rookie question on smoking trout

[Dmc707]

--- i posted a thread a couple months ago about the Blue Rver and the time frames --- but i missed that

Anyhoo- a good friend who keeps up on such things gave me a bag of trout for my freezer -- and God bless him - he literally gave me a bag of frozen trout - 6 or 7 of the critters (dressed) but stuck together

I want to prepare and smoke or otherwise cook 1 or 2 of these , but do not wish to deal with 7 at a time -

any ideas? Im guessing we've all seen it before -- basically 7 fish gutted in a plastic bag and hard frozen


i was contemplating thawing just enough to separate the fish, then re-distribute into individual zip locks but i dont have a lot of experience cooking trout, - and salmon seems to be darn finicky for me

 

[Ready_fire_aim]

Generally most meat is considered safe to refreeze at least 1 time if it was only partially thawed and it’s still majority frozen. That being said, fish is the most likely meat to have texture or freshness issues from being partially thawed and refroze

I’d say your options are A: open baggie and run cold water over them just long enough to separate what you want. Using this method, nothing should get above 40°. Should still be bacteria safe to freeze again

Or option B: thaw all of it, smoke all of it, eat what you want, then freeze the rest cooked. Frozen smoked fish is great to toss into a gumbo, whip up easy weeknight fish tacos, etc

 

[Gunbuffer]

It’s all in the brand of rolling papers

 

[Dmc707]

It’s all in the brand of rolling papers

"I tried smokin' mushrooms once, but i couldnt keep the pizza lit "

- Larry The Cable Guy

 

[Dmc707]

Generally most meat is considered safe to refreeze at least 1 time if it was only partially thawed and it’s still majority frozen. That being said, fish is the most likely meat to have texture or freshness issues from being partially thawed and refroze

I’d say your options are A: open baggie and run cold water over them just long enough to separate what you want. Using this method, nothing should get above 40°. Should still be bacteria safe to freeze again

Or option B: thaw all of it, smoke all of it, eat what you want, then freeze the rest cooked. Frozen smoked fish is great to toss into a gumbo, whip up easy weeknight fish tacos, etc

Going to try it today - nothing ventured, nothing gained

 

[Dmc707]

I’d say your options are A: open baggie and run cold water over them just long enough to separate what you want. Using this method, nothing should get above 40°. Should still be bacteria safe to freeze again

This worked - and my fingers will stink for 3 days (and not the good kind) -- thanks friend !

 

[dennishoddy]

It’s all in the brand of rolling papers

Beat me to that response.

 

[dennishoddy]

Generally most meat is considered safe to refreeze at least 1 time if it was only partially thawed and it’s still majority frozen. That being said, fish is the most likely meat to have texture or freshness issues from being partially thawed and refroze

Shrimp is typically flash frozen on the boat. Goes to the distributor to be sold. Store buys it, lets it thaw and sits on ice in their "fresh seafood" counter. If not sold in a couple of days, refrozen and put in the frozen food section of the store for sale. My son worked in a grocery store for a couple of years.
I'm not sure who came up with the onetime thing for re-freezing things, but it's not going to make the food inedible if one does refreeze it if it's within the USDA temp food safety specs for a period of time. There may be a little taste change, etc but it's not unsafe.
We have two freezers in the garage. Both have temperature monitors that are WiFi enabled to let us know the internal temps. One can set the alarm parameters for whatever.
It pains me to see that folks in a power outage say the food in their freezer partially thawed out and they have to destroy everything inside because of a partial thawing after the power comes back on. Frozen food in the back still keeps the food in the front cool. Opening the door is the worst thing one can do. Every time it opens, a day is taken off the life of the food because trapped cold air is released.

 

[Ready_fire_aim]

Shrimp is typically flash frozen on the boat. Goes to the distributor to be sold. Store buys it, lets it thaw and sits on ice in their "fresh seafood" counter. If not sold in a couple of days, refrozen and put in the frozen food section of the store for sale. My son worked in a grocery store for a couple of years.
I'm not sure who came up with the onetime thing for re-freezing things, but it's not going to make the food inedible if one does refreeze it if it's within the USDA temp food safety specs for a period of time. There may be a little taste change, etc but it's not unsafe.
We have two freezers in the garage. Both have temperature monitors that are WiFi enabled to let us know the internal temps. One can set the alarm parameters for whatever.
It pains me to see that folks in a power outage say the food in their freezer partially thawed out and they have to destroy everything inside because of a partial thawing after the power comes back on. Frozen food in the back still keeps the food in the front cool. Opening the door is the worst thing one can do. Every time it opens, a day is taken off the life of the food because trapped cold air is released.

Yeah. That all sounds about right. Anything can be re-froze once for sure. Probably up to about 3 times really.

But it all depends on temps and surface bacteria levels on the meat, etc. when things thaw there can be a large bacterial bloom. Don’t want to risk it too much with chicken and fish. Too much potential bacteria risk. I wouldn’t refreeze chicken or fish more than 2x

If the deep freeze thaws that means it’s time to fire up the smoker and give lots of meat away.

 

[fishincoop]

--- i posted a thread a couple months ago about the Blue Rver and the time frames --- but i missed that

Anyhoo- a good friend who keeps up on such things gave me a bag of trout for my freezer -- and God bless him - he literally gave me a bag of frozen trout - 6 or 7 of the critters (dressed) but stuck together

I want to prepare and smoke or otherwise cook 1 or 2 of these , but do not wish to deal with 7 at a time -

any ideas? Im guessing we've all seen it before -- basically 7 fish gutted in a plastic bag and hard frozen


i was contemplating thawing just enough to separate the fish, then re-distribute into individual zip locks but i dont have a lot of experience cooking trout, - and salmon seems to be darn finicky for me

Back to the trout……I just smoked up a batch (last of my 2023 fish) - butterfly them to lay flat, season them up good (imo - use what you like, I hit them with heavy salt, pepper, and some Tony’s more spice), put on paper towels under/over, wrap loosely with plastic, leave overnight (or longer) in fridge, then smoke for 1.5-2 hrs low temp. And here’s the good part, once smoked, bag them in ziplock with a paper towel and they’ll keep for at least a week or more….the key is to remove water then not overcook them…..crunchy trout jerky is no bueno, ask me how I know…. Smoking anything requires time, work, charcoal, wood chips etc…. not worth doing for 1-2 fish. Cook them all