Defrosting Tuna - A Step-by-Step Guide

Ali Hussainy catches a lot of tuna. In his household, tuna getting frozen is a necessity to make sure none of the harvest goes to waste. Many people say they wont eat frozen tuna because the quality is bad. Ali shows you his methods to keeping any fish, but tuna especially, from losing quality and how to defrost the fish to have the same quality you had when the fish was fresh.

It’s important to mention that Ali’s methods here work even better when the fish is at the highest quality to begin with. Proper fish care is one of the most important aspects of harvesting fish. When utilizing this method, be sure you take great care of your fish in the first place. To learn about effective methods of fish care, check out the Fish Care 101 Blog and consider learning the Ike Jime Technique to further your fish care quality. 

Also, we would like to emphasize that these methods are effective on almost all species of fish once they are frozen. Defrosting fish rapidly in a microwave is one of the worst things you can do to the quality of your fish and we recommend a method closest to Ali's method to effectively defrost your fish without drying it out, overcooking it, or giving the meat a chance to have too much bacteria. Bacteria by itself can spoil your fish and is the culprit of "fishy taste" in your harvest. 

Defrosting Tuna

Do your best to freeze your fish in a vacuum-sealed bag if possible. This eliminates extra moisture and air in your bag that could cause fish to spoil faster. This defrosting method needs to be done two-three days in advance to ensure it defrosts naturally.

When defrosting, cut bag open and take fish out laying it on a paper towel. Pat it dry with one to two paper towels to get all of the surface moisture off the meat. 

Place a paper towel on a plate and place fish on the plate on top of the towel. Take another towel and wrap the fish in both the towels. 

Place the plate in the fridge. Once or twice a day, replace the paper towels once they get saturated with the moisture from the meat. The moisture can cause the fish to spoil faster so replace the towels as often as possible once moist.