smoked salmon

[4 REEL]

can you freeze smoked salmon with-out lose of texture and taste? What is the best way to store?

[nipper]

Last time I froze smoked salmon was some chum I caught up in northern BC. It was fine, and we ate it periodically over the next 5-6 months. So I think freezing works OK for smoked salmon. This chum was hot smoked with a fairly sweet cure.

I just ate the last of my smoked Springer. Boy was that stuff tasty. Also on the grill with Soy Vay teriyaki sauce.

Bon apetit,

Nipper

[nipper]

Of course, use a good vacuum sealer before freezing.

Nipper

[rcl187]

I just thawed out some red pepper/mandrin orange flavored chum. Man that's good stuff. I've had it in the freezer since november and it tastes fine to me. I hope the guy who invented the vacuum sealer is rich because he deserves it.

[kodiakfisher]

My wife an I go to Kodiak every other year to catch Coho's. We come back to the states and start smoking the tail sections of all of our fillets. We have had the frozen and vacumm sealed for over a year. The one thing that I notice is that the pressure from the vacumm sealing squishes some of the oil out of the salmon. The sealed back has a fair amount of fish oil in the bag I would prefer this would stay in the fish. It will never be as good as right out of the smoker and into the mouth but... any smoked salmon is better than no smoked salmon. I still consider it a great treat. I have never received any complaints when sent a christmas extras and often get requests for more.

[Tinned Fish]

Kodiakfisher,

Are you freezing your salmon before vacumn sealing it? I noticed the same oil extraction with my non-smoked fillets. To beat it, I lay the fillets out on paper covered cookie sheets and freeze em uncovered for @ 5 hours. Then the meat can stand up to the vacumn sealer without oozing. It also makes for far fewer failed seals, since the oils don't get into the melted seam.

As far as the frozen smoked salmon question - I worked at a few different food stores, and they'd freeze their smoked salmon to store large lots (since it's cheapest during the fall). They'd move it to a refrigerator before setting it out on the retail floor. So if you're happy with the commercial smoked salmon, you'll be more than happy with your own frozen smoked salmon.

TinnedFish

[kodiakfisher]

Tinned Fish,

Thanks for the information, I don't freeze my fish prior to sealing. Makes sense lightly freeze the meat then it can take the pressure of the sealer without oozing. I will for sure be doing this with my smoked salmon. Fresh salmon filets there has always been plenty of fish oil in the pack but I always double seal just for that reason. Normally we get back from fishing in Alaska late and tired and just want to get the fillets sealed and in the freezer and get the egg cure started.