Rules on Freezing Salmon before Smoking

[welsh wizard]

just a heads up, there is a new edict comng in for people like me who smoke salmon and sell it that I will soon be required to freeze all my fresh salmon (especially wild salmon) for a minimum of 5 days before smoking it. Evidently this is the best way to kill all parasites on the fish. It has evidently been law to freeze fish before smoking in a number of countries including America for some time.

I have had both fresh smoked salmon and frozen smmoked salmon tested by the EH and the frozen salmon has a lot less growth on it and therefore will have a longer shelf life. Mine was tested at 7 and 10 days and at 7 it was fine and even at 10 it was saleable but of poorer quality.

Dont worry about freezing and refreezing once smoked as the salt will cook the salmon in the cure and is then suitable for refreezing (sorry I expect that is teaching you all to suck eggs)!

Cheers WW

[Oddley]

Hey WW thanks for the info.

What are you going to use to freeze your salmon? As you know, if you use an ordinary freezer, you lose quality because the ice crystals formed during freezing penetrate the cells walls, making the fish watery.

[wheels]

Something similar's been around for a while with regard to wild salmon:

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/ ... isakis.pdf

I imagine it'd be best to blast freeze it?

Phil

[grisell]

You don't need to freeze it first. You can freeze it after smoking. The result will be better because of the lower water content. I do it this way.

Of course, a home freezer is far from optimal. Ice crystals will form and burst the cells, changing the consistency and taste. The temperature should be as low as possible when freezing so that the process is quick (or there should be some kind of forced ventilation).

I once bought a few litres of liquid nitrogen (-196 C/-320 F) from the local gas supplier to freeze fish. Just dumped the fish into a tray and poured over the nitrogen. Yes, there was a difference! I abandoned this method, not because of the price of the gas (I think it was something like £2 a litre), but because it was impractical to buy new everytime. As you might imagine, liquid nitrogen has a very short shelf life . Also, the pledge for the Thermos was about £70 or so.

[wheels]

As non-commercial producers we can do as we wish (at our own peril!). But, I think that commercially, the requirement will be to freeze before smoking, regardless of whether it's possible to do so afterwards with the same effect.

Phil

[grisell]

[---] But, I think that commercially, the requirement will be to freeze before smoking, regardless of whether it's possible to do so afterwards with the same effect.

Phil

Why before?

[wheels]

Because that's what the guidance says! I'm not being facetious when I say that, and perhaps I am just making assumptions, but I am guessing that the new guidance will be based on the one for wild salmon; that as such, infers freezing before, rather than after. Or, in any case, it's my belief that the EHP's will read it that way.

As I said though, for us non-commercial guys, the choice is ours.

Phil

[welsh wizard]

The reason why it needs to be frozen before smoking is because once smoked you can eat / sell it without re freezing. If you only freeze it after smoking it takes away the opportunity for the customer to freeze it once bought.

Ref freezing Oddley (not actually freezing him you understand) it is a moot point. I have frozen and smoked salmon for over a year now knowing that this advice was pending and as yet I have had no one complain. However you are correct a freezer does tend to "alter" the state of the fish.

Cheers WW

[Richierich]

Watched an epsiode of how do they do it or similar and there was a sushi/sashimi guy in New York who had to freeze all his fish prior to serving it raw. His freezer ran at -40C.

[welsh wizard]

I am led to believe it is wild fish that carry more of a parasite as opposed to farmed fish. But hey ho they will have us dousing it in petrol and setting fire to it next "just in case"

cheers WW

[grisell]

The reason why it needs to be frozen before smoking is because once smoked you can eat / sell it without re freezing. If you only freeze it after smoking it takes away the opportunity for the customer to freeze it once bought.

[---]

Cheers WW

Makes sense.

[wheels]

Thanks WW

Phil