Best Way For Freezing Smoked Trout & Salmon?

[thirdeye]

In the 30+ years I've been smoking fish.... I've never frozen any of it. Two of my buddies are planning on giving smoked trout for Christmas presents, and I'm sort of in charge of the smoking. Anyways both have asked about freezing it so I tried a freezer test when I did my last batch a few days ago. I just thawed the test piece in the fridge and I thought it was pretty good. No change in the flavor, and the texture was fine. As you can see, I did it skin on, and vacuum sealed it,(it had been chilled overnight) Now after some reading I'm seeing folks say to remove the skin before freezing.

The question is... how is everyone freezing their smoked fish? what would the skin matter??

[McGurk]

I don't have any advice, but MAN does that look good!!!

[Spearing Machine]

I do it the exact way you did it. Skin on, vacuumed seal. I eat it steady and took out a package about 7 months old last week and it tasted like I just came out of the old smoke house and grandpas place.

[DonBo]

I think a taste test is in order here. Give me two packages, one with, one without the skin and I'll let you know.

[jwmiller33]

i have made a few trips to alaska and brought back over 600lbs of salmon and halibut in the last 2 years. here is how we do it. 2 years ago, we decided to get all of our salmon smoked by a guy we knew out there who ran a big fish processing store. we had it smoked in a variety of flavors. when it came back from the processor, each piece of meat (i believe separated into 1/4lb packages) was vacuum sealed in thick plastic bags WITH the skin still on. didnt notice any negative side effects from having the skin on the filets when we cooked them throughout this year.

this year, our group ended with 450lbs of salmon and halibut. we decided not to get any of the fish smoked this year, but we still brought it to a fish processor after each day of fishing and the next day we would receive all of our fish frozen, in 50 lb boxes (for the airplane), each containing (i believe) 1/4lb chunks of filets WITH the skin still on.

that goes to show you, we have dealt with over 6 different fish processors in Alaska and they all freeze and vacuum seal their fish with the skin on.

just my $.02

[Redlantern]

I haven't tried freezing smoked fish without the skin on but I've not noticed any problems with it on.

[thirdeye]

Good, I'm glad to hear the skin is not an issue. This means I can smoke larger batches!!