Specialized machinery makes freezing better.
Starting with better product leads to leaving with better product.
Water IS wet.
Fresh is better.
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The real tragedy of this video is that i now want fish tacos, fish cakes, and my dead grandmothers long lost recipe for fried gefilte fish patties that died with the onset of her alzheimers.
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It also depends on the type of fish. Lower fat content fish freezes better. Properly frozen halibut is indistinguishable from fresh halibut. The same cannot be said for a fattier fish like salmon. When I get a salmon, I either share it or smoke whatever fish I don’t prepare fresh. Smoked salmon freezes well (again, when properly prepared).
For cooking, fresh fish is better.
Anyone who argues it’s not is wrong.
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I do not think “pliable” means what she thinks it means, as she says the fish isn’t while bending it on camera.
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Part of what I’m saying is you can’t really say that. The vast bulk of fish on the US market is frozen at some point. Unless you’re exclusively buying whole, ungutted fish. Or shopping at the sort of fish market that buys direct from inshore boats to send it out to the big regional commercial markets (or those big regional commercial markets). The bulk of the fish you’re looking at have been frozen. And properly frozen fish is often significantly higher quality than non frozen fish that’s out of the water longer than 24 hours or so.
So whole locally caught fish basically. And even the bulk of locally available species you run into, won’t actually be locally caught. A huge percentage of US caught fish goes immediately to export.
Especially given mislabeling and lack of transparency in the market. If you are buying fish you are most likely often buying fish that has been frozen at some point. Even if you don’t know it.
I live about a 15 minute walk from an active commercial dock, and nearly everyone I grew up around is either a commercial fisherman or was one at one point. And I can’t avoid fish that’s been frozen. Not that I care to. Cause like I said it’s often higher quality than a non-frozen fish that’s been out of the water longer than “this morning”.
Cause sushi grade doesn’t mean “meant for sushi” or even “appropriate quality for sushi”.
It’s just a statement that it’s parasites have been dealt with by freezing. Any fish that’s been frozen fast enough, cold enough, and long enough can be sold as sushi grade. And most fish labeled that way actually makes pretty piss poor sushi.
It means nothing vis a vis quality. So it’s usually better cooked than raw.
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I wouldn’t vouch for the safety of the touchier exotic micronutrients; but is there any reason to suspect that a few cycles of crystalization damage and freezer burn would do much to it’s bulk nutritional properties?
It’s the same lattice of proteins and connective tissue that would, under better circumstances, still have some intact cell walls full of fluid keeping it from being a spongy mass; and unless its mistreatment had included some thaw cycles allowing spoilage it hasn’t obviously had anything else nibbling on it.
I live up here in metropolitan PNW, US.
We have good stores, we have good purveyors, we have good fish, and we have people who know about fish.
I cooked for 20 years or so, mostly in small places, but I have bought and cooked a lot of fish.
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Well that’s nice. But like I said I live in a place that’s exactly comparable, except on the East Coast. And that’s just the way the supply chain works in the US.
The cooking part…
… yeah, not so nice.
Not actually nice at all.
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Now that you mention it, growing up I never liked most fish dishes… and I’m from Ohio.
It’s probably the same way that fresh produce was a revelation when I moved out here to Cali; freshness makes a HUGE difference in taste, texture and overall quality of food.
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It doesn’t take a long trip from water for the quality of fish to drop dramatically. If I’m in the south side of Houston I can find amazing fresh seafood in the grocery or in restaurants, but if I’m on the north side I might as well be in Arkansas outside of very fine restaurants.
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As someone who has also lived on a tropical island with plenty of access to fresh seafood, I agree emphatically.
It had just never dawned me until now why I hated fish as a kid, until now.
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My wife was raised in Michigan and only liked king crab until we went to Hawaii, and now she likes fish - in Hawaii.
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Alas, I’m still pretty much ruined for most fish, with the exception of tuna, salmon and halibut. Shellfish is another story, though; depending upon how it’s prepared.
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Shellfish freezes better.
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Precisely.
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I live in Denver, pretty far from a fresh fish source. And I can get fish that tastes awesome. Because freezing doesn’t necessarily reduce quality. I grew up in New England, and had plenty of terrible fish that was never frozen. I don’t know why you’re choosing this particular hill to die on, but hey, whatever makes you happy.
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