Buying shrimp in the shell. The shells make a really great quick seafood broth. They are not a problem, they are a bonus. Don't throw them away. If you are not going to use them immediately, refreeze them. They can be thrown into the boiling water you are making the broth with right from the freezer.
Good video. However Jack I'm surprised you didn't mention to never thaw out frozen fish in vacuum bags without first putting a small hole in the bag. You can use a pin or needle, doesn't need to be big. So here's the reason. The fish will of course first thaw out on the exterior of the fish. With no pin hole there will still be a vacuum. That vacuum will start to crush that flesh making it soft and mushy. So by placing a small hole in the bag you release the pressure allowing the flesh to thaw out and stay firm. Everyone have a great day 🌤 😊 👍🐟
@@elizabethadao7279 no. If the bag is already contaminated with botulism will not help. Nope,it's for quality food texture. We fishermen learned this many years before there were home vacuum machines. When you buy frozen herring for bait we learned to pin the vacuum package then let thaw. If you didn't the bait would be mushy and quickly fall apart when using. It didn't take long for us to realize this would help keep our salmon firm when home vacuum machines became available. I can vacuum pack and freeze salmon a entire year and you would think it was fresh caught that day. Last thing. I do not do long term freezes in up right freezers,only chest freezers. The cold stays in a chest freezer when opened. Up right freezers dump all their cold air everytime. This reduces the quality of the food very quickly. Anyway, have a great day 🌤. Fyi just in case. Do not " pin" the package in the freezer. Only when you pull it out to thaw. Again, have a great day.
Good tips here, especially buying shrimp with the shell on and reading the ingredients list. I just checked my ez peel shrimp and it contains salt, sodium and tripolyphosphate! I'll beware of that next time. Thanks Jack!
Frozen fish is no longer labeled with origin. They probably snuck a repeal of consumer protections laws into a corrupt bill with a sappy positive name.
@@retiredump7038 You have to look around a bit, but they’re out there. I found some at two local supermarket chains here in the northeast under their “healthy” brand label (vs the regular store brand). Costco’s shrimp in the freezer section also only have some salt added. Also recently went to Lidl and was surprised to see USA-caught Gulf Coast shrimp with nothing else added.
Ever since I started looking, I haven't found a single bag without it! I still like 'em but I wanna do a side-by-size comparison. I'll check Wegman's and report back. Someone above mentioned Lidl, of all places. I'll check there too!
@@ndzapruder Yeah I have no idea if the Lidl shrimp was just like a seasonal or temporary or regional sale item or if they always had it. Was surprised to see it at a discount store like that.
When I see the fish in the counter at the grocery store meat department I almost always notice that the price/description signage says "Previously Frozen". So they're getting the fish that are flash frozen on the boat, defrosting it at the store, and then marking it up to cover their handling costs and profit margin requirements. They're counting on folks not seeing or understanding that "Previously Frozen" signage. I'll just buy frozen except when fresh locally caught fish are available, thank you very much.
@@FleurPillager All the frozen fish I buy has country of origin. If it doesn't, or if it's one of the countries that are suspect, like many of the east Asian countries, I don't buy it.
@@houchi69 My point is the exact same one as in the video, which is don't waste your money paying more to buy the same product because that's what the defrosted fish in the grocery store meat counter is -- frozen fish defrosted and marked up. You have a word comprehension issue or something?
0:56 freezer burn is not thaw and refreeze. It is dehydration of part of the surface that's not airtight, basically by a freeze-dry process. If the fish is vacuum packed properly with no air space inside, you don't get freezer burn. For most processed seafood such as fish fillets, the frozen whole fish from the ship is transported to a land-based factory, thawed and processed, then refreeze and pack in individual bags. And often a lot of glaze (ice), 5% to >25%, is added to the surface to make it heavier so they can sell it for more.
I am just glad I get the beer battered bulk yellow bag with real draft beer batter. Oddily enough it's one of the better ones out there and believe me I tried just about all of them even at Whole Foods. Weird I know that a such a standard brand be so so good for this!
I’ve actually never looked at the ingredient list thinking shrimp was just shrimp. Thanks for the tips on the extra chemical ingredients, I’ll keep an eye out.
