Cooking
Fresh is better
Apr 22, 2008 09:03 PM
APRIL 17, 2008
For dinner recently my wife, Susan, and I had perch that were caught in Lake Erie about eight hours earlier. Dredged in spiced bread crumbs and sautéed gently, the fish were incredibly tasty served with a fresh salad and pierogi, the latter a relatively recent addition to our very British-oriented palates.
What made the perch so good was that they were so fresh. I've had the experience of rummaging through the freezer and coming up with a plastic-wrapped mass of something that I had caught or killed so long ago I couldn't even identify it.
Experience has taught me that thawing such packages and cooking whatever was inside usually results in a meal that makes the offerings of the greasiest diner look good.
Some fish keep better than others. Halibut is one. I've had halibut steaks that after a year in the freezer were as tasty as some "fresh" halibut I've bought that probably had been sitting on ice for several days before reaching the fish market.
But freshwater fish don't usually fare as well in the freezer, and those with higher fat contents -- including salmon, trout and whitefish -- often develop an unpleasant taste after three months because the fat starts to oxidize. Leaner fish such as walleye, perch and sunfish can be kept frozen for up to a year. But just because a fish is edible after months in the freezer doesn't mean it's palatable. After about 30 days, freezing causes subtle changes in taste and the texture of the flesh.
Anglers would do themselves a great favor if they worried less about catching limits of fish and more about keeping just enough to eat in the next week or so.
Eric Sharp
Source: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080417/SPORTS10/804170403