How to: store fresh fish
A delicious piece of salmon through your pasta, a wonderful fish pie or a fresh mackerel sandwich. Ideally, we’d eat fresh fish all week long. What’s the best way to store fish? Carlo Wildschut from Vishandel IJmuider offers advice.
Vacuum-sealing
The best way to store fresh fish is to vacuum-seal it. ”Vacuum-sealing removes the cause of bacteria—air. If you store fresh fish in the plastic tray from the fishmonger in the refrigerator, it will last at least a day. If you have it vacuum-sealed, your fish will certainly last two days.”
Freezing
”If you want to keep fish for longer than two days, freeze it. Always put your fish in the freezer vacuum-sealed. Otherwise, the fish will dry out or may even suffer from freezer burn. These days, you can have your fish vacuum-sealed at any fishmonger if you ask. At the fish shop itself, we store fresh fish in crates with ice, so you never have to deal with standing water. That standing water comes from the fish and is the ideal source for bacteria to grow in. The ice also naturally keeps the fish cold.
Unfortunately, you can’t store fish in the refrigerator in the same way, because then your entire refrigerator will become a mess. What’s unpleasant about fish from the supermarket is that there’s a sort of sanitary pad underneath the fish, which prevents moisture from draining away. This isn’t particularly hygienic. ”
Whole fish or fillet?
Not sure whether to take home a whole fish or a fillet? Choose a fillet if you’re not going to eat the fish right away. ”With a whole fish, it’s important that if you want to keep it for longer, you have the fishmonger gut it. If the fish is still completely intact, it deteriorates much faster because it naturally contains a lot of bacteria.”
Still fresh?
According to the Voedingscentrum, it’s best to store fresh fish as close to freezing point as possible. You can tell whether the fish is still fresh if its eyes are clear and transparent and slightly bulging. The skin is moist and shiny. You’ll notice that the fish is old when it starts to smell. With fish fillets, you can tell they’re fresh if the fillet is shiny and hasn’t changed color, smells briny and is firm. That way, you can be sure you’ll be serving a fresh piece of fish tonight.
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