When buying shrimp, it also helps to know the sizing system which tells you approximately how many shrimp you'll get per pound. Tiny shrimp will be labeled 61/70 which means 61-70 shrimp per pound. I usually go for 26/30 if I'm doing scampi and 16/20 for a shrimp cocktail...unless I'm trying to impress someone, then I'll go for 13/15 which are huge.
I regularly throw them in a tupperware full of cold water in the fridge. That way it's safe indefinitely (within reason), and thaw more quickly because of the much higher thermal conductivity of water vs air. Also uses way less water.
There is always going to be a water(ish) to air barrier, adding more water won't change that. On the other hand what does matter is the thermal mass and the surface area.
Spot-on tips. Also, check the country or origin and learn about farming vs. sustainable wild caught seafood. Farming can have serious environmental impacts and Seafood Watch is a good source on sustainable wild caught seafood. I will also add that frozen sea scallops are a good option, too. Avoiding TPP applies to scallops, too.
Even though I live in Florida I buy my frozen seafood at Aldi. You can usually find U.S. caught shrimp of all sizes and the Sea Scallops are extremely good although they are getting expensive. Be sure and remove the small muscles on the side of each one. After this I will look for shell on shrimp and also the ingr. list. We cook ours in a skillet on a hot plate in the center of the table using fondue forks. Fun. They also have excellent salmon. I grill that in a pan on indirect heat with maple syrup poured over it. I use sugar maple chips or chunks on the charcoal for smoke.
Nice informative video , if I could make a suggestion would be next time to include a brief example of freeze burn and explain a bit more in depth why you should avoid it.
Hi Jack, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, is used to make seafood look firm, smooth and glossy. Seafood packers may soak product in a bath of STPP to achieve this. Seafood soaked too long will absorb more water so you pay more because it weighs more. Product soaked with STPP will exude a milky white liquid as you cook it, and will shrink in size too. Thanks Jack, LG
That white liquid in salmon is albumin, a naturally occurring liquid protein that gets denatured when cooked. It’s actually present in all fish, but stands out more in contrast to salmon’s pink flesh. It’s generally more visible when fish is overcooked. Don’t believe everything you read in RU-vid comments. Do your research. STPP is used in some seafood processing but not all fish is treated with it.
Unless you're at a high end restaurant, most fish served are of the frozen variety, and the majority of shrimp around the country are frozen. Unless you eat on the bay, at the ocean, your chef travel's daily to the fish market, or you buy from the local fish market, you are likely eating frozen shrimp. And there's always the worry if fresh, are they really fresh? Best to just buy frozen, you won't taste a difference in most cases.
IN MY VIEW I bought my first frozen bag of seafood when the shrimp was on sale. My freezer now has a variety of seafood. This is SO convenient! I never go to the fresh seafood counter anymore. Your suggestions were great. I will look at my shrimp ingredients from now on to make sure it is only shrimp (salt is ok).
I was a butcher/fish retailer. All fish is frozen before it gets to you anyway (except fresh salmon), even if you buy it at 6 AM from an outdoor fish market 20 meters from the sea. So you should buy it frozen. The other thing: seafood in the wild often is living at a really cold ambient temperature. Like 45-50 degrees. Your refrigerator isn’t that far from the temperature that fish, and the bacteria they host, are used to. So fish in the refrigerator goes bad almost as fast as beef sitting on the counter. Keep it frozen until right before you cook it.
We buy cod loins for fish and chips (Alton Brown) and fish stew (Grandma), tilapia, sole and flounder for stuffed fish (Chef John) and piccata (Pasquale Sciarappa from Osara Recipes), lobster tails for surf and turf hibachi style and thermidor (Rachel Ray), and shrimp for tempura, hibachi and chili prawns (Martin Yan). You're welcome! 😋😎😉
Good info. I'm surprised you didn't mention the difference between wild-caught and farmed seafood, but maybe that seemed tangential. For thawing, I recommend unwrapping and then thawing in the fridge on a bed of ice in enclosed Tupperware. Takes about two days for a Salmon or Cod filet. Thawing while still in a vacuum bag can lead to soggy fish.
