If you’re lucky enough to live near a harbour with day fishing boats, you’ll be able to buy fish straight from the sea. It doesn’t get better than that.

The next best option is to use one of the overnight aggregators like Pesky fish. They’ll source your order from different day boats and courier it to you overnight. You’ll get a single delivery and just one delivery fee (Pesky charge £7.99 or deliver free if your order comes to more than £40.00).

The downside of both of the above is that supply is limited and you’ll have to take what they’ve got. And often they won’t have the variety or quantity you’re after.

If you can’t get the seafood you want from the day fisherman you may be tempted to buy from your supermarket. Be careful because their idea of “fresh” is probably very different from yours and mine.

The industrial fishing supply chain for fresh fish works something like this:

This means the fresh fish in your supermarket could be at least 14 days old when you buy it and even in the best case it could be 8 days old.

Flash Freezing Seafood within hours of it being caught keeps it super fresh

Once a fish is caught bacteria causes it to decompose. Flash freezing immediately stops this process. You could argue that a fish frozen within 4 hours of being caught is fresher than a 24 hour old day boat caught fish.

Flash freezing was invented in 1924 by Clarence Birdseye. He used the technique to quickly freeze foods at extremely low temperatures (-40 degrees centigrade) without compromising freshness or flavour. These days we use liquid nitrogen to freeze fish at temperatures as low as -195 degrees centigrade.

When fish is frozen, ice crystals form inside the cells. If they’re too big they damage the cell walls giving the thawed fish an unpleasant mushy texture.

Flash freezing makes these crystals so small that they don’t damage the cells and the texture is indistinguishable from fresh.

The best frozen fish is frozen at sea as soon as it’s caught, but it’s common for processors to carry out the freezing on shore, this isn’t quite so good because the fish could already be quite old unless it’s from day fishing boats.

Chilled fish could be thawed out frozen fish

Chilled fish is often frozen fish which has been defrosted and is then distributed through the chilled food chain. Sometimes it’s thawed out in the store. My experience is that it’s rarely marked as frozen/defrosted and you might think you’re buying fresh fish.

You’re better off buying frozen fish and defrosting it yourself. The way the fish is thawed can impact the taste and texture so it’s worth a little effort to do it right.

Frozen fish helps prevent food waste

Fish has a pretty short shelf life so you need to eat it within a few days of buying it. If you can’t use it in time then you’ll have to throw it away.

When you have a pack of frozen fish in your freezer you can just thaw out exactly what you need for the next day’s meal making it zero waste.

Does freezing alter the flavor or texture of fish?

When properly stored, seafood that has been flash-frozen within hours of being caught is virtually indistinguishable from fresh seafood, offering the same flavour and texture.

Jane Brody, longtime food/nutrition columnist for The New York Times says, “The freshest seafood is that which has been frozen shortly after harvest and remains that way until cooked.”

Frozen fish must be stored properly at 0°C or below and not in a “self-defrosting” freezer because Self-defrosting freezers go through a regular thawing/freezing cycle that rapidly degrades the quality and flavour of frozen seafood..

You do need to be careful when buying frozen fish to make sure an unscrupulous supplier hasn’t frozen their unsold stock before it finally goes off. (check your suppliers reputation on Google or Trustpilot).

How to defrost frozen fish for best results

Thawing fish in the refrigerator is the best way to preserve its taste and texture.

Make sure the fish you’re thawing is in good condition and that it’s completely frozen and not partially thawed.

If the bag is unopened make sure there are no ice crystals or frost inside covering the fish. These could indicate that it’s been in storage for a long time, and may not be good to eat.

Put the fish in a bowl in the refrigerator the day before you want to use it. (There’ll be a lot of water released as it thaws).

Once thawed, check the fish is soft throughout. It should have the same texture and smell as fresh fish. If it smells too fishy or decayed, it’s no longer usable. Thawed fish may have a slightly fishy smell, but it shouldn’t be off-putting.

When using this method to thaw vacuum packaged fish, make sure to remove or open the packaging before leaving the fish in the refrigerator. Not doing so can lead to development of toxin producing bacteria

Quickly Thaw Frozen fish in water

If you’re in a rush you can defrost the fish in a bowl of water in just a few hours.

Place the fish in a plastic bag and tie the bag in a knot to completely seal it. You don’t want the water to actually touch the fish. The cool temperature of the water will be able to thaw the fish through the bag.

Place the fish in a pot of cold water. If the fish floats, put a plate or another weight on top to keep it completely submerged. The fish will thaw quickly in the cold water. Let it sit for about an hour to make sure it thaws completely.

