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Garum from Frozen Fish?

 
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Hey all, after lurking this forum for a while I come seeking your wisdom.
A few months ago, some neighbors of ours moved away and left us a TON of food they couldn't pack, including a few bags of whole fish that got stuffed into the freezer, covered up by ground lamb they also gave us, and promptly forgotten. Most of it is, unfortunately, badly freezer burned by now, so my partner and I started wondering if there was a way to salvage it into something pleasant to eat.
I tend to keep a LOT of fermentation projects going in my kitchen-currently, there are several jars of carrot kraut, a persimmon mead, and a few different hot sauces bubbling away already. My partner suggested that I try making a garum out of them, as described in Sandor Katz' The Art Of Fermentation. I'd love to do this, but I'm skeptical that anything good will come from freezer-burned fish. Her line of thinking was that the freezing might just break the fish down quicker, my counter was that the enzymes responsible for digesting the fish into garum might not survive freezing temperatures.
To make a short story longer, she said "Why don't you ask one of your weird fermentation groups on the internet?" and I ended up here. Anyone on Permies ever tried a similar experiment? There's not a resident garum expert I should be DMing, is there?
 
author & pollinator
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Well, it is worth a try, since the alternative is throwing it away. but I agree that the freezer burn will probably spoil it.  Could still be coon bait if you trap.
 
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I never tried real Garum so I don't know if the taste is not really strong by nature as to conceal any possible variations due to freezer burn?
If you need live enzymes you might just add one or two fresh fish to the batch.

On the other hand, fish that was frozen is definitely free from parasites. I once visited a historical Garum factory in Andalusia and in the museum you could read that they even excavated and identified the nasty parasites...
 
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I like myself some fish sauce or some Laotian fermented fish paste every so often, but it is pretty intense!! Having that stuff fermenting in my house, I am not sure about (after smells from miso.... I imagine fish would be worse). Also, if you've got a big load of it, then you may be stuck eating it forever.

If it were me, I would take that fish and make something ground up, where freezer burn won't matter. I'm thinking gefilte fish or the Asian equivalent of fish+starch balls/loaves/cakes (two ideas here https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/how-to-make-fish-balls/ and https://japan.recipetineats.com/japanese-fried-fish-cakes-satsuma-age/ ) They can be refrozen again after making (the texture sometimes gets a bit spongey, but if you are going to use them in soups or stews that is usually okay), you use the whole volume of fish in one shot, and can process it all on one day.
 
Gene Van
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Thanks everyone for your suggestions and comments. I live in an apartment for the time being and don't have the need to trap anything, though I'm sure they would work for that purpose. I think I'll give Tereza's suggestion a try, fish cakes have never been a regular part of my diet but I try to stay open to new things.

We LOVE fish sauce in this house, but I would not love to have poorly-made fish sauce sitting around in great quantities, making me feel compelled to use it.
 
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