Fish and Seafood

Fish is the fastest-spoiling protein in the kitchen and one of the best to have canned. Fresh fish is a one-to-three-day food and a short-term freezer food, because the fats that make it good for you go rancid in the cold. The pantry answers are on their own pages: canned tuna, sardines and canned salmon, all of which keep 5 to 10 years and need no cooking.

Fresh: clear, bulging eyes, red gills, firm flesh that springs back, and a smell of clean sea water rather than fish. Buy it the day you will cook it or freeze it the day you buy it. Frozen fish from the store, vacuum-packed at sea, is often fresher than the fresh counter and keeps months. For stock: canned salmon, tuna and sardines in the largest quantity you will rotate, and dried or smoked fish if you can keep it cold.

Fresh fish on ice in the fridge: a bag of ice in a tray with the fish on top, drained as it melts, is colder than the fridge shelf. For the freezer, rinse, pat dry, wrap in plastic and then freezer paper or vacuum seal; fish takes freezer burn faster than meat. Glazing, dipping a frozen fillet in ice water and refreezing to build a coat of ice, is the old way to keep it longer. Live shellfish breathe: a bowl under a damp towel in the fridge, never in a sealed bag or in water.

Fresh fish smells of the sea, not of fish; a strong fishy or ammonia smell means it is done. The flesh should be firm and glossy; dull, soft or slimy is over. Live clams and mussels should close when tapped; discard any that stay open before cooking and any that stay shut after. Frozen fish with dry white patches is freezer burned and dry, not unsafe.

Fish is complete protein and the omega-3 fats stored food lacks. Cook it to 145°F or until it flakes. Thaw in the fridge overnight or in a sealed bag in cold water; never on the counter. For the long term, pressure canning is the way to put a catch on the shelf: pint jars, 100 minutes at 10 pounds pressure at sea level, the tested process for fish. Smoking and drying need cold storage after to keep more than a couple of weeks.

Fish is the first thing out of a warm fridge and the first thing to cook out of a thawing freezer. It holds about 48 hours in a full freezer with the door shut, then it must be cooked or canned while it still has ice crystals. Thawed fish that sat above 40°F for two hours goes; the smell will tell you, and the rule says do not wait for it.

Shelf-life figures are from the Survival Foods field guide; fridge, freezer and pantry times are from the USDA cold and pantry storage charts. Run the look, smell, taste check before eating anything past its date.