How Fresh is Fresh?

Tips on seafood shelf life
Buy fresh, eat fresh, talk fresh — but what exactly does “fresh” mean? How long will a fish stay fresh?
It’s not surprising that people are confused about how long they can keep fresh seafood before they eat it. Fresh isn’t an easy word to define, especially when talking about seafood. And, of course, everyone has his or her own opinion.
The truth is, “fresh” as a measurement of quality is meaningless. Most people assume that if a fish is labeled fresh, it must mean it hasn’t been out of the water long, has never been frozen and is top-quality. Fresh has good implications.
These assumptions aren’t necessarily correct, however. First, the length of time a fish has been out of the water isn’t really as important as how the fish was handled once it left the water. For instance, take two fish — a wild Norwegian salmon, and a tuna from the southern seas.
By the time you buy the fish, the salmon is about 4-6 days old, and the tuna is only two days old. The salmon has been treated very well. It came out of the water alive, the fisherman bled it and carefully placed it on ice. 1-2 days later, it was delivered to a processing plant, was then immediately processed, packed and shipped — all the while remaining at a very cold temperature between 0 and 1°C.
The tuna, on the other hand, died eight hours before it was brought on board in the morning and it lay in the bottom of a boat in the sun and without ice for 4 hours on the way back to port. When reaching land, it was processed in a warm processing plant before it was shipped.
The salmon is going to be “fresher” than the tuna, even though it’s a few days older. Because it has been kept at low temperatures, the flesh will be firmer, it will taste better and it will keep longer in your refrigerator.
To ensure that you get the freshest seafood at your market, only buy fish that looks, smells and feels good. Good, fresh seafood has a “seaweedy” smell, feels firm and has a bright color. If it looks soft, has a tired color and smells at all fishy — don’t buy it. Be picky — the best fish will keep much longer than poorly treated fish.
Most fresh seafood that has been well cared for can be kept in the refrigerator for up to two or three days. If you don’t plan on eating your fish right away, it’s a good idea to take it out of its package and rinse it in cold water. Pat it dry with paper towels, and place it in a clean, sealed plastic bag. You can even put it on a plate, cover it with a bag of ice, and keep it in the refrigerator — this will ensure that your fish stays nice and cold.
When storing fresh fish in your refrigerator keep it in the coldest section. The temperature should be between 0° and 3°C, preferably as close to 0° as you can get. Refrigerated seafood should feel cold to the touch, not cool. And watch that the temperature doesn’t rise too drastically — in other words, keep an eye on those family members that shop for a snack with the door open.
Remember, though, if you purchase live shellfish, don’t seal them in a plastic bag! They need air to stay alive. They’re best kept in a bowl with a moist cloth in the coolest part of your refrigerator. Don’t add ice, as it will melt and can drown them. They should also be kept at a somewhat warmer temperature — plus 3°C is ideal.
To check seafood you’ve been storing in the refrigerator, use your nose. If it smells fresh and mild, it’s fine. If it smells fishy or unpleasant after a few days, the fresh fish you bought wasn’t really fresh.

Substituting one fish with another

You cannot get the exact fish of the recipe? Here are some tips on how to substitute one fish with another

Textures & Flavors

This chart divides fish and shellfish into groups by texture and flavor and will help you find substitute species that can be interchanged in recipes.

Finfish buying guide

Steaks and fillets

Although it is happening with less and less frequency, steaks and fillets are best cut to order, from whole fish. Whole fish keep better than pre-cut steaks and fillets. In addition, cutting to order allows you to dictate the size and thickness of a steak, and to request fillets from the best looking fish. Skandináv ház deli provides this service, which shows that we are a store where quality is a priority.

There are, of course, differences in appearance from one fish to another, but there are some basic rules you should keep in mind in order to get the highest quality possible:

• Use your eyes. The surface of the fish should glisten; it should be bright, clear, reflective, and almost translucent. The color should be consistent with the type of fish; pearly white fish should not have spots of pink (which are usually bruises) or gray or brown (which indicates spoilage). Creamy or ivory-coloured fish should have no areas of deep red or brown. Dark fleshed fish, such as tuna, should have no surface „rainbows”. Get to know the ideal appearance of your favourite fish, and reject any that don’t meet your standard. Generally, you do not want any fish whose surface appears brown, dull, opaque, and/or muddy. Remember, fillets and steaks should be set on – not in – ice, and there should be no puddles of water.
• Use your fingers. Most fishmongers will not let you touch the fish – it is usually against the local health standards, and reasonably so. But you can ask the counterperson to press his or her finger into the fish’s flesh; it should appear firm and elastic. If it looks mushy, if the finger leaves a lasting impression, move on.
• Use your nose. If it doesn’t smell sweet, if it doesn’t smell like the sea, turn your nose up.

Whole fish

Whole fish give you more signals than fillets or steaks. First off, they should be buried in ice, or at least layered in it; piles of fish atop ice can develop hot spots where the fish touch each other. Then look for red gills, bright, reflective skin, firm flesh, an undamaged layer of scales, and no browning anywhere. The smell – even in the body cavity – should be sweet. Ignore the common wisdom about clear eyes; those of some fish cloud up immediately after death, and those of others remain clear after the rest of the fish is rotten. In general, though, the best whole fish look alive, as if they just came out of the water.

Shellfish buying guide

Whole clams, oysters, mussels, and certain other mollusks must be alive when sold; their viscera contaminates the meat shortly after death. If they are shucked and separated from their guts, as scallops routinely are, and oysters frequently are, shelf life is extended considerably. It is easy to tell whether whole mollusks are alive: their muscles make it difficult to pry their shells apart, they usually respond to a light tap by closing their shells, and they should smell sweet. Mollusks should be iced or refridgerated; they remain alive and healthy at temperatures up to 4 °C, about the temperature of your home refridgerator.

Mollusks should also be allowed to breathe; never store bivalves in a closed plastic bag, where they will suffocate. Prewrapped mollusks should be in nets or other porous wrappers. (Occasionally an ignorant clerk will wrap mussels or clams in plastic without poking holes in it, what you have then is a sack of dead, stinky shellfish.) At home, store them, dry and uncovered, in a pot or a bowl.

Shrimp are almost always frozen at sea or at the farm and defrosted before sale. If you can buy them still frozen, you can have more control over how they are defrosted.

When you are buying any shrimp, look for a full shell and firm meat. Except for black tiger shrimp, reject those with black spots or rings, or a dark area around the abdomen. The meat should not be dead white, which indicates freezer burn, or pink which means it has been defrosted at too high a temperature.

Lobsters and crabs should be alive or frozen when sold

Frozen fish buying guide

Recent technological advances have allowed modern fishing fleets to clean and fresh freeze at – 15 °C or even colder, within minutes of its capture. When thawed, such fish is frequently in a better shape than that which spent several days sitting in hold before reaching the dock, at which point it was sold as „fresh”. Much of the fish that you eat in restaurants – swordfish, salmon, tuna, mahi-mahi, cod, almost all sushi and sashimi, and other fish that you might assume was never frozen – has been treated this way.
That is one of the problems with the way many merchandisers – and consumers – view freshness when it comes to seafood: „fresh” fish, we believe, is fish that has never been frozen; according to this axiom, frozen fish can never be fresh.
Yet many of us cannot afford to think this way. If you can buy fish straight off the boat, or from a reliable market, you should continue to do so; generally speaking, such top quality fish is fresh and not frozen. But many of us occassionally must make compromises in our definitions of freshness. Both frozen and chilled (never-frozen) fish vary in quality.
There is a lot of second rate chilled fish in the market, and it is up to us to identify at and reject it at fish counters, using the techniques described herein. Meanwhile, there can be advantages to buying high-quality frozen fish.
Much frozen fish makes good eating. Indeed, well-frozen fish has good colour, texture and flavour. When fish is frozen quickly, the ice crystals that form are tiny. When it is thawed properly, the liquid from those ice crystals remain in the flesh, and the fish is nearly as moist and flavorful as it was when it was first frozen.
Problems arise when fish is frozen slowly, forming larger ice crystals which may rupture cell walls. When this fish is defrosted, two problems arise: The ice crystals contain too much liquid to be reabsorbed into the flesh, and additional liquid is lost from the broken cells. This „drip loss” not only affects the weight of the fish, but its flavour and texture. The flavour elements of fish are tied up in the cells’ liquids, and drip out right along with the moist quality of the fillet or steak. The result is dry, tasteless fish.
Drip loss is most often a problem with fish that was frozen by faulty equipment, or fish that is frozen at home – something only rarely worth doing. But it can also result from faulty defrosting. Frozen fish should be thawed slowly, in the refridgerator, for 24 hours or more. Defrosting fish at room temperature, in a microwave, or under warm water can alter the cell structure, again allowing fluids – and flavour – to escape from the cells. Furthermore, slowly melting ice crystals are more likely to be reabsorbed into the cell structure than those that thaw rapidly. If you are in a hurry to thaw fish, do so under cold running water – and cook it as soon as possible after thawing to minimize drip loss.
Two other factors affect the quality of frozen fish. First, the species. Some fish simply freeze better than others: shrimp, squid, and other, small-celled, flexible fish generally do well. And small cuts of fish, because they freeze quickly, retain their quality better: flounder takes to freezing better than cod, for example.
Second, the quality of the fish when it was frozen. It is just as easy to freeze lousy fish as good fish, and more difficult for you to tell the difference. Fortunately, most frozen fish is sold under a brand name; if you get stuck once forget that brand from then on – after writing a letter telling the company of your experience, and bringing the defective product back to the market.
How do you know when a fish has been frozen properly? Frozen fish should be somewhat shiny, not flat-looking, and it should have none of the white spots that indicate freezer burn. It should also be as hard as a rock and have no evidence of prior defrosting. Thawing and freezing fish is a virtual guarantee of bad quality, so look for even colour and texture. Finally, frozen fish should be well wrapped.