingredient expert Jack Bishop talks frozen seafood.

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50 Comments

  1. i know talking about fish here,but what about previously frozen chicken i see in the super market labeld , previously frozen,usually chicken breast, my question is is it safe to refreeze it since im not going to cook them that day ?

  2. I saw this video and decided to try the frozen salmon filets offered at a large popular supermarket chain in Connecticut, USA. I have always bought the fresh filets at the seafood counter. The first meal using the frozen salmon was awful. I generally cook this kind of fish in a covered pan with broth around it and it comes out very moist and tender but the thawed salmon filets were missing that tender texture. Today I put both a thawed filet and a fresh filet into an instant pot for a cook time of one minute with a fast pressure release. The fresh filet was what I expected and was excellent but the thawed filet was very dense in texture and not a pleasure to eat at all. The only reason that I ate it is that I refuse to waste food. So why the big disconnect between the advice in the video and the results?

  3. Not sure about defrosting fish in the microwave, but you can make a really tasty poached filet straight from frozen in the microwave – fat, salt, aromatics, and something wet, like soy sauce or lemon juice, covered, cooked at 40% power for a few min depending on thickness (shout out Dave Chang).

  4. Frozen salmon was on sale in my grocers freezer I was assured it was not farm raised. In my fridge I thawed 2 fillets for 24 hours, took the fillets out, leaning them into my sink to drain liquid before cooking, both fillets went from salmon pink to brown, this pink colored goo drained out of the fish! It was the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen and I can only imagine what that thick pink goo was. I took it back to my grocers and even the manager was horrified. Don't buy farm raised.

  5. I always pull my shrink-wrapped flash frozen fish the night before, and leave it in the refrigerator, for dinner the following night.
    For shrimp, I just take a tall drinking glass, and drop the frozen shrimp into the glass, put it in the refrigerator for the next night; it's perfect and ready to go.

  6. My problem with frozen shrimp: they seemed to be puffed up with water, I assume under pressure. "Large" frozen shrimp shrink to half their size once you put them in a hot pan. Because I live on the coast, I buy my shrimp fresh off the trawler, head them, and freeze them myself. No packaged frozen shrimp for me.

  7. I thought there was a way to soak stuff that has that trisodiumphosphate such that it removes the off flavor. Seems like I've read about doing this with frozen scallops. Now I have to go research this further…

  8. IN MY VIEW
    I bought my first frozen bag of seafood when the shrimp was on sale. My freezer now has a variety of seafood. This is SO convenient! I never go to the fresh seafood counter anymore. Your suggestions were great. I will look at my shrimp ingredients from now on to make sure it is only shrimp (salt is ok).

  9. All chef's making a fish meal use nice thick filets! Stop pushing skinny tilapia so the rich get the nice thick fish filets!
    That one woman at the end saying to the butch woman, "I'll see you later!" Sounds like she's saying it's sex time later!

  10. With little time to scour previous comments for the same observation and with an aim to inform even if to point out again…
    Freezer burn is not as described…
    The thing described, partially thaw and refrozen is dangerous and avoided at all costs…
    Freezer burn is " the sublimation of moisture in a subfreezing environment where frozen water is converted directly from solid to gas"…
    The dry air in the freezer is sucking the water right out of the food, even ice cubes shrink and the "frost-free" function of the freezer whisks it away…
    A vacuum chamber in a freezer would accelerate the process and I think I just invented a new way to create beef jerky…
    As you were….

  11. When buying shrimp, it also helps to know the sizing system which tells you approximately how many shrimp you'll get per pound. Tiny shrimp will be labeled 61/70 which means 61-70 shrimp per pound. I usually go for 26/30 if I'm doing scampi and 16/20 for a shrimp cocktail…unless I'm trying to impress someone, then I'll go for 13/15 which are huge.

  12. My forays into frozen fish from my local supermarket were lackluster. I thought maybe it's the brand, so I bought a bag of frozen wild-caught salmon fillets from Whole Foods, thinking maybe the quality would be better. I wasn't happy with the pan-fried results – too "fishy" tasting. I know that sounds ridiculous, but you know what I mean. (I cook and enjoy salmon all the time – these had an unusually strong and unpleasant "fishy" taste – must have been the particular type of salmon).

    So here I was with a freezer full of frozen haddock and salmon fillets. What to do? I know! I'll make soups and stews.

    First up was a Thai fish bouillabaisse with lime, coconut milk, a cup of water, Thai peanut sauce (recipe called for red curry paste but I'm not a fan of super-hot and spicy food), cilantro and packaged broccoli slaw, to which I added a couple of the frozen salmon fillets. Delicious! Next, a Mediterranean fish stew starting with mirepoix and chopped garlic, then canned chopped tomatoes, a couple of cups of water, quartered small new potatoes, white wine, Mediterranean herbs and a couple of the haddock fillets. Yum!

    Both recipes called for cutting up the fillets before adding them but I just dumped them in, whole, frozen. How convenient! The haddock was easy to break into pieces after it cooked. I removed the whole salmon fillets when they were cooked, turned them upside-down on a plate and removed and discarded the skin which practically slid off, cut them into chunks and dumped them back in the soup pot.

    I now think this is a perfect way to use frozen fish fillets, especially if they're less than optimal when cooked using other cooking methods. A good glass of wine and some toasted bread slices as accompaniments make a wonderful meal.

  13. Hi Jack,
    Sodium Tripolyphosphate, is used to make seafood look firm, smooth and glossy.

    Seafood packers may soak product in a bath of STPP to achieve this. Seafood soaked too long will absorb more water so you pay more because it weighs more.

    Product soaked with STPP will exude a milky white liquid as you cook it, and will shrink in size too.
    Thanks Jack,
    LG

  14. I think he misspoke here when he said to run the tap water over it for 20 or 30 minutes. That’s an EXTREME waste of water. Also, I’ve never seen frozen shrimp sold in big blocks of ice. Is that even a thing? Finally he says don’t buy swordfish, tuna and maybe even salmon frozen? How are you supposed to buy it – given that his premise is that all fish are frozen on the boat anyway?

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