Plaice might be one of the more popular fish to consume, but that doesn’t mean finding it in your local supermarket is easy. If you have grabbed some, then how can you store it for the long term?
Can You Freeze Plaice?
Yes, you can freeze plaice for up to 3 months. Wrap the fish first in a layer of baking paper, loosely, and then in a layer of cling film, more tightly. Once you’ve formed a seal with the cling film, place the fish into the freezer
Do Does Plaice freeze well? Yes
Can you refreeze Plaice? No
How to Freeze Plaice
Freezing plaice is perfectly simple, though we recommend following our instructions to ensure you do it in the best way possible:
- Wrap: Wrapping the plaice in a layer of baking paper, first of all, is a great way to make sure that the plaice is only touching a permeable surface. This means that little, if any, condensation will form directly on the surface of the plaice, preventing freezer burn.
- Wrap Again: Wrapping the parcel in cling film will prevent external moisture from the freezer from increasing the moisture content of the fish.
- Check the Seal: Making sure that the cling film around the plaice is well-sealed is a great way to ensure that there is no chance of additional water getting into the fish, or out of the fish. This will ensure that your fish doesn’t release odours into the freezer.
- Freeze: Freeze the plaice in the centre of the freezer, or as close to that as possible.
3 Tips for Freezing Plaice
Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing plaice to have the best results:
Check the Seal
Making sure that the cling film forms a total seal around the plaice will prevent the aroma of the fish from spreading in your freezer. That will benefit all the other things in your freezer – no one wants fishy ice cream or berries!
Freeze With a Herby Butter
Freezing the plaice with a small round of herby butter will make the cooking process much easier. All you’ll need to do is transfer the plaice to a baking sheet, after totally unwrapping it, and it will gain flavour well as it bakes.
Wrap Fillets Individually
Wrapping the plaice fillets individually is a great way to prevent them from sticking together. Due to their moisture content, fish fillets can stick together in the oven, precisely the kind of thing that’s best avoided.
How Long Can You Freeze Plaice?
You can freeze plaice for around 3 months before you’ll start to notice a degradation in quality.
Fish always becomes a little chewy at the centre once frozen, but the fish will become chewier the longer it gets frozen. It will also dry out excessively once it has been stored for more than 3 months.
Plaice does not last long in the fridge, even when kept wrapped. It will only last for between 2 and 3 days.
How Do You Defrost Plaice?
The simplest way to defrost plaice is to put it on a plate in your fridge overnight. Then, when you come to it later, it will be thawed, and you can use it as though it’s fresh fish.
You can also cook fish from frozen, though we only advise that when you’re baking it. Simply add an additional 5 minutes to the usual cooking time, and the fish should be succulent and cooked when you take it out of the oven.
Can You Refreeze Plaice?
Sometimes, yes…
When you take raw plaice out of the freezer and allow it to thaw, you cannot refreeze the fish – this is a food safety hazard, as fish can gather some small bacterial cultures while out of the freezer.
However, if you cook the fish, you can freeze the cooked fish following the same steps that we’ve spoken about, and then thaw and eat it at a later date.
Does Plaice Freeze Well?
Yes, plaice does freeze well.
All fish freezes well because of how dense the protein and fat content is within the meat, so there is relatively little water content that could expand and damage the cell structure of the fish itself.
Related FAQs
If you’ve still got questions about freezing plaice or plaice in general, then these may help:
Although it is possible to freeze a whole plaice, you’ll be taking up room in your freezer with fins and bones. Instead, it is better to prepare it before freezing it.
Yes, cooked plaice can be frozen for a couple of months. Bear in mind, however, that it will be very delicate to handle once cooked.
Sources
We have verified the information on this page using the following resources:
