Thawing and Cooking

November 29, 2020 in Seasonal Wild Catch, Slideshow

For superior results and best handling practices always thaw seafood under refrigeration.  A slow cool thaw will gently increase the temperature of your superior Otolith seafood protecting its quality and flavor.

When you want to enjoy Otolith’s fish raw then Otolith’s recommends Otolith’s Quick Thaw method.

20 Minute Quick Thaw

Otolith’s Quick Thaw© Directions*

Always puncture, cut or release vacuum seal of fresh/frozen Otolith sustainable seafood before thawing.  Thaw your seafood while in its specifically designed pouch.  Use a sharp knife to make a very small puncture in the top corner of the pouch. [Note: USDA Safe Defrosting Methods]

Place punctured pouch in clean warm water.   Do not allow the warm water to get into the protective pouch.  Replace warm water after 10 minutes .  Most fillets take 20 minutes to thaw.  Filets larger than 3/4 inch thick may take longer.

Otolith’s fish is sushi-grade and may be eaten raw after it has been thawed using Otolith’s Quick Thaw© directions and provided it is kept dry and stored between 34-40 degrees using refrigeration to control the temperature of your sushi-grade fish. 

Raw fish and sushi may be served for up to 2 hours on pre-chilled plates using frozen gel packs beneath the plates to control the plate temperature while serving.  Raw fish should be stored under refrigeration. Using gel packs to control the temperature of raw fish reduces the amount of time fish will remain safe for raw consumption compared to raw fish stored under refrigeration [34-40F].  Do not eat raw fish that has been improperly handled or stored.

Refrigerated Thaw: place open pouch in clean bowl and allow to set in refrigerator for 5-8 hours to thaw depending on the thickness of the seafood.  Thicker fillets or whole fish may take longer.

To enjoy the superior quality and fresh taste of Otolith premium seafood, please consume within 7 days of thawing seafood.  Otolith’s sustainable seafood properly thawed and stored under refrigeration will remain safe to cook and eat for up to 7 days.  While fillets and shellfish may be rinsed with cold water and pat dry with a clean towel before cooking, never soak seafood directly in water.  Always thaw in pouch or open air and remember to puncture package releasing the vacuum seal prior to thawing.

Cooking Directions – Cutting portions before cooking can prevent over cooking thinner pieces provided you remove thinner portions of cooked seafood from the heat source once cooked.  Cook fattier fish fillets at 400 degrees for 10 minutes per inch of thickness.  And cook leaner fish like sockeye, coho, halibut and lingcod at 250F degrees for 30 minutes per inch of thickness. Lower cooking temperatures provide more control while cooking.  Over cooking lean wild fish will cause the fish to get tough and dry. Cut into portions before cooking increases the surface area for added flavors/seasonings and may be used to smaller portions of equal size or thickness for uniform cooking times; cutting seafood into portions before cooking does not reduce the quality of your premium Otolith fish or shellfish provided you make clean cuts using a sharp knife.  For more specific cooking tips and directions, please use the products drop down menu to visit the specific page for each species of fish or shellfish and when searching recipes online use key words “wild” and exact name of the species .

*Recommended by Otolith not the USDA.  Otolith LLP, Community Supported Seafood LLC, their affiliates and/or heirs are not responsible for the improper use of Otolith’s Quick Thaw© technique.  Otolith’s Rapid Thaw© technique was designed to allow for the highest quality and safest consumption of sushi grade raw fish and cooked seafood.  Proper use of Otolith’s Quick Thaw© only allows for the safe consumption of raw fish for no more than 6 hours provided the fish once thawed is continually stored under refrigeration temperatures between 34-38°.  Improper handling of Quick Thaw© fish or shellfish will reduce the amount of time that fish can safely be eaten raw.  Example:  Sushi rolls served on a chilled plate without gel packs should be eaten within 40 minutes or discarded.  All raw fish should be held at a controlled temperature [34-40°] to sufficiently inhibit the growth of dangerous bacteria and other micro-organisms.

Ordering and FREE Delivery

June 10, 2018 in Slideshow

For contactless delivery to your door, email sales@otolithonline.com or call 215-426-4266.  Your order request will be returned within 72 hours. Delivery is a available on Fridays. Orders received after end of day on Monday will deliver the following week.

Otolith’s Delivery Service has scheduled distribution routes throughout PA, NJ, DE and NYC.

All other orders shall be shipped overnight via Fed Ex or UPS.

All Major Credit Cards Accepted

Check Out Otolith’s Available Seafood!

