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wrote:
Anyone know the info on freezing stuff ?

I caught some Ling last week, put it in a freezer for a week, cooked it and it
was as tough as old boots (might have been my cooking).

The usual reason is freezer burn - if fish isn't well wrapped (or glazed)
then it dries out in the freezer and so toughens.

I know that Pollock
isnt supposed to freeze well but skate you should freeze to get rid of the
ammonia taste.

A great many fish require really fast freezing. Keep a set of freezer
blocks (of the sort that you use to keep a coolbox cool when camping) in a
fast section of your freezer then when you have a few fillets needing to be
frozen in top condition bag them then stack them alternately:
fillet/block/fillet/block and so on. The close contact gets them cold
-much- faster and reduces ice crystal damage. You can get fancy steel
sheets designed to do the same job if you want to be flashy. The blocks
must be already hard frozen btw or you get the opposite effect ;-)

Oily fish frozen this way should not be thawed before cooking. Cook them
straight from frozen - you can move them to the ice-cream compartment for 24
hours first if you like to make for easier cooking but don't let them get
any warmer than that and don't leave them there for more than a few days.

Pollock do freeze OK but they are one of the fish that lose quality quickly
once killed. They should be frozen as soon as possible and as fast as
possible - as above. In general summer pollock aren't worth freezing, wait
'til they have a thick jelly coat of autumn slime on them and the flesh will
be much richer.

Skate need hanging first. Traditionally you hang the whole fish on the back
of a shed door (this is MESSY) for 36 hours before skinning but I find it
better to prepare the wings, cut them thin if it's a big 'un, and then leave
them unwrapped in the fridge for 24 hours before wrapping and freezing them
- no need for the fast technique here.

All imo and ymmv.

Cheerio,

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