Thread: Dry Aging Fish

Just had first crack at dry aging some kingis and snapper.

Mates been doing it for a while and swears by it. Not for everyone, but if you’re a foodie or a tinkerer well worth a crack

Normally leave the head on and take guts out through gills, no belly cut. The less exposed flesh the better, had to take head off to get in chilli bin. Take gills out as well and hang by tail. Had these in my little chiller for 6 days at about 0-4 degrees. Fish internal temp stayed at 2-3 degrees the whole time.

No fishy smell what so ever. No way you’d know the difference compared to a freshly caught fillet. The smell normally comes from the moist slime and bacteria in it. Because chiller drys it out you don’t get any of that. Skin drys out like leather on the kings but the meat is next level tender for sashimi and the flavour is increased. Even the tail sections tendons had broken down and could be done as sashimi as well.


The lower moisture content also means if you freeze it there’s less cell damage ie. less mushiness once thawed out.

The flavour from the snapper was amazing. Check out the eyes, still clear and no cloudiness after 6 days. Unlike fish on ice at supermarket.

Could easily have done 7-8 days. Definitely recommend giving it a crack, link for good write up on it https://www.foodandwine.com/cooking-...t-sherman-oaks

Very interesting.

In the Western Cape region of South Africa, there is a local delicacy called "Bokkoms". It is essentialy air dried mullet. Fish placed in a brine for a day or so, and then hung up to dry in the wind. It's kinda like fish biltong :-)

Awesome

I'm sold on dry ageing fish. Everything I catch gets hung for 24 hours in a fridge whether whole fish or fillets. After 24 hours, fillets dry out a little tiny bit at the thinner edges, but no drama. At that point, I either vacuum pack and freeze them or continue to dry age them in the more common way which is wrapped in paper towel and placed in an air tight container or wrapped in Glad wrap. An amazing amount of fluid continues to drain out the fillets. It's important to change the wrapping at least every 24 hours. Go like this for 5 days, but sometimes push it out to 7 days. Zero fishy smell or bad taste.

Its definitely a concept that people are beginning to pay a lot more attention to.

Highly recommend having a look at ‘The Whole Fish Cookbook’ and ‘Take One Fish’ by an Australian guy called Josh Niland. He does some extremely interesting stuff with fish, including dry ageing and curing. Treats fish more like a traditional butcher and is all about making absolute use of the fish. He’s appeared as a guest on MasterChef a couple of times & a quick Google will find several good videos of him on there doing some demonstrations for the contestants.

Have done snapper fillets as per MB .
I see the advantage for raw fish dishes and increasing the unami flavor.
Not entirely sold on aging fish to cook yet but need more experimentation.

Originally Posted by Pixie Z

Its definitely a concept that people are beginning to pay a lot more attention to.

Highly recommend having a look at ‘The Whole Fish Cookbook’ and ‘Take One Fish’ by an Australian guy called Josh Niland. He does some extremely interesting stuff with fish, including dry ageing and curing. Treats fish more like a traditional butcher and is all about making absolute use of the fish. He’s appeared as a guest on MasterChef a couple of times & a quick Google will find several good videos of him on there doing some demonstrations for the contestants.

Yup, have read a fair bit about him and saw him do that kingfish on the show.
Would be interesting to see how far you can take it before it no longer improves.

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Not entirely sold on aging fish to cook yet but need more experimentation.

I'm not either, but definitely keeps it fresher.