Check the fish to see whether it has completely defrosted by pressing your finger against the flesh. If it still feels frozen in the middle, let it continue to thaw.

Don’t thaw fish in hot water because this will thaw the fish unevenly and too quickly, changing its taste and texture. Thawing in hot water will also make the outer edges susceptible to getting contaminated with bacteria before the inside of the fish is finished thawing.

The post Why Frozen Fish Could be The Freshest Seafood You Will Ever Buy first appeared on Easy Farm Shop.

The post Why Frozen Fish Could be The Freshest Seafood You Will Ever Buy appeared first on Easy Farm Shop.

Ever since 2016 I have read that most UK fish is sold to the EU and once Brexit gets done you’ll all have the benefit of cheap fish and other foods (80% of the UK catch was apparently sold to EU countries pre Brexit, now you’ll get to keep all that).

Rees Mogg in particular was a loud advocate of the beneficial effect Brexit would have in bringing food prices down. (Please don’t blame COVID).

So we’re a year in and as predicted the market for UK fish has collapsed and many fishermen have shut up shop or are about to and good luck to them.

Many new eCommerce sites have sprung up to sell UK caught fish directly to British consumers; cutting out the middle man is bound to cut the price isn’t it?

That’s all good BUT why the hell is UK fish so damn expensive? I have read so many comments from Brits saying they would love to eat UK fish if only it was more affordable.

I read that people in the UK are nervous about cooking fish and prefer to eat it in a restaurant.

Well when a 1.25Kg turbot costs £50 I’d be nervous as hell! In Spain I’d pay €15 (€13) and consider that expensive as I chucked it on the barbie.

I eat fresh seafood three days a week but looking at the prices in the UK I just couldn’t do it not matter how much I wanted to.

Morrisons (who do a relatively good job) sell mussels for £4 a kilo I pay €2,25 (£1.87). Whole Sea Bass from Turkey  is £9.43 a kilo I pay €6,95 (£5.78) a Kilo in Carrefour from Estepona port 15 Km away, it doesn’t get fresher than that!

And despite what I read about UK fish being sold into the EU, there isn’t a single fishmonger or supermarket I have ever visited in Spain that sells fish from the UK.

Something smells very fishy here!

PS: Have you ever wondered why wild fish is usually more expensive than farmed fish. It never made sense to me. To farm fish you need to build the pens and employ people to look after the fish. You need to buy fish food and drugs to keep them healthy.

Wild fish are just swimming in the sea, so long as you have a boat and a net they cost you nothing.

Except for the diesel which you need to power your trawler and you need a lot of diesel to get to where the fish are and diesel costs a LOT more than fish food.

The post I Don’t Get Why Seafood Costs So Much the UK! Can Anyone Explain Why? first appeared on Easy Farm Shop.

The post I Don’t Get Why Seafood Costs So Much the UK! Can Anyone Explain Why? appeared first on Easy Farm Shop.

How things have changed since then (unless you buy from supermarkets or buy imported fish – and 80% of the fish we eat is imported). These days you can have your fish delivered to your door within 24 hours of being caught, and you can’t beat fresh fish!

No one can have missed the news about the plight of UK fishermen (sorry but I can’t bring myself to call them “fishers”).

Britain’s inshore fleet has been devastated by Brexit and Covid. In 2020 the value of UK landings dropped 19%. 15% of all fishing jobs were lost.

For the past four years, Pesky Fish, the start-up that Ben King co-founded with Aiden Berry in 2018 has been working to connect fishermen directly with customers in their homes.

Pesky’s goal is to transform the fishing industry so that fishermen can keep more of the value of their catch, customers get a wider choice of fresher fish, and UK fish stocks are protected.

Pesky are committed to ensuring that you’ll only ever find fish on the Pesky market that are:

From abundant stocks

Old enough to have repopulated their species

Caught using low impact fishing methods

How does the Pesky Fish market work?

Pesky fish is a daily market that lets fishermen deliver their catch directly to customers at home within 24 hours of it being caught.

Every day from Monday to Thursday the mornings catch is loaded onto the Pesky website and you can choose what you want to order. Landings will change from day to day depending on the weather and the season.

The fish is offered at a fixed price so it’s not an auction but remember that because there’s limited availability, when you add an item to your basket you’ll see a message that it’s reserved for 15 minutes; this gives everyone a fair chance to get their chosen fish.

The banner at the top of the page tells you when your fish will be delivered and how long you have to place your order for the next available delivery day.

The great thing is that you can buy fish from more than one boat with just one delivery slot and a single delivery charge.

