Please Taste This In Your Minds Eye - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by chefedb 

Sorry French Fries I don't agree with what governnment states . Only one way defrosted food should be refrozen and that is if ice crystals are still present. Which means product is semi frozen, this does not help quality of food but at least it is safer then fully thaw and refreeze. To thaw a product then cook it then freeze it, is acceptible. When You purchase in a supermarket most of the fish and some of the meat and poultry have been previously frozen don't believe they label it all.  Most poultry in supermarket is what is called Frosted, which is not frozen and not unfrozen ,its about 30 to 32 f. with ice crystals still formed inside cavity of bird, almost like suspended animation. It is debateable or a grey area to call this fresh or frozen.

chefedb, I worked in the frozen aisle of a supermarket for a while. The truth is, most frozen products you buy in a supermarket have been thawed and refrozen. Supermarkets only have a certain amount of freezer space, and when the trucks deliver the new stock of frozen food, the freezer is often still full. When it is, you have to wait until later in the day when the shelves get emptied, then at that point you can take the contents of the freezer onto the shelves, and the new frozen stuff into the freezers.

During that whole time, which can be several LONG hours (I've seen it be 8hrs+), the "frozen" food sits in the loading dock, in full sun. Let me tell you that at that point, some of the boxes (especially the ones on the top and the ones on the sides) are completely thawed.

Shocking huh?

FWIW I agree with you and would never do that myself, if for no other reason than quality and texture, and I rarely buy frozen products.

There is very little non frozen shrimp available to the consummer in the USA. Especially in Arizona as you are quite far from a water source. Most places use left over lobster or canned or canadian canned frozen. Some if they can buy get 1 claws which are cheaper. Do you remember what you paid for the salad, this will give a clue.

This price seems in the ballpark for dinner entree. For a classier operation(Not Applebees or something like that) I have seen 21.95 and 23.95 down here. Lunch 12.95- 13.95

There's really no such thing as "fresh," uncooked lobster.  It's either alive and perky or it had darn well better be frozen.  True with almost all other shellfish, too.  You're a big deal sushi eater, you know da kine and you should already know this.  You don't realize yet that you know far more about seafood than almost anyone working in a restaurant in the state of Arizona.  They mean well I'm sure, but you can't expect them to get it right.  Human nature.  They want to please and are too embarrassed to walk to the kitchen and come back with an answer you don't want to hear so they say "fresh" because it sounds better. 

Trust yourself, girl.

BDL

KYHeirloomer, my experience with food (canned or frozen, no matter the expiry date) for such a long period of time has been rather unpleasant.  So, I'm forever cautious. However, I do agree that how the food is defrosted is important.

I bought 30 or 40 lbs New England Lobsters.....

Not the best example, Ed. Those lobsters were delivered alive, so, by definition, were still fresh. Doesn't matter when they came out of the pound.

A somewhat better example. Last time my market had Copper River salmon, I was there on a Sunday. The case had a sign on it, letting us know the fish had been caught the previous Tuesday. So that was 5 days for "fresh," wild-caught salmon. Does anyone really think the quality of that fish was better than farm raised delivered that morning? Or, to put a point on it, better than FAS fish?

The problems with seafood---fresh or frozen---have to do with the handling between when it's processed and when it's delivered to the consumer. That and the fact most consumers are not aware of the legal (as opposed to intuitive) meaning of words like "fresh."

my experience with food (canned or frozen, no matter the expiry date) for such a long period of time has been rather unpleasant....

You'll have to go into details about what "unpleasant" means, SimplyCook. That could include anything from not tasting good to made you ill.

Nowadays, commercially canned or frozen foods---provided they've been properly handled along the whole chain of delivery---might lose some quality over time. But they shouldn't be unsafe.

I would suggest, too, that most people would not be able to tell there was a quality loss. We're talking, most of the time, subtle changes in the flavor, which they cannot discern, or food in a form that doesn't allow the best of its flavor to come through anyway. And the fact is, much as we wish or pretend otherwise, most of us do not have palates sophisticated enough to detect those nuances.

Take KG's situation. I'm offering 12 to 7 that the bag of scallops she's talking about were not dry scallops to begin with. They've already been pumped with water and chemicals. So the true, delicate flavor of the scallops already is missing. Then she put them in a highly flavored broth as well. But, please note, her Mom loved the dish nonetheless. Why? Because the scallops in it tasted the way she thought they should.

What I'm saying is that had KG made that dish the day those scallops were brought home it wouldn't have tasted significantly different, despite any further quality loss resulting from long-term freezing.

I don't know about the Phillips brand, per se, but I've used several versions of canned crab in the past.

Oddly enough, the flavor is there. The problem with the canned ones is that the meat is very fine, practically shredded. So the consistency of the final crabcake suffers (they tend to be denser). And, of course, the best crabcakes are made with lump or jumbo lump.

Check with your dealer to see if they can obtain pasteurized crab. If so, that's the way to go. It's the next best thing to fresh, and you can get it as lump, jumbo lump, backfin, or claw meat. 

No, it's not cheap---comparable, or slightly more than, the canned. But for an occasional special treat, I say go for it.

FWIW, at the Fresh Market in Lexington, pasteurized crab prices are:

Jumbo lump: $24/lb

Lump: $20/lb

Claw: $16/lb

I've never seen backfin there, but would guess it sells for about the same as the claw meat.

Canned crabmeat, around here, sells for from $7-9/6-oz can. Which puts it in the same class as the lump. But, as noted, the consistency leaves much to be desired.

We recently lived mear a supermarket where they had the most stinking fish dept. I've ever come across.  We refused to buy any "fresh" fish there, would rather go the frozen route or just go elsewhere, or go without.  There was a distinct ammonia "aroma" when you came within  10 metres of that section.  Yuk.

Luckily they've moved and revamped the whole section with fresh equipment and ventilation.  Have starting buying there now and no harm done :).

I agree that thawing, cooking, re-freezing then re-heating can make fish a bit rubbery.  Not much you can do about it.  But I think there's no harm in it.

Your mum is lucky to have you willing to do it.

I bought a 1/2 halibut a few months ago, the quality was fantastic, melted in your mouth, the fillet Mignon of the ocean. The difference I see is, fresh fish I brag about the flavor, fresh frozen may still be good but, the quality drops about 50%. I saw this with the Halibut, there was a big difference in the quality of the frozen Halibut fillet. Local Girl, I always heard of the deals on beach front property in AZ, looks like you didn't get in on this deal. What you not get Kamaaina rates in AZ...........

China Town Honolulu in Jan 2011...........I love this place........this is the only place I can go and not have to piss anyone off, they are already pissed off when I get there.....

Teriyaki Beef at Rainbow Drive Inn

Shoyu Chicken

Hawaiian Sunset from Ala Moana Beach

This what your talking about when you think of fresh in Hawaii..........this was Ono

 Forgot about the Shrimp truck on the North Shore, fun place, nice local girls, and don't forget to wash your hands at the sink behind the truck or your hands will be sticking to the steering wheel all the way home