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This video is about two different ways to freeze your fish fillets, with or without a vacuum sealer. Simon has been harvesting wild fish and game for decades, and has learned a few crucial techniques for making sure your meat stays in prime condition in your freezer, so you can have the perfect fish fry!
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In this video:
0:00 - What To Do With Your Fish
0:34 - Freezing Fish Fillets With A Vacuum Sealer
2:58 - Portion Sizes
4:06 - Freezing Fish Fillets In Water
5:29 - Don't Do This!
6:15 - How To Freeze Fluid Into A Block
7:45 - Date And Store In The Freezer
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0:00
What's up everybody, it's Simon from Lake Hub
0:02
Welcome to my kitchen. We're talking fish fillets. Hey, you laid into some fish at the lake, you got some catfish or some cropy or some
0:10
you know, striped bass or sandbass. Awesome, what do you do with it
0:15
There's two ways to freeze your fish, to not get freezer burn, to have it last a really long
0:21
time with and without a vacuum sealer. So if you don't have a vacuum sealer, stick around to the end because I've got one tip that's going to
0:29
totally change your freezer game. All right? Let's get started. The first and best way to
0:36
freeze your fish fillets is with a vacuum sealer. There's a couple simple tricks. It's not that
0:42
complicated. If you've got a vacuum sealer, you know that you use these bags. You kind of
0:47
size. And I've got an old one here. This is a rival seal a meal. I got this like on Craigslist
0:56
for $20, like 12 years ago. It served me really well. It's time to upgrade because long story short, I've had my last problem with a deer processor
1:06
Deer processors are henceforth fired forever for my life. I am now butchering all my own venison
1:13
So I need to up my vacuum seal game. So I'm going to be on the market for a vacuum sealer
1:18
If you all have a good one that you like, I want to know about down below because I'm going to be shopping this year
1:23
anyway so what a vacuum sealer does sucks all the air out because air along with moisture are the
1:34
enemy of frozen meat so make sure that you for starters that you wash your fillets and cold water
1:42
keep that meat firm and then pat it down really dry take all the moisture off the surface of the
1:48
fillet and then the vacuum seal is going to take all the air out if you have air
1:53
and then you have moisture the air is just you know in the freezer um it just like how why you have to de your freezer right it it going to take all the moisture in the air and it going to freeze it into crystals And so as moisture is being drawn out of your meat it being frozen into the air space that in your bag
2:13
that's bad news for your meat. That's going to dry it out. It's going to get freezer burn
2:17
It's going to go bad. You don't want to do that. You had so much fun catching fish
2:23
You've done all the work of cleaning them and out like kind of stuff. Don't waste your fish by not preparing
2:28
well for the freezer. So just pat it down really dry. Make sure you get a good seal
2:34
Some vacuum sealers are really good about that. Automatic. They detect like when it's been
2:38
vacuumed out and then they just do a seal. Mine's got like two different modes, you know
2:43
so it's got the vacuum mode and it's got the seal mode. And if you don't set it just right on
2:49
the bead, then, you know, it'll leak and you got to cut it and you got to redo it. Not that
2:54
big of a deal, but just something to consider. Right. The other thing to consider when you're freezing, no matter if you're freezing with or without a vacuum sealer, is your portion size
3:05
So what I like to do is do like a two person, three person portion size in one unit so that, you know, we can basically take like two units out, feed your family
3:18
Or, you know, if we're just doing adults only, then we just pull one out
3:23
If you want leftovers, it's a lot easier to break up if you do it in kind of a module
3:28
other way like that instead of just dumping like a ton into one thing. So think about how you're
3:31
going to use that fish. If you want, if you're going to do like one massive fish ride, then then
3:35
try to get as much as you can. The more filets that you put in to one bag, especially vacuum
3:42
ceiling, the less kind of efficient, you know, the vacuuming job is. If there's like a lot of
3:48
space in between, there's a lot of chunks and pieces, it's, it just doesn't quite get it all the way
3:54
