Seafood delivery subscription?
December 17, 2021 10:24 PM Subscribe
I'm interested in signing up for some kind of seafood delivery subscription and was wondering if any of you have experience/recommendations!
Kind of eying Sea to Table, Sizzlefish, and Wild Alaskan Company, but there are a lot out there. Have you subscribed to any and have recommendations? Ones to avoid? Did you have any problems with items showing up thawed? Thanks!
Kind of eying Sea to Table, Sizzlefish, and Wild Alaskan Company, but there are a lot out there. Have you subscribed to any and have recommendations? Ones to avoid? Did you have any problems with items showing up thawed? Thanks!
I use a local-to-me service but they ship nationally - Red’s Best. I guess they don’t actually do a “subscription” - I generally order a box of five or ten items every few months, and defrost something once a week or so. I love it! It’s really nice to have an interesting range of proteins in my freezer ready to go, and even though I worked in a fish market as a young’un, I’ve discovered new-to-me fish and preparations that I really enjoyed (now that I know how to make sole meunière, I want to have some kind of flatfish in my freezer at all times; conversely I’ve learned the skate wing is not something I like to prepare at home).
Oh yes, and I agree that the quality/freshness of the fish I’ve gotten has been A+ - so much of the fish you buy at the grocery store (and even a lot of fish market fish) is thawed frozen fish anyway.
posted by mskyle at 6:22 AM on December 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
Oh yes, and I agree that the quality/freshness of the fish I’ve gotten has been A+ - so much of the fish you buy at the grocery store (and even a lot of fish market fish) is thawed frozen fish anyway.
posted by mskyle at 6:22 AM on December 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
I get meat delivered from a family farm in east Washington state, and they have a deal with Wild Alaskan to add on salmon. I didn't know you could subscribe direct from them but the fish is VERY good.
posted by pazazygeek at 7:39 AM on December 18, 2021
posted by pazazygeek at 7:39 AM on December 18, 2021
so much of the fish you buy at the grocery store ... is thawed frozen fish anyway.
Unless you pull it out of the water yourself, all commercial fish has been frozen. They do it right on the boat, or else it would spoil.
posted by hwyengr at 7:53 AM on December 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
Unless you pull it out of the water yourself, all commercial fish has been frozen. They do it right on the boat, or else it would spoil.
posted by hwyengr at 7:53 AM on December 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
Regarding the shipping, do you live in a smaller town or a major city? I do live in a smaller city, and almost without fail I can't get FedEx to deliver a 2-day frozen food package in less than 3 days. The dry ice has evaporated, so technically I should be throwing it out, but the foodstuffs are still quite frozen (checked with a thermapen), so I've been taking the chance.
Now, that's baked goods. I probably wouldn't do the same with raw seafood. So, in your situation, order a small amount as a test run if you think you might have delivery delays in case they don't stand behind replacing the order if it's late.
posted by hwyengr at 7:59 AM on December 18, 2021
Now, that's baked goods. I probably wouldn't do the same with raw seafood. So, in your situation, order a small amount as a test run if you think you might have delivery delays in case they don't stand behind replacing the order if it's late.
posted by hwyengr at 7:59 AM on December 18, 2021
My favorite in the Seattle area, although they ship nationwide, is the woman-owned company Premier Catch. They are not subscription (yet, anyway) but their seafood is, well… stunning. Tastes of the sea and arrives perfectly frozen. In fact, I am thawing out two nice pieces of cod right now for tonight's supper.
Their canned tuna is the best I have ever had.
posted by bz at 12:05 PM on December 18, 2021
Their canned tuna is the best I have ever had.
posted by bz at 12:05 PM on December 18, 2021
Unless you pull it out of the water yourself, all commercial fish has been frozen. They do it right on the boat, or else it would spoil.
Is this true, though? It wasn't when I worked in a fish market, although that was like 20 years ago. Back then at least, a lot of the white fish we sold was caught by boats based out of a local port, kept packed in ice on the boat, and then processed on-shore. Regardless - the quality of the (actually fresh!) fresh fish we sold was no better and sometimes worse than the fish I now buy frozen. Frozen fish is great!
posted by mskyle at 2:30 PM on December 18, 2021
Is this true, though? It wasn't when I worked in a fish market, although that was like 20 years ago. Back then at least, a lot of the white fish we sold was caught by boats based out of a local port, kept packed in ice on the boat, and then processed on-shore. Regardless - the quality of the (actually fresh!) fresh fish we sold was no better and sometimes worse than the fish I now buy frozen. Frozen fish is great!
posted by mskyle at 2:30 PM on December 18, 2021
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I've never had any problems with the orders being thawed: they've always arrived meticulously packed and rock-solid frozen.
What's best about them is the quality of the fish. I used to buy fish at retail fish markets and ordinary grocery stores, and the qualilty of frozen shipped fish is just light-years better. It's been kind of a revelation, honestly. It's like when you're used to eating stale danishes at the office, and then you have a real croissant in France. Just a totally different thing.
I thawed a piece of Organic Ocean lingcod a few nights ago and it smelled like seawater, like I was on the dock. It was spectacular :)
posted by Susan PG at 6:17 AM on December 18, 2021 [1 favorite]