Northwest Fishing Reports

I have heard that one can freeze smoked fish, but how well does it hold up? I plan on vacuum sealing whole fish cut in halves. I have had this fish hold up great for a month in the refer but worry about it going rancid, or getting an "off" taste. These trout are typically very oily, but smoke great. Anyone with a similar story?:rendeer:

Vacuum pack and freeze...they'll be JUST fine! Without all the preservatives as store bought, it's the only way to go.

Vac pac and freeze. Good for a year.

I vacuum seal my smoked fish and leave it in the refrigerator. It lasts about 4 months. The brine cures the fish so it keeps well refrigerated. I’m not sure if freezing smoked fish depreciates the quality of the fish or not. It usually never lasts more than a few months at my house so leaving it refrigerated works well for me.

I wont repeat the same thing. I vacum pack mine. It comes out very nice.

Dave wrote:I vacuum seal my smoked fish and leave it in the refrigerator. It lasts about 4 months. The brine cures the fish so it keeps well refrigerated. I’m not sure if freezing smoked fish depreciates the quality of the fish or not. It usually never lasts more than a few months at my house so leaving it refrigerated works well for me.

If you freeze it fast and hard, down below 0 degrees there shoud be no problem. I've frozen hundreds of thousands of pounds of smoked fish. It's good for a about a year but in the commercial world we moved it quick after 9 months as you never know how long it will take to get to the store shelf. The FDA suggested a shelf life of a year and for consumer packaging the use by date was set at a year and stamped on the package.

One trick for getting the best results from a home vac pac is to heat the bags so the make them supple so they conform to the item. Pull the vacuum for a long enough time to get all the air out. We would put sliced product on a piece of bonded cardboard to insure a vacuum and product presentation.

Bodofish wrote:One trick for getting the best results from a home vac pac is to heat the bags so the make them supple so they conform to the item.

Good idea! How did you heat them? Hairdryer? Clothes Dryer??

Hot water. Big pan dip the filled pouch give it a quick wipe and vac.

Since I like my fish smokey and not salty my finished product is very moist and needs to be frozen for storage. After smoking, I put the smoked fillets on a teflon coated cookie sheet and freeze before vacuum packing. Freezing firms up the fillet so it doesn't get distorted by the vacuum pressure, and keeps the liquids in the fish and out of the packer. Without the fish liquid plugging up the vacuum head allows you to "pull" a longer vacuum to get all of the air out of the bag before sealing. Put the still frozen fillets back into the freezer for long term storage.

No need to worry about smoked fish oozing to much moisture. Freezing before hand increases the percentage leakers as you can get sharp edges. Just my experience. I never vac pac'ed any frozen fish unless the fish was frozen before it was portioned and then it was triple glazed before going into the bag. Too many failures associated with freezing before hand.

Good info guys, I may just freeze some of it next time around. I sure appreciate all the knowledge and kindness shared on this site. Thanks you.

I usually freeze my fish before brinning too. I do it because its easier to cut pieces from a soft frozen fish then a raw fish.