Bass Fishing

Freezing fresh water fish

Freezing fish causes them to be dry and "fishy" tasting when later thawed and cooked. To minimize or even elimate this, try cooking them frozen. To make this easy, I will cut the fish into "fish fingers", bread them (my favorite is Zataran's Southern Style fish fry) and wrap them in plastic wrap. I roll each piece up so that it is separated from the others. When I am ready to cook them, I simply unwrap them and put them in the deep fryer, still frozen, for three to four minutes; depending on the size of the "finger". This prevents the water in the fish from draining out as the outside seals before the inside thaws and cooks. If the fish is thawed prior to cooking, it loses most of the moisture as the freezing process causes the cells in the fish to rupture, releasing the water when it is thawed. I have eaten fish that I have had frozen for months and it still tastes almost as good as fresh.