Thank you for this I buy seafood A LOT, but I usually by raw peeled shrimp because it easier not to have to peel, but I will keep what you said in mind!THANK YOU!!!!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Location where the fish originated is something you should take into consideration, as well if it was farmed or wild caught. I've seen the festering pools in vietnam and china where much of the frozen fish comes from. Trust me, you don't want that.
I never buy seafood from china. I'm also nervous about other countries like India. I also never buy tilapia or basa. Only fish from the northern Atlantic or Pacific or just catch my own.
Amen! I was just going to say that. Under the lax USDA inspections over the past few decades, they've allowed some disgusting "fish products"to be sold to us. Avoid Swai fish and any other fish from China. It swims in sewage essentially. I've gotten very sick from fish from China.
Thank you for these tips. I used to live on the coast of England and my Mum would buy fresh fish caught that morning and cook for dinner. We ate fish Two to three times a week and it was amazing. Now I buy frozen fish and we have once a week. I had one of those fish box deliveries for a while but it was really expensive.
Thank you, Jack, you have confirmed some of my own thoughts on this subject. You didn't mention scallops. I have heard enough on ATK to know that the same rules apply. Thanks for a great job of explaining...
My problem with frozen shrimp: they seemed to be puffed up with water, I assume under pressure. "Large" frozen shrimp shrink to half their size once you put them in a hot pan. Because I live on the coast, I buy my shrimp fresh off the trawler, head them, and freeze them myself. No packaged frozen shrimp for me.
I lived in Alaska for most of my life and these are good tips, except the tilapia (i wouldnt serve it to my worst enemy) fresh or frozen. A lot of the times we were eating things from the ocean just minutes or a couple hours after they've been caught and that's the biggest thing I miss about not living up there anymore- fresh seafood. And again, never, ever, never, ever thaw fish in a microwave!
TPP is a garbage ingredient to have added to your shrimp, scallops or other seafood. It primarily serves to help raw seafood retain moisture and look plump. If you take frozen seafood with TPP, and defrost it with a paper towel underneath it, you’ll see a pool of liquid that was mostly absorbed by your paper towel and that seafood will be noticeable skinnier. If you’re paying for these frozen items by the pound, you’re also paying for that liquid. It’s a bummer and as Jack mentioned, it also won’t taste great. I wish Jack showed what freezer burn looked like in a vacuum-sealed package. I’ve never seen it and wouldn’t know how to spot it.
I saw this video and decided to try the frozen salmon filets offered at a large popular supermarket chain in Connecticut, USA. I have always bought the fresh filets at the seafood counter. The first meal using the frozen salmon was awful. I generally cook this kind of fish in a covered pan with broth around it and it comes out very moist and tender but the thawed salmon filets were missing that tender texture. Today I put both a thawed filet and a fresh filet into an instant pot for a cook time of one minute with a fast pressure release. The fresh filet was what I expected and was excellent but the thawed filet was very dense in texture and not a pleasure to eat at all. The only reason that I ate it is that I refuse to waste food. So why the big disconnect between the advice in the video and the results?
Not sure about defrosting fish in the microwave, but you can make a really tasty poached filet straight from frozen in the microwave - fat, salt, aromatics, and something wet, like soy sauce or lemon juice, covered, cooked at 40% power for a few min depending on thickness (shout out Dave Chang).
i love when people think buying "fresh" unthawed seafood at the supermarket is fresher than buying frozen. it was all frozen at some point!! might as well thaw it yourself.
I just discovered this channel. All tips about buying frozen fish are spot on. When I had cable - too expensive now - I used to watch ATK on whyy... One of my favorite shows ever. Keep up the good work. Back when Giant was more hands on at the local level, whenever I saw fish "previously" frozen in the display case, I'd ask if they had any still frozen - Go back in the freezer and check! Unless I was cooking it that day, I'd buy the frozen or none at all.
ATK and Cook's Country should still be broadcast on your local PBS affiliate, for free. (And the WHYY coverage area is quite large.) If not, or you no longer have a television, I guess just come back here to YT!
We have always made fish tacos with frozen tilapia. You do have to cook the fish for a couple minutes in a preheated pan and then flip before you can add taco seasoning to the filets, but it always works perfectly well and tastes exactly the same!
