When preparing fish, people often treat “fresh” as interchangeable with “high-quality.” Whether poaching salmon or slicing sea bass with surgical precision for a crudo, the general thinking goes: the fresher the better. Sea to table, if possible. You want a silvery beast just pulled from the water. Thawing is for fish sticks.
But as it turns out, some of the best fish available on the market — even so-called “sushi-grade” — has been flash frozen. Freezing fish, according to some sushi chefs, is key to maintaining the highest quality. Naomichi Yasuda is the founding chef behind Manhattan’s Sushi Yasuda. Of Yasuda, friend Anthony Bourdain wrote, “He [was] the first acclaimed sushi chef I know of who not only admitted but proudly boasted of freezing some of his fish … Many varieties of fish, Yasuda taught me, are in fact, improved by freezing.”
The modern flash-freezing process was actually invented to lock in freshness. In 1912, a Brooklynite named Clarence Birdseye first introduced flash-freezing after observing Indigenous Inuits in Labrador, Canada. At the time, freezer food was invariably gross. “When it thawed it was mushy and less appealing than even canned food,” wrote Birdseye’s biographer Mark Kurlansky. Birdseye’s technique revolutionized food storage without compromising quality. And yet, over the last century, the freezer aisle has gained a reputation as a desert for artisanal foods.
Today, however, a growing number of seafood companies are setting out to reboot the branding of frozen fish. They’re offering curated selections of pristine quality, sustainably fished seafood. Their product offerings may differ but they all aim to convince consumers of frozen fish’s many benefits: It’s high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids; it’s sustainable; and with a (freezer) shelf life of up to a year, it’s convenient for both everyday cooking and dinner parties — planned or impromptu. Unless you’re reeling them in yourself, frozen fish is usually the freshest option on the market. It can be practical and aspirational; impressive and effortless.
Because the so-called fresh stuff is more susceptible to harmful bacteria and unsold stock is usually tossed, resulting in food waste, flash-frozen fish is also often a safer and more sustainable alternative. Add the convenience of home delivery, which most of today’s companies include gratis, and opting for frozen seems a no-brainer.
One thing’s for sure: The global seafood market is booming. At an estimated $113.2 billion in 2020, it’s projected to reach $138.7 billion by 2027, and frozen seafood is driving some of that growth. According to experts, old methods like air blast or cryogenic freezing have been impediments to quality, due to slow freezing rates and the formation of ice crystals, which in turn damages muscle tissue and changes a fish’s color and texture. But now, emerging methods like pressure freezing, ultrasound freezing, and electrically assisted freezing stand to vastly improve the industry. Even plant-based companies are tossing their hats into the frozen seafood ring.
If you’re in the market for the highest-quality frozen fish, here are a few brands to consider.
Frozen fish purveyors to try
Founded in 2017, Fish Fixe, which made a splash on Shark Tank, offers choose-your-own-adventure flexibility. Its customizable boxes come with both raw and premade seafood items, from Norwegian salmon and wild-caught Gulf shrimp to jalapeno crab cakes and sesame teriyaki Atlantic salmon on a cedar plank. More recently, it also rolled out a line of spice blends, for practically prep-less cooking.
Sizzlefish founder Rob Mayo had been supplying fish to fine grocery stores like Whole Foods for three decades when he decided to channel that experience into direct-to-consumer sales. His subscription service delivers a laundry list of sustainably sourced fish, from rockfish and mahi-mahi to Chilean sea bass and Alaskan halibut, in reusable, recyclable coolers.
Sea to Table focuses on sustainable wild-caught American seafood. It offers a wide selection of products, like wild king salmon, northwest Pacific halibut, and Atlantic sea scallops, flash frozen and delivered to your door. As one customer commented, “It’s like getting it fresh from the ocean.” Flexibility is a selling point of this company — customers can choose a curated combo box, like the Grill Master’s Kit, or build their own, and opt for either a subscription or one-time purchase.
