Defrosting salmon | Imamother

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Forum -> Household Management -> Kosher Kitchen

Defrosting salmon

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amother

Tue, Aug 02 2022, 4:33 pm

I buy my salmon in bulk, and only need around 4 slices per meal, not 8 that comes in the package.
I find it tastes gross after defrosting the entire package and refreezing the remaining pieces and then defrosting again.
Any ideas?

BrisketBoss

Tue, Aug 02 2022, 4:34 pm

Can't you just take out 4 pieces to defrost, then immediately put the bag back in the freezer?

penguin

Tue, Aug 02 2022, 4:38 pm

When I freeze, I take a larger ziplock and separate the pieces. Sometimes I'll stack in freezer so they're alternating e.g. one package's pieces are in the spaces between the pieces under it. Thus you can remove as few pieces as you like because they are not stuck together, if you see what I mean.

amother

Tue, Aug 02 2022, 4:40 pm

BrisketBoss wrote:

Can't you just take out 4 pieces to defrost, then immediately put the bag back in the freezer?

No, cuz their stuck together.

amother

Tue, Aug 02 2022, 4:40 pm

penguin wrote:

I feel slow but I’m not following how you prevent the sticking together..

Amarante

Tue, Aug 02 2022, 4:48 pm

My understanding is that you buy frozen salmon in bulk packages and so you can't separate the individual pieces unless they are defrosted because they have stuck together.

Actually what this indicates is that at some point the salmon became defrosted and then refroze because when stuff is commercially frozen it is done at super high almost instantaneous freezing conditions and the pieces generally don't stick together.

Unless you are able to separate the pieces while still frozen, there really isn't any solution because you simply can not refreeze protein - especially fish - without really degrading the quality. This is because home freezers don't freeze instantly and create issues with the actual structure of the protein.

You could plan ahead and figure out how to use up all the salmon - for example if you poach some of the salmon it is delicious cold the next day. Or defrost and use it all that week with a different recipe - there are so many delicious ways to prepare salmon that are completely different so you wouldn't get bored.

amother

Heather

Tue, Aug 02 2022, 4:52 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I don't know how your salmon is sold, but where I buy it, it comes in one big piece. Since I only need a few pieces per meal, I cut it while it's fresh then put each portion into a separate baggie, and just remove from the freezer when I need it.

amother

DarkCyan

Tue, Aug 02 2022, 5:00 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I feel slow but I’m not following how you prevent the sticking together..

You open the packaging when you buy it and bag the pieces separately or in small portions before freezing it.

ra_mom

Tue, Aug 02 2022, 5:09 pm

Freeze the portion amounts that you need, separately. I usually freeze 2 slices in each ziploc bag. That means if I have a bulk order of 20 slices of salmon, I am opening the whole package and repacking the salmon into 10 separate ziploc bags. I only defrost 1-2 ziploc bags at a time (depending on specifically how many slices I need).
It could be dangerous to freeze, defrost, and freeze again- it doesn't only taste bad.

zaq

Tue, Aug 02 2022, 9:24 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I feel slow but I’m not following how you prevent the sticking together..

While the fish is still frozen, take a sharp kitchen knife, cut along the existing cut marks or slice the fish any way you like if you don't see the cut marks. Then wrap each piece individually and put back in the freezer. Never refreeze fully thawed food without first cooking it. Not only will it taste awful when re-thawed, but the chances of spoilage are high.

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