Shrimp in shell is great. Sure it may take a while longer to shell yourself but use the shells to make a base for a really good shrimp scampi. America's test kitchen has THE best scampi recipe I've ever had and I put it over thin spaghetti or reg fettucine and it is fantastic!
I buy frozen Tilapia and Cod from the grocery store all the time- and defrost it in the fridge even couple days before. Now I'm going to get the lobster tails and squid as well. And from a "health" perspective, they are a fantastic source of lean protein. So much better than protein powders and even better than chicken breasts.
I just bought some frozen pollock fish fillets yesterday.😋..they're thawing in my fridge now for tonight ... I bought it soley because I could see the product through the clear packaging!😉which looked fresh and quality. 👍🏿Thanks for the good information Jack!
@@QIKWIA Aww, shucks, thanks! Gotta have humor in life to make the world your oyster...Otherwise, what's the porpoise? Okay, holy mackerel, that's enough, I better clam up before I start to flounder and make somebody eel... ; P
@@QIKWIA Thanks again, glad I could brighten your day, hope you have a great night there! The local Safeway here has frozen shrimp on sale, can't wait to try a garlic shrimp recipe on the 'Chef Jean Pierre' RU-vid channel I just discovered! Check him out, if you haven't already, he is great at teaching and is also pretty funny!
Frozen salmon was on sale in my grocers freezer I was assured it was not farm raised. In my fridge I thawed 2 fillets for 24 hours, took the fillets out, leaning them into my sink to drain liquid before cooking, both fillets went from salmon pink to brown, this pink colored goo drained out of the fish! It was the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen and I can only imagine what that thick pink goo was. I took it back to my grocers and even the manager was horrified. Don't buy farm raised.
Watch a documentary on the fishing ships if you have not yet - they are amazing. I never knew how much they could process the fish onboard. Frozen on the ship is going to be very fresh. The only reason I buy fresh fish is that I have a regular fishmonger that lets me know when my preferred fish come in. It is caught one day, and at my house the next (but I understand that not everyone lives on an island). 😎
Yet, the fishing industry loves to depict the romantic little sailor going out to fish like it was 1820. Sadly, fishing trawlers or GIANT KILLING MACHINES that are destroying all sea life with their reckless abandon. We are witnessing oceans that are dying.
Some cooked shrimp isn't all bad you just need to know what you are looking for and what you use it for like if you are going to service it as side dish with cocktail sauce then just thaw our or thaw out and dry before you put it in a sauce for pasta as you warm it up
Something you overlooked is 'water glaze'. There are legal limits when it needs to be declared but this is often skirted. The producer will say it 'protects', the buyer only sees added weight through water, not fish.
I totally agree - frozen is your best option for seafood. As a sports fisherman, I rarely buy fish. I used to get fresh Prawns direct from the fisherman. They have a freezer plate on the boat where they drop the Prawns on it and they are frozen solid within a minute, then packaged and put into the boats freezer until they get back to the dock to sell them. Prawns will start to go bad within 15 minutes of catching if they are not kept live or fast frozen.
With little time to scour previous comments for the same observation and with an aim to inform even if to point out again... Freezer burn is not as described… The thing described, partially thaw and refrozen is dangerous and avoided at all costs… Freezer burn is " the sublimation of moisture in a subfreezing environment where frozen water is converted directly from solid to gas"… The dry air in the freezer is sucking the water right out of the food, even ice cubes shrink and the "frost-free" function of the freezer whisks it away… A vacuum chamber in a freezer would accelerate the process and I think I just invented a new way to create beef jerky… As you were....
Great tips. Though I'm not too keen on farm raised Tilapia especially from Asia. Farm raised Tilapia is often a dirty fish. The same thing for farm raised Salmon unless from Norway.
Frozen fish is not labeled well about origin. I noticed that in the last couple of years it's just labeled Pacific Salmon but they don't say if it's wild from Alaska or farmed or where in the Pacific it came from.
Buy fish or shrimp in season. I'm in Texas and I only buy Wild Caught Texas Gulf Shrimp 16/20 frozen in season. Your Market thaws shrimp for sell but if you ask it is shipped frozen in 2 pound bags. Fresh local fish I have a wonderful friend who loves to fish and give to friends. I'm so lucky.
