Freezing Crappie

[Joe Archer]

I was outr ice fishing this morning and ran into a mess of nice crappie. Because I always have trouble with crappie falling apart after they have been frozen, I decided to cook em up along with the perch and gills from today, for dinner.

Anyway, another fisherman and I were talkin out on the ice. He said the same thing, "crappie are great if you fry em the same day, but they fall apart if you freeze em and thaw em out"

Anyone else have this trouble, and know how to prevent it from happening? It sure would be nice to fill up the freezer with these fish, but I wont do it because I can never get em to freeze very well. <----<<<

[Ruler]

I've never gotten more than 4 crappie in one trip, so I don't know about freezing that specific fish, but I do know about perch. I grew up ice fishing with my dad and remember getting literally hundreds of fish each year. It wouldn't work just freezing them, as my mom had learned long before I was born. She'd put a bunch in a ziploc storage bag, then fill it with ice water and freeze it like that. The fish would keep forever in the freezer like that. We ate perch that were several years old and they were just like they were put in the previous week.

Another thing about freezing fish is that if you have a strong fish taste in it, first soak then freeze the fillets in salt water. It leeches the strong taste out of the flesh. Somebody told me to use baking soda once; do NOT use that, unless you like eating slime instead of fish. (Learned that the hard way. :( )

Sorry I don't have info directly related to crappie.

[The Whale]

Have to agree with Ruler on this one. I've frozen hundreds of Crappie during my years around Big Rapids and always in a block of ice (as I do all fish fillets) and have never had a problem with spoilage or deterioration of quality. Freezer type zip locks baggies, fillets, water to cover, take out the extra air, bingo !


Whale :D :D

[Joe Archer]

I freeze all my fish in water, in double zip-loc bags. Still, half of the crappie filets will turn to "mush" when they are thawed. <----<<<

[NEMichsportsman]

I always freeze in a block of ice. Have never had any problems. Except this year....there has been a noticeable lack of Crappies availible to be frozen.

jp

[tubejig]

I also have had problems with crappie, usually losing
about 30 percent of my fillets to mush. I now use a food
saver on all of my fish, and they are in much better shape
than freezing them in water and take up less space. They
are a little expensive, about 200 bucks if you purchase
more bags and rolls along with it. I also have been doing
venison and beef with it and it seems to keep longer
than using freezer paper.


tubejig

[BillPru]

Joe,
I had the same problem, and also had the problem with Menominee/whitefish. Then a CO clued us in. Told us to cook the fish, freeze in a zip-loc, whenever you want a sandwich take one out put it in the microwave and you've got a great meal. It works!

[Big Kahuna]

Between myself and my fishing buds,we freeze several hundred crappie a year. I put them in ziplocs full of water like the other fella's and never had a problem. One thing we try to do in the summer is keep them alive in the livewell til we clean them. I deep fry them rather than pan fry and they stay together just fine.

[slyjap]

I agree with Big Kahuna. My friends and I catch a couple hundred of crappies a year and almost always freeze them. Been doing it for about 12 years and can't ever remember having the fish turn to mush. We just use freezer zip-locs and water. Get all the air out and lay it flat. Are you letting it thaw too long? Maybe the fish are getting too warm. I usually don't plan my fish dinners in advance, so I end up thawing my fish rapidly in luke warm water. Sometimes I stand there and hold the brick of fish under the running water, carefully pulling the fillets off as they thaw. As soon as it is free of ice, I put em in a bowl and stick it in the fridge until right before I'm gonna coat em and fry em. They're cold but not frozen. You could always try leaving the skin on and just scale them. My dad used to say that it helped hold the meat together. Its still good, but I prefer it without the skin. Good luck.

[Moron]

I don't know if this would help in regard to freezing crappie. But I have had problems with them being oily and mushy when caught in warmer waters of summer.
I tried rinsing them under warm water, it seems to remove excess oil and firm them up. Then put them in cold water and refrigerate before cooking. Seems to help them stay together.
One of the big problems with them falling apart is their meat is so flaky, more so than blugills, and much more so than perch.

[Ruler]

That reminds me moron... we *always* put the fish in ice water in the fridge for a couple of days before freezing them. I really don't know why, but I've never seen my mom freeze fresh fish before. Maybe rigormortus lends to a firmer fillet when frozen and thawed?

[Moron]

'Ruler'
When I was a young boy and first stared fishing with my father, we never skinnd pan fish, we always scaled and fileted them. And this was always done outside or in the garage, at my mothers request.:)

I actually liked the taste of bulgil skins. Only when I got a little older and started doing more ice fishing did I start skinning them. The advantages of skinning outweighed the favor of the skins.:) I could do the entire cleaing process indoors at the kitchen sink and the filets fried up so much nicer without the skin, as they didn't curl up and hold so much of the cooking oil.

But we would always place our filets in salt water and refrigerate for a day or two before rinsing then cooking or freezing. I don't presoak them anymore before freezing. I thoroughly rinse them under the tap individually until they feel free of excess oils and always freeze them in water. When they thaw they are usually firm.

The only thing I do different with crappie is rinse them in warmer water if they seems oily or mushy. Then imediately put hem in cold water and refrigerate or freeze.

I have to admit though, I prefer gils and perch to crappie, but they're all good compared to nothing.:)

[MGV]

All i can say is don't freeze any fish. If you have none in the freezer that means you have a excuse to go fishing.:D I freeze absolutely none. The main reason is to get out more often fishing and fish don't seem to taste the same after being froze.