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I bought some excellent Matjes herring in the supermarket but do not know how long it will be available. So I would like to buy a quantity and freeze it.

Will the product be good to eat after freezing and defrosting?

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3 Answers 3

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Long ago, I tried this with fresh ones. Personally I did not like the taste after they were defrosted. The frozen water inside the fish changes it's structure. This is raw fish, meant to be eaten fresh/raw. I wouldn't recommend it after being frozen.

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  • I don't understand the point of your last paragraph. Assuming that the OP does indeed pick an oil with a low freezing point (they are all over the place), then the oil might not freeze, but the fish will still freeze. And, why would the OP have to make sure that "it" (presumably the fish) will freeze in the first place? It will be actually better if it was possible to have the fish in the freezer without freezing, because then the quality problems you describe in your first paragraph won't come up.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Mar 23, 2023 at 12:46
  • Good point, removed the last paragraph. Added it because I have no idea what oil does in the fridge.
    – pritaeas
    Mar 23, 2023 at 12:50
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    Re "fresh": I am no expert, but best I know, in the Netherlands matjes herring must be deep frozen in order to eliminate potential parasites. E.g. here: "Since 1980, the Netherlands has required that the herring be frozen at a min. -40°C when salting to protect against nematode infestation." Which leads me to believe that freezing might be OK if its done right (but "right" may be impossible for a regular household to achieve).
    – njuffa
    Mar 23, 2023 at 13:52
  • Matjes herring is usually sold brined, for that matter. So it's not fresh.
    – FuzzyChef
    Mar 24, 2023 at 5:16
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My personal experience has been that freezing and thawing wet-brined fish, like herring and sardines, results in an unpleasantly mushy texture.

However, I've found numerous threads on fishing forums that say it's fine and brined fish can be frozen and thawed more than once. I suspect that the difference may be the quality of the freezer -- that is, how quickly and deeply is the fish frozen.

I would remove any excess oil before freezing; that oil will just coagulate in blobs.

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Canola oil freezing point is -10°C and the freezing point of soybean oil being -16°C. Cottonseed, palm, and shea oils are way up in the 30-40°C range. This is probably colder than what most home freezers can go.

So what you are going to probably have is frozen fish and liquid oil, but there is a chance the oil could have an insulation effect and that the fish will be in your freezer but not frozen.

Even if your fish is frozen vegetable oils are quite hospitable to spoilage bacteria as they offer no preservation effect to any bacteria that wants to colonize it.

I would not risk it.

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    From a physics perspective, the insulating effect is negligible - the fish will reach freezer temperature and certainly not remain unfrozen. The food safety debate is misleading, for bacteria the temperature is relevant, even if the oil remains liquid, the bacterial growth will be pretty much at a standstill.
    – Stephie ♦
    Mar 25, 2023 at 16:56

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