I have bought frozen Shalon shrimp before and have no problem with them. I have never in my life bought a frozen fish that I was happy with. Based on what Jack says it may be that it’s very common to freeze improperly. Especially cod. When I thaw the fish is just full of water and it’s ridiculous. I wonder if it is because it has been thawed and then refrozen due to improper storage.
I always pull my shrink-wrapped flash frozen fish the night before, and leave it in the refrigerator, for dinner the following night. For shrimp, I just take a tall drinking glass, and drop the frozen shrimp into the glass, put it in the refrigerator for the next night; it's perfect and ready to go.
He’s exactly right. Virtually all fish and seafood are flash frozen on the boat or at the dock. Here in the West Coast, all Dungeness crab are parboiled before freezing to prevent enzymes from destroying the meat. So short of fishing for them yourself, go for the flash frozen fish and seafood.
I'm having a lot of trouble finding frozen shrimp that doesn't contain STPP. What would my next best option be? Go for the ones sitting behind the counter or just get the frozen ones with the STPP?
Just checked the shrimp we have in the freezer and it does contain sodium and tripolyphosphate. Label says it is to retain moisture. We have had plenty of these and we have never noticed any sort of off flavor. For reference for what might be considered "off flavor" I am comparing them to live shrimp. I assume the live ones won't have any of these additives. If the main concern is flavor and you can't taste the difference then it shouldn't matter.
I've tried the individually frozen cod. He was right, it didn't handle the freezing process well because it practically fell apart NO MATTER HOW I PREPARED IT. NEVER AGAIN, ( I didn't overcook them).
Atlantic cod always breaks up when cook whether it was fresh (chilled to 33 F and held at this temp) or frozen. This is the nature of cod. Now you are going to ask how I know ... I sell fish fresh and frozen.
I kind of disagree with the statement about buying frozen tuna. Though I don't buy huge frozen pieces of tuna, the individually sealed tuna steaks are quite good. Always buy raw shrimp in the shell and not the precooked stuff. Talk about eating 'rubber'.
Two observations: It is a not a good idea to defrost fish that comes individually frozen in a cryopak (a plastic vacuum pack) in the package, even more so if the fish is not kept strictly cold during the defrosting process. This is because any residual anaerobic or low oxygen bacteria can multiply readily in the absence of oxygen. The most notorious is the potentially deadly Clostridium botulinum, but there are several others. This is why the FDA warns against this practice. Jack mentions that thin fish filets freeze better. While this may be true, many packaged frozen fish filets are unusually thin and this can make them hard to cook without drying out. I like Craig Claiborne's recipe for cornmeal-crusted catfish, but have found most of the frozen catfish fillets to be too thin when compared to the ones I get pre-defrosted from my fishmonger. Why this is so, I do not know.
I recently ordered frozen shrimp from a big store online; the shrimp came from a far away country whereas we have shrimp closer. It was freezer burned. Maybe the bag was not sealed properly. But it was a total fail. [Edited for clarity or grammar.]
I buy frozen shrimp from Sam's Club past 2 yrs & noticed cleaned deveigned shrimp still has the blac ven on the curled inside of shrimp. How is it shrimp cleaned on backside but not inside the curl?
The other thing I look for is where the seafood came from. I look for wild caught, USA, or for catfish, farmed, USA. I avoid farmed from countries that probably don't have the regulations that seafood farms in the USA have to abide by. Seafood in the US has to be labeled for country of origin.
Sodium tripolyphosphate is used in toilet bowl cleaners and can be used to clean cast iron stoves. Buy local gulf coast shrimp and they don’t put this industrial cleaner on their shrimp.
Since the gulf oil spill, I don't think I would trust any seafood caught there fresh, farmed or frozen. I know there's a 3-mile thick layer of oil down there that is part of their environment and it saddens me beyond health issues.
These people created a monster I'm in the kitchen cooking everyday after work my wife loves that she doesn't have to cook anymore thanks America test kit for helping my famil
@@Granger744 That's a great point! I think about individually wrapped fish fillets. I wonder how to know about that. Though I guess if the shrimp is in good shape, the fish probably is as well.
