Roughly how long you keep vacuum packed fish (unfrozen) before it goes off? Fish was filleted and vac sealed on day of capture.

The old time way of keeping fillets fresher is to place an upturned smaller plate on top of a dinner plate and lay the fillets on top. That way all of the juices drain off underneath the smaller plate. Cover with glad wrap and it doubles the life - whatever that is.

Fish shelf life is a product of three conditions

1.Storage temperature (this means from time of catch, placing straight into a slurry improves shelf life by at least 3 days) If your fridge is set like most normal ones at around 4c fish will last an absolute maximum 7 days (assuming the other two conditions are met) I set my fish fridge to 1c & easily get 10 days, the ideal temp is 0c, in one restaurant where our supply chain was difficult we would vac pac & store in ice in the fridge to achieve 0c, lasted an age.

2.Moisture, bacteria need moisture to grow, changing containers daily or storing on a rack so the fillets are not sitting in juice dramatically improves shelf life.

3. Level of contamination. Its inevitable that you will get some bacteria on your fillets when filleting but the cleaner everything is the longer it will last.

As for vacuum packing, this achieves two things
1. Prevents further contamination while in storage (Surprisingly important point)
2. Removes oxygen,this prevents SOME bacteria (aerobic) from growing but by no means ALL
Bottom line is that it is hard to quantify home much vacuum packing will improve shelf life, but it is in the order of 2-3 days.

I seldom vac pac for unless I am transporting fish in which case it allows me to pack it in a polly bin in ice or freezing when it is great as it prevents freezer burn.

A word of warning about vac packing, some machines (particularly commercial ones) allow you to set the level of vacuum. For fish you need to use close to the lowest setting as anything more tend to pull the juices from the delicate structure of the fish flesh resulting in a pool of juices in the back & fillets that are no where near as nice to eat.

Sorry about the essay, hope it helps

The cook wrote: For fish you need to use close to the lowest setting as anything more tend to pull the juices from the delicate structure of the fish flesh resulting in a pool of juices in the back & fillets that are no where near as nice to eat.

Thats what happened to me, not nice to eat, so stopped vacuum packing fresh fish.

Best I have done is in a salt ice slurry, kept there for 3-4 nights. The fish were then gutted, put in the fridge. Stayed there whole, then used when needed, filleted, lasted to 9-10 nights all up. The fish had sunken eyes, similar like at the fish markets where fish had been on ice for days at a time.
You need to wipe the moisture off the fish daily, you want fish sitting on a stainless steel dish or a plastic one either, some how the fish sort of reacts with these 2 things. Best is glass plate of dinner plate.
The fish fillets seemed to have broken down a bit, (for want of a better word to describe it) they were still very good eating, no fishy smell, the smaller snaps were beautiful & seemed more oily.
The fish were caught around this time of the year.

Vacuum pack rump steak, leave in the fridge for at least a month or longer.... not too bad

BananaBoat - I agree with the vacuum packed steak, I have won a few of these in raffles and always leave them in the fridge for at least another 3 weeks. they are divine.

The cook wrote: the demon wrote: Ok ,What about smoked fish and brined fish that is smoked ?? Vaccie packed that is  Vac pacing dramatically improves shelf life The act of brining & smoking largely sterilises the fish. Vac packing then prevents any further contamination, coupled with the fact that aerobic bacteria will not grow means you have a good chance of almost no bacteria growing at all. I have happily eaten vac packed smoked fish that is 6 months old (note stored in a cold fridge (1c))

really missing your fishing reports mr cook