Vac Sealing Fish

I have a friend who is going out fishing for steelhead and pickerel (walleye) today. I have convinced him to give some to me (lucky me). Fortunately, it will be more than I can eat in a single sitting. I recently purchased a VP112 so I figured I could seal and freeze. Any suggestions for the process as to not over compress the fish and muck up the texture? Is that an issue? How much pressure to put it under? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Am I over thinking it?

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Johan_Edstrom_5586

Add oil to the bag, see the Salmon 42C recipe and instructions, make sure you cut the vac pull early or use archimedes principle.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

You can also pre-freeze and then seal.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

Another option is to freeze the fish then vac pack it with less than full vacuum.

lockgavin

Both are what I was thinking. @johan, how early to cut vac? -1/2 bar? -3/4?

Johan_Edstrom_5586

On my 215 I usually cut right as it hits the green, for freezing and pre-frozen I'd go a little longer.

The main thing is that you don't want freezer burn.

lockgavin

That would appear to be in the -.8bar range from what I can see from google. THanks!

Johan_Edstrom_5586

I really just eyeball it, it is easy to re-do if necessary.

lfmichaud

Unfortunately from what I heard and tested. The VP215 "vacuum" gauge is more a timer that a real vacuum gauge.According to Dave Arnold you're better to pull a minimal amount of vacuum on fish. Ziploc would probably be best!

http://www.cookingissues.com/2009/06/17/boring-but-useful-technical-post-vacuum-machines-affect-the-texture-of-your-meat/