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Cooler & frozen fish dilemma

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Hey folks,

It’s Saturday morning. Been on the road since Thursday mid day. We’re on way to Lake Michigan beach house. Spending week w/ family, grandkids etc.

I pre-cooled Pelican 80qt roto-molded high end cooler  (claims 10 day ice retention) w/ 40lbs of cubes for 24 hours (i.e Weds). Put vacuum packed fish from deep freezer frozen to well below zero, 2 packs in one freezer bag. Put them on bottom of cooler. Placed 3 blocks of ice on top. Filled in w/ cubes. Put in some cold drinks & a few other items, then filled w/ cubes. Shut lid. Been closed in back of 4Runner since. AC running while driving during day. 

We’ll arrive at lake house tomorrow afternoon (Sunday). 

Here’s my Dilemma. Should I open cooler & dig out fish from bottom under all that ice etc & (will be a real PIA),  & put it in freezer in house we’re staying at till we leave to tomorrow? Or should I keep cooler lid shut, trusting  the high end cooler kept ice & fish mostly frozen & will continue to do so till tomorrow afternoon? The question is, how good is that cooler? Line I said, claimed 10 day ice retention. Will frozen fish Saturday frozen for 3 days packed in ice?

I suppose if fish is a little soft by tomorrow it’d be okay to refreeze right? If it’s totally melted, that would really suck. It 2 pack of fluke to blacken, 2 packs of haddock to fry & two packs of pre-made fish cakes. 

What would you do, dig them out & put in freezer or trust cooler & leave lid shut till tomorrow?

JD

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Leave it shut and hope for the best.

"My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention."
Hedley Lamar
"It wasn't the bullet that laid him to rest, was the low spark of high-heeled boys"
Jim Capaldi & Steve Winwood

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27 mins ago, PeterO said:

Leave it shut and hope for the best.

Yup,

That's what I was thinking.

It'll certianly be a good experiment and test for how good this cooler really is.

Worst case scenario, I cook the fish right away, and reheat it throughout the week.

I'll let ya know.

In retrospect, I should have wrappec the fish in multipul layers of newspaper to insulate them and placed a couple blue ice blocks in the freezer bags for more direct contact w/ cold, for if / when ice starts to melt. Sitting on the bottom for the freezer, the bags containing the fish will be sitting in the ice melt water. Prolly not good.

Thanks

JD

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Drain the water as was said. Ad next time, we have been over this time and again on this forum, if you have a frozen product and want to keep it in a cooler frozen for 2= days, ice is NOT the answer, look to newspaper.

 

But not gonna go thru it now as you gotta deal with what you have.

 

 

And if it is still fairly frozen but a bit melted on the surface, you can refreeze no problem.

"You know the Bill of Rights is serving its purpose when it protects things you wish it didn't."

 

"You can no longer be oppressed if you are not afraid anymore - Unknown"

 

SOL Member #174

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3 hours ago, jjdbike said:

Worst case scenario, I cook the fish right away, and reheat it throughout the week.

 

Exactly :th: But it won't thaw immediately so you'd have a day or so at least before you would need to cook it.  Not an awful "worst case" vs pia of taking it out then repacking.

Edited by PeterO

"My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention."
Hedley Lamar
"It wasn't the bullet that laid him to rest, was the low spark of high-heeled boys"
Jim Capaldi & Steve Winwood

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Soooo, drained the water, checked fish. It was very cold but thawed.

I'm giving some to out hosts for last night and tonight. I re-topping cooler w/ ice w/ fish burried in it. I'll cook fish tomorrow (i.e. Sunday & Monday). It'll be fine. Lesson relearned, again... I know.

Ice keeps stuff cold, not frozen.

Next time, I may try a styrofoam cooler (not air tight) & dry ice. I've dome a small cooler w/ blocks of blue ice and lots of newspappers as SIM suggested and it worked. I suppose keeping suff frozen for days out of a freezer is quite a tall order.

Thanks for your help.

JD

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The fish were taken from deepfreezer set a below zero Thursday mid-day 7/18. Monday 7/22 dinner time: Rinsed flounder fillets well, 10 min marinade in white wine, olive oil, lime juice & sugar.

Blackened: dipped in melted butter, seasoned, seared hot, spash lime, finished in oven.

Fine. Glad I didn't refreeze or panik and throw them out. I hate to waste any food, especially fish I've harvested.

Next time I want to keep food frozen, it'll be in seperate cooler w/ only frozen food & either dry ice, or blue ice packs & lots of news-papper insulation.

Thanks

JD

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Gotta keep the newspaper dry, Jim. Wrap it, wrap it, wrap it some more. And when you think you have wrapped it enough, wrap it twice more.....

 

;)

 

 

"You know the Bill of Rights is serving its purpose when it protects things you wish it didn't."

 

"You can no longer be oppressed if you are not afraid anymore - Unknown"

 

SOL Member #174

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