Vac Pack Smoked Salmon

[georgeamer]

This weekend I'm goint to brine/smoke some salmon for our fall trip.

Is it better to freeze before vac pack to preserve shape or just go ahead and vackap and let if flatten?
Thanks in advance...George

[manxman]

Is it better to freeze before vac pack to preserve shape

I tend to freeze fish before vac packing to both preserve shape and also cut the risk of getting juice sucked up into the "foodsaver", sure some other people here do it the other way round though?  :)

[OU812]

To freeze or not to freeze

It all depends how moist the product is, for me the salmon i smoke does not have enough moisture in it to worry about sucking back in to the sealer and its firm enough that it dont flatten out but thats the way i smoke my salmon.

If its juicy and soft then you might want to freeze b4 you seal

Thats what i do when i freeze steak's freeze then pack and seal

With other moist things that i dont have time to freeze i wrap in plastic then put in the sealer bags and seal with out any leakage

[Kummok]

I've done it both ways and haven't found anything significant to promote or warn about either way.

I normally freeze before vac sealing but that is ONLY because I smoke in large enough volumes that I put all the smoked product into 1 gal Ziplock bags and toss in freezer until/if I want to reduce to smaller vac sealed bags for presentation as gifts. I do find that the sealing after freezing provides more "air pockets" in the package, which allows some "ice frosting" in those pockets during longer term storage...hasn't seemed to had any effect on the taste/texture though.

The "prettiest" packaging is vac sealing unfrozen product but I DO hit the 'end' button on the vac sealer before it collapses the product totally...hopefully your vac sealer has that feature?!?!?

Note:
If you're fortunate enough to be blessed with the high oil content feeder Kings, I've found great success with putting a piece of rolled up paper towel in the lip of the bag to prevent the oil from getting into the seal area....always works great!

[muzzletim]

I have done it both ways, I don't think you get it as airtight if it is frozen, but that really isn't a issue as the fish doesn't ever stay that long in the freezer. To many people wanna eat it! It is alot neater if it is frozen and you don't get that film of juice in your package!

[dbrown1]

I tend to seal then freeze though my salmon is pretty done and the bit of juices that do come out tend to moisten it up once I have pulled it out of the freezer... I dunno maybe that's just me ?!?