You kind of have to press it down a little bit. So keep it simple if you can
3:58
and put fewer fillets in space them out so that it can seal around each piece It work better All right So if you don have a vacuum sealer here is how you do it
4:11
Don't just throw them in a Ziploc bag and throw them in the freezer unless it's just going to be for like a couple days because it will freezer burn and you will be heartbroken
4:20
You'll have done all that work and you pull it out and it's finally time to eat it and ugh
4:25
I've done that before. Don't do that. Here's what you do. You freeze it in a block of water
4:31
Old school method, right? Tried and true. So a couple things that you want to do here is you want to make sure, one, again, your portion size
4:40
think about how are you going to be using this because you're going to defrost this whole block at one time and then you're going to have all this raw meat
4:45
So think about how you're going to use it and then make sure that you give enough water
4:51
There's enough, you know, kind of headspace of water over top of the meat so the meat doesn't
4:56
float and get exposed to the air because you're going to have air. It's a Ziploc bag
5:00
You're just going to have air in there. not vacuum sealed. You're not like, you know, drawing all the air out of it. It's just going to happen
5:06
You're going to do your best to take all the air out when you're getting the water in
5:09
but you're always going to have an air bubble in here. So just make sure you got enough water to
5:13
cover the meet up. And then make sure that you have enough bag on top of the water so that you're
5:19
not pushing up and like straining the seal of the bag. So just make sure you give yourself enough
5:26
room because then if you don't you end up with this monstrosity there's a bunch of
5:34
striped bass there's a pile of striped bass i put it all in the ones that block bag i just fill
5:39
it up through in my freezer i didn't have time or something uh who knows i was whatever it doesn't
5:45
matter now it's frozen and look what it did what happens when water freezes to ice
5:51
it expands thankfully it didn't bust the seal but it almost did look at that so i've got a nice little flat spot where i set it down on the freezer but um
6:01
if you set it down on your grate like your shelves by the way like your wire shelves um it sink in around the wire and get stuck Had that happen before too Don do that
6:14
Always on a flat surface. But what's even better is to put it, look at this
6:19
Nice cube. Look at that cube. Beautiful. Put it in a box
6:25
Put it in a Tupperware container. Put it into, you know, a cereal box or look at your pantry
6:32
Just, what do you have in your pantry? Take some wheat thins. I love the wheat-thin boxes
6:36
because they're like this big and like that tall. Little brick, little bricks, right
6:41
So you just take the bag out. You know, if you have some wheat-ins or cereal or whatever, or just Tupperware
6:47
I like rectangles. Rectangles are going to stack always better than circular, you know, containers
6:54
And then just put your, once you have your water prepped, right? You take the air bubble out the top
6:59
as best you can, drop it in there, throw it in the freezer. Next day, take it out of the box
7:04
put the box back wherever you got it, and you're good to go. If you have like a wheat-thens kind of size box or trisket crackers, delicious trisket crackers
7:12
then you can stack, I mean, it makes like these little bricks, right
7:18
And you can just stack them like a bookshelf. It's like, it's awesome
7:23
It makes your freezer just, it totally changes your freezer game. You can do this with anything
7:27
You can do this with spaghetti sauce. You can do this with, you know, soup and stew and pot roast and whatever
7:34
right whatever you're cooking especially if you're cooking in a crock pot like i've got a crockpot
7:37
over here going right now kind of off screen but oh man it smells good that's going to be some good
7:41
stuff tonight we're not going to eat all that today i'm probably going to freeze the leftovers
7:46
freeze into a brick make sure you put the date right date what it is and then put it in the back
7:54
put it in the bottom put it if you have a deep freeze put it take stuff out put it the old
7:58
the new stuff in the bottom right so that you're always eating the older stuff as it's like kind of
8:02
rising to the top. So that's it. That's how you freeze your flays. Two different ways to do it
8:08
I want to hear your comments below and we'll catch you next time
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