How to store fish fillets and fish steaks in fridge?
I'm new to eating fish and am afraid we maybe aren't storing our fish correctly. So far we have just been buying fillets or steaks. We have just been leaving it in the wax paper wrapping from the store and cooking and eating it within 2 days. Is there anything else I need to do to store fish fillets and fish steaks? Thank you.
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I would eat the fish faster than within 2 days. The next day at the very latest. My fishmonger wraps the fish in a plastic bag and then in butcher paper, but he's told me that once I get home, to TAKE IT OUT of the paper and open the plastic bag and let it sit with the bag open in the fridge. If you have truly fresh seafood, it will not make your fridge smell.
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So many different ways people do it, it sounds like. We never buy more than 48 hours away from when we plan to eat it, but it sounds like to be safest, I should use ice. I don't think we have enough room to use a colandar and bowl, but we should for a small tray, something like an ice cube tray might work.
If I want to do this: "place fish in a plastic bag on a shallow tray filled with ice" can I do this for steaks as well as fillets?
Thanks everyone.
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Karl S
May 20, 2012 05:24 PM
Fish must be stored on ice - it needs to be very close to 32F, rather than the 40F of most areas of the fridge. (Ideally, you should have the fishmonger pack it with ice at the market, too). Fish that is kept at normal fridge temps deteriorates far faster than fish kept on ice. It is a big deal.
I eat fish 5 or more times a week, and typically buy 2+ times a week. I have freezer packs ready for my fish - I bag the fish and place it over the freezer pack in another bag with as little air as possible.
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gingershelley
May 20, 2012 04:51 PM
Ideally, when you get your fish home, remove butcher paper, and place fish in a plastic bag on a shallow tray (1/2 or 1/4 sheet tray with sides) filled with ice. Place the fish on the ice for no more than 2 days, prefferably less. This brings the temp of the fish down another few degrees and really slows enzyme breakdown.
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re: gingershelley
Here's what I do, rinse filets, put in a plastic bag in a collander then a larger bowl, and cover in ice. As the ice melts, it drips into the bowl, where you can replace the ice and empty the water. There is no better way to keep it cold and prevent water from getting to the fish. It works great for shrimp too. I'd keep it no more than two days, up to four if I catch it myself.
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re: arktos
Will Owen
May 20, 2012 04:57 PM
I suppose a lot depends on how sensitive you are to fish smells and at what point you start thinking of it as "bad". The last pound of raw shrimp I bought for a Mother's Day brunch was wrapped in our crisper from Friday afternoon until midday Sunday, and smelled about the same coming out as they had going in (they were also delicious). Franklin's old saw that "Guests and fish stink after three days" I regard as giving some insight into historic food-keeping practices; I probably wouldn't keep fish that long, especially without refrigeration, but I do think there ARE very much worse things than stinking up the fridge. Getting sick, for instance. If two days doesn't get the fish to that level of deterioration - and it won't - and if I'm not smelling anything bad, then it's okay.
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Will Owen
May 20, 2012 04:32 PM
The fresh fish I get from supermarkets is usually slipped into a plastic bag and wrapped in butcher paper, then in the pink paper. Two days is okay for that anywhere in the fridge, at least in my experience; I never buy fresh fish more than two days before I'm going to cook it. Same goes for any fish packed in a plastic tray. The only way fish is more fragile than meat is that a bit of aging that you wouldn't notice in a lamb chop or steak can give some fish a noticeably "off" flavor, especially if it's wrapped only in paper and allowed to dry out. If it is wrapped like that I'd store it in the crisper, where it's humid.