Transforming the fish supply chain

The UK exports 73% of the fish caught, but imports 80% of the fish eaten! Imagine the impact this extended supply chain has on the environment. It’s just not sustainable.

By buying on the Pesky market you can help transform the economics of the UK fishing industry in three important ways:

• By cutting out middlemen, fishermen can get the highest price for their landings
• By  using abundant, bycatch species the total catch value for each boat is maximized
• By using coastal packing partners we can help create local employment opportunities

Carbon neutral delivery and Recyclable Packaging

Pesky use fully kerbside recyclable boxes supplied from the team at TemperPack. Orders are sent by DPD overnight delivery arriving with you the following day.

DPD are one of the leading companies for delivering fresh, ambient, and chilled products direct to the home.

Next day delivery costs £7.99 or you can get free delivery if your order comes to over £40 for Monday-Wednesday (weekday delivery), or £60 for Thursday (Saturday delivery).

How to change or cancel your order

You can change or cancel your order before midnight on the day of ordering by sending an email to ahoy@peskyfish.co.uk.

Where do Pesky Fish Deliver to?

Pesky Fish deliverthroughout mainland UK (for now they can’t deliver to the Scottish Highlands, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man & Isle of Wight).

Traceability              

Every touchpoint in the Pesky fish chain is 100% transparent both ways, the labels have the boat name front and centre. This means you can share exactly how you got on with your fish – whether that’s Darren’s Brill, Dean’s Bass or Matt’s Mussels.

What to do with the fish you buy

Many of us love to eat fish and appreciate it’s wonderful health benefits.

But most people choose fish when they eat out, they don’t eat so much at home, the reason for this is that many of us are less confident about cooking fish than meat.

The Pesky blog is full of great, new, easy to follow recipes designed to make cooking fresh fish easy, it’s a good way to get confident in cooking fish.

You should also sign up for the Pesky fish emails, they’re full of useful fishy tips, hints and market news.

Give a Pesky fish Gift Card

This is a great way to nudge your friends and family into eating more (healthy) fish. Give them a gift card, with values between £10 to £100, they just need to enter the number when they check out.

Where are Pesky Fish based

Pesky fish are based in Marlesford, Woodbridge, England, Close to Ipswitch in Suffolk. They have operations in the local ports they represent and the orders are packed and delivered directly from the port.

The post Pesky Fish – A Daily Market to Buy Today’s Fish Catch From British Day Fishing Boats first appeared on Easy Farm Shop.

The post Pesky Fish – A Daily Market to Buy Today’s Fish Catch From British Day Fishing Boats appeared first on Easy Farm Shop.

There’s been a huge growth in demand for fresh fish and shellfish bought direct from the source.

Nothing is LESS suitable than seafood for buying in a supermarket, which can be up to 10 days old by the time you eat it.

In fact a BBC investigation into supermarkets a few years ago found that some of the “fresh” fish on sale was up to 20 days old and nearly a third may even be off. They did add that the 20 days was at the “extreme” end of the spectrum. But even so!

Ideally whole fish should be eaten within 36-48 hours of capture while filleted fish can stay fresh for up to 4 days.

Fresh fish has always been popular in the UK but was traditionally eaten more often in restaurants, as most of us aren’t sure how to cook it properly. The COVID pandemic changed all this by shutting down the restaurants and forcing us to cook our fish at home

Another reason for the increased interest in buying fresh fish is that people are more interested in healthier eating. A recent survey found that 72% of frequent seafood consumers are putting more effort into making healthy, sustainable and nutritious choices since the pandemic.

Seafood is a major source of healthful omega-3 fats and is also rich in nutrients such as vitamin D and selenium, high in protein, and low in saturated fat.

The industry has responded to these changing circumstances by selling their fish and shellfish direct to the customer and providing us with hints, tips and recipes, as well as nutritional and sustainability information.

It’s easy to buy direct from UK based coastal or day boat fishers (or from specialist regional fishmongers or Cooperatives) who return with their catch the same day.

They’ve followed the lead of farmers by preparing the fish for you so it’s ready to cook or freeze on delivery, you don’t need to worry about doing your own prep.

They’ll send it direct to your door overnight, vacuum-packed or sealed in trays. The fish is protected by a lined insulated polystyrene box surrounded with chilled gel-packs to keep it cool and in perfect condition.

With so much wonderful seafood available in the UK and many cooking resources online, on TV, and in print there’s no reason to miss out on this fantastic food anymore.

The post Fresh Seafood Direct from the Sea first appeared on Easy Farm Shop.

The post Fresh Seafood Direct from the Sea appeared first on Easy Farm Shop.