stillaqua
Newbie
There are a lot of great ideas here, many of them to avoid the two biggest problems with freezing fish. Slow freezing and freezer burn. The slower the fish freezes, the larger the ice crystals that form in the flesh and the more the muscle fibers get pierced and leak when the meat thaws. You end up with a mushy product when it thaws. Freezer burn is the water in the flesh "evaporating" from the meat (it's actually sublimation but the result is the same) often crystallizing on the surface of the fillet or in the bag, basically drying out the fillet.
So you want to freeze the fillets as quickly as possible and then seal them against moisture loss and freezer burn. Use the coldest freezer you have access to (chest at it's lowest temp works best), put heavy aluminum baking sheets in to prechill for half an hour, put a piece of wax or parchment paper on each sheet, and lay your bare naked fillets uncovered on the sheets and freeze for a couple hours. Then spritz them with a little water every 15 minutes or so, flipping them to get a nice ice glaze on all sides of the fillet. The aluminum sheet conducts heat away from the fillets very effectively and speeds up the freezing and the ice glaze protects very effectively against freezer burn. Once well glazed and frozen, you can vacuum seal or simply store in freezer bags. My family owned a H&F lodge and that's how we processed our clients catch in upright freezers until my Dad invested in a small flash freezer and gave me back some of my teenage evenings freezing our clients fish.
So you want to freeze the fillets as quickly as possible and then seal them against moisture loss and freezer burn. Use the coldest freezer you have access to (chest at it's lowest temp works best), put heavy aluminum baking sheets in to prechill for half an hour, put a piece of wax or parchment paper on each sheet, and lay your bare naked fillets uncovered on the sheets and freeze for a couple hours. Then spritz them with a little water every 15 minutes or so, flipping them to get a nice ice glaze on all sides of the fillet. The aluminum sheet conducts heat away from the fillets very effectively and speeds up the freezing and the ice glaze protects very effectively against freezer burn. Once well glazed and frozen, you can vacuum seal or simply store in freezer bags. My family owned a H&F lodge and that's how we processed our clients catch in upright freezers until my Dad invested in a small flash freezer and gave me back some of my teenage evenings freezing our clients fish.