Alaska-born Arron Kallenberg grew up on his family’s commercial fishing boat. He initially pursued a career as a software engineer, but after discovering unsustainable fishing practices and widespread fraud involving “wild Alaska salmon,” he decided to launch his own business. Kallenberg founded Wild Alaskan Company, a subscription-based delivery service that connects consumers directly to sustainably sourced, wild-caught seafood. The company offers a variety of fish, including sockeye salmon, coho salmon, Pacific cod, Pacific halibut, and Alaska pollock.
Unlike most other sustainable seafood companies, Blue Circle Foods invests in improving aquaculture, aka fish farming, in addition to wild-caught fishing practices. Blue Circle Foods’ employee-owners consider themselves “net producers of protein,” meaning they generate more protein than they remove from the environment. For customers, that means a variety of feel-good seafood products, available in curated boxes or a la carte, from wild-caught sockeye salmon and Icelandic cod to Atlantic salmon hot dogs and garlic scallion salmon burgers.
“Frozen seafood has come a long way and is leaps and bounds better than [a lot of] the ‘fresh’ seafood sold across the country,” says Jeff Tedmori, CEO and founder of E-Fish. The company deals mostly in fresh fish but their frozen selections — California squid and wild Mexican blue shrimp — are chef favorites.
“All good things are wild and free.” That’s the motto of Alaska-based Salmon Sisters, founded by Aleutian Islands-born sisters Emma Teal Laukitis and Claire Neaton. Salmon Sisters offers sustainably harvested wild fish like sockeye salmon and Pacific cod, not to mention, a nice selection of merch. The sisters give a portion of their daily catches to the Food Bank of Alaska to fill plates in their community.
Mind Blown’s products intend to fool you — they look just like real seafood. The founders earned their stripes for two decades in the real seafood business before deciding to launch a sustainable, plant-based alternative. Now, their lineup includes dusted shrimp, crab cakes, dusted scallops, and coconut shrimp, all vegan, all of which can be prepared in just a few minutes. The ingredients don’t sound totally sci-fi either. Their vegan scallops, for example, contain konjac powder, vegetable gum, vegetable root starch, paprika, brown sugar, sea salt, and plant-based vegan seasoning.
Freezer-to-table cooking
Like frozen fish itself, cooking with frozen fish is subject to misconceptions. Contrary to popular opinion, “there’s no need to wait for frozen fish to thaw,” says chef Erik Slater, of Seward Brewing Company in Seward, Alaska. At the restaurant, wild local seafood is a menu staple, and he often cooks fish straight from frozen, especially during certain species’ off-seasons, to offer his signature dishes year-round.
“In fact, cooking from frozen is often easier than cooking from fresh because it’s harder to overcook. This makes cooking from frozen a great way for new or inexperienced home cooks to get comfortable with cooking seafood,” he says. If you do choose to thaw the fish first, he recommends removing the fish from its packaging and transferring it to a resealable plastic bag, then allowing it to thaw in the refrigerator for at least six hours, or placing it in cool water for 30 minutes or so.
Slater says you can poach, air-fry, bake, grill, or pressure-cook frozen fish. It’s a matter of preference. But to prepare a filet, he recommends first rinsing the fish in cold water and patting it dry with a paper towel, then brushing both sides with olive, canola, peanut, or grapeseed oil before cooking in whichever method you choose. (Slater advises against butter, sunflower, or corn oil, which burn at higher heats.)
Though U.S. consumers are still warming up to frozen fish, in some places, it’s de rigueur. Where I live, in France, frozen food has been popular for some time, due in no small part to the ubiquitous frozen food store Picard. Be it strip steaks, salmon filets, or pigs in a blanket, Picard products are generally regarded as respectable foodstuffs.
Recently, I invited a friend for dinner at my apartment in Paris and pan-seared a couple of Picard Pacific Ocean albacore tuna steaks, finishing them with an olive oil drizzle and a few pinches of flaky salt. We opened a bottle of minerally Souleil rosé and sliced into the steaks. It was restaurant-good and as fresh as it comes.
Caitlin Gunther is a Paris-based freelance journalist with words in Bon Appétit, Saveur, T+L, Food52, and more. She’s worked in restaurants in Bilbao, Paris, and New York, and is currently working on a memoir about her time in Spain.