food safety

[cellio]

Dear LJ brain trust,

I'm having folks over for lunch on Wednesday (second day of Rosh Hashana) and I want to serve salmon. I almost always buy fresh fish the day I'm going to cook it, but that won't work then. The Google-aggregated wisdom of the net seems to hold that you can keep salmon in the fridge for two days. But I would want to buy it Sunday rather than adding a grocery stop to Monday, which will already be hectic with trying to get home from work in enough time to do prep and get to services that night.

What are my options? Can I freeze fresh salmon -- and if so, would I regret it? Do any of you have recipes that I can cook Monday that would reheat ok on Wednesday? (I was going to bake it.) Any other ideas? I guess the current default is that I'll buy frozen salmon filets if I can get them, but I was hoping to cook one big piece -- it looks mice on the big platter surrounded by veggies and stuff that way.

Comments

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

I often make the foil-poached salmon from California Kosher and serve it chilled. It can keep in the fridge for two or three days after cooking.

[cellio]

This? That sounds tasty -- thanks! (No, I didn't expect to find that exact recipe; I simply sought clarification on "foil-poached" and got lucky.)

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's the one. It's one of my more popular dishes.

[cellio]

It was yummy.

[nobble.livejournal.com]

Yes Salmon will freeze beautifully and defrost nicely if you take it out the night before and fridge it.

I bake salmon just with lemon and lemon juice, sliced onion, garlic (sometimes fennel), salt and pepper and chopped chilli. YUM!!! Nice with a sprinkling of dill or parsley after baking.

[cellio]

Thanks!

I sometimes do something similar. Other times I bake with soy sauce and sesame seeds, and other times with a mustard sauce. Salmon is resilient. :-)

[cjsherwood.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't buy fish on Sunday ever. It was delivered to the store, most likely, on Friday.

I would, in fact, urge you to not buy fish at all because I was going to suggest poaching it and serving it chilled but it needs to be fresh to make that work.

If you are adamant about buying fish, I'd recommend making that stop on Monday that you didn't want to make.

Yes, you can certainly freeze fresh salmon.

[cellio]

Timing: oh, good point. Thanks!

Ok, so either frozen filets tomorrow or an extra stop on Monday...

The Salmon of Doubt

[brokengoose.livejournal.com]

I've heard that the best way to keep fresh fish refrigerated is the way that most fish mongers do it: put the fish on a tray of ice to keep it as close to frozen as possible.

Salmon has a few parasites that can be killed by commercial freezing, but not by the average home freezer. So, I've always heard that if you're not able to use the fish right away, it's far safer to buy frozen fillets. That said, unless you're serving it partially cooked, I suspect that you'd be fine either way.

Re: The Salmon of Doubt

[cellio]

Thanks for the tip!

[astroprisoner.livejournal.com]

You can indeed freeze salmon, and it thaws nicely.

Given the comment below (which may be true, I don't know) about Sunday fish having been there since Friday, you may even want to buy it today and pop it into the freezer right away.

[cellio]

Thanks. I didn't make it to the store on Friday, so I'll either settle for frozen filets or pick up fresh on Monday.

[hlinspjalda.livejournal.com]

I habitually freeze salmon, because I only buy it when it goes on sale. I freeze the pieces individually on waxed paper, then containerize them. That way they defrost neatly.

[cellio]

Thanks for the storage tips!

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

You've already heard the suggestions I was going to give, so I'll just echo the poaching and tray of ice suggestions, and wish I could come over. :)

[cellio]

You're welcome to come over, if you can solve that being-500-miles-away problem. :-)

[gardenfey.livejournal.com]

If you are worried about freezing the fish, I would make fish pie. It's basically pork pie, but with salmon instead of pork.

Happy belated birthday!

[cellio]

Thanks.

Good idea about the pie. I also have a recipe for a lovely (dairy) salmon pie -- it has cream cheese in the crust and sour cream and dill in the filling (would have to look up the rest). It's tasty but a lot of work.

[multislackerkim.livejournal.com]

Can you pay for it on Sunday and have the fish delivered Tuesday or Wednesday? Or have a non-Jewish buddy buy it and drop it off? I'm not sure what protocol is for the holy days. I just know that a non-Jewish buddy of mine in South Philly was the guy who turned on/off the lights in the synagogue every week, so that philosophy works for some folks.

[cellio]

Good question. If the store delivered I could probably do that; having someone else go get it feels like it crosses a line, but I'm not sure why.

I stopped at the fish counter today (I was doing all my other shopping so figured I'd ask), and the person assured me that today's fish had come in yesterday, not Friday. I sniffed it anyway and it seemed fine, so I bought and froze today.