 

Minimum Order Requirements

Minimum Purchase Requirement for FREE Home Delivery:
Philadelphia – $100 or $10 delivery fee applies
PA Suburbs – $150 or $15 delivery fee applies
South NJ – $150 or $15 delivery fee applies
North NJ – $250 or $37.50 delivery fee applies
NYC – $250 or $37.50 delivery fee applies                                                                                                            DE – $150 or $15 delivery fee applies

Otolith requires a minimum purchase of 20 lbs. for all orders being shipped overnight.  Blast-frozen sushi grade fish will stay frozen when properly insulated and temperature controlled using frozen gel packs.  Shipping fish less than 20 lbs. substantially increases the amount of frozen gel packs necessary to assure frozen quality and sushi grade fish.  In the interest of our customers, we prefer that all orders to ship overnight must purchase a minimum of 20 lbs. unless authorization is provided to assure for the payment and the use of sufficient gel packs and insulation necessary to maintain quality and frozen delivery.  sales@otolithonline.com.

Overnight Shipments

Email sales@otolithonline.com or call 215-426-4266.  Your order request will be returned within 72 hours.  Orders placed Monday-Thursday will ship the following week on Thursday.  Orders placed by Friday-Sunday will ship on the first available Thursday.  All fish deliveries arrive the next day or overnight and are packaged by Otolith to arrive frozen.  You may request a specific future Thursday shipment date to assure the arrival of your fish on the Friday of your convenience.  You may designate a shipping preference for either Fed Ex or UPS.  Additional overnight shipping charges shall apply.

Overnight Shipping Charges

Shipping charges are calculated using the least expense overnight guaranteed ground service or air freight service available plus a $5 handling fee.  The $5 handling fee will be waived for any CSS member’s purchase to be shipped overnight delivery. When additional packaging is required to maintain frozen seafood quality then additional packaging charges may be applied for insulation, special packaging and/or boxes.

 Otolith’s Terms

Please refer to Otolith’s Terms for all transactions pertaining to buying, selling, packing and delivering seafood for our customers.  Otolith guarantees the quality and service of our seafood.  Otolith’s product and service guarantees are posted on web page Otolith Terms at  https://www.otolithonline.com/terms/

 

Sushi Lesson in Philadelphia featuring Otolith’s Wild Seafood

November 5, 2012 in Seasonal Wild Catch

Let your creativity run wild like Otolith's fish

SOLD OUT!

Date: Friday, April 26th, 2013

Time: 7:00pm-9:30pm

Place: COOK at 253 S. 20th Street; Philadelphia, PA 19103

RSVP: https://shop.audreyclairecook.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1814

This Event is SOLD OUT!  Please contact COOK to request another Otolith Sushi Lesson Event.

Otolith’s hands on sushi lesson event includes an introduction to the art and preparation of sushi, instruction and demonstration for rolling your own Uramaki, Hosomaki and Futomaki, condiments, tools and ingredients such as King salmon, Dungeness crab, Sablefish and assorted vegetables necessary for each participant to roll and make three individually designed sushi rolls plus warm organic green tea and mochi ice cream dessert.  All participating guests are welcomed to keep their sushi rolling mats and chop sticks.

2012 Summer Sockeye is in Philly

August 2, 2012 in Seasonal Wild Catch

Redoubt Bay: A Link between the Beginning and the End of Life for Sockeye. In Southeast Alaska, the Redoubt Bay sockeye return this season has exceeded recent years. This is good news for the wild sockeye and for those of us looking forward to a small taste of this magnificent renewable resource. On July 12th the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced modest increased limits for harvesters of Redoubt Bay sockeye. Otolith's 2012 sockeye were harvested during that same week and the freshest tasting portion fillets of sockeye are on their way to Philadelphia. Once harvested the sockeye are dressed or in other words headed and gutted with bellies packed on ice.

After a few days of harvesting dressed fish are either delivered or transported by way of another vessel called a tender back to landing port.Otolith’s sockeye were landed in Petersburg, AK and all cutting, sealing and freezing was performed by a small local processor.The following pictures were taked during processing:With skill and attention to detail each fillet must be carefully handled to assure the quality of the sockeye is protected.

The Most Beautiful of all Wild Salmon

Lastly, Otolith’s wild sockeye delicacy is frozen at temperatures down to -40.  This ultra-cold process takes only minutes to acheive the sushi-grade results that Otolith’s owners and clients have come to appreciate.

Just Before the Blast-freeze

The coho harvest is underway.  We look forward to sourcing all your wild and and sustainable salmon this year!  Cheers from Alaska.

What Constitutes a Sustainable Wild Fishery?

June 1, 2012 in Seafood For Thought

Not All Fishing Gear is Sustainable

The following opinion is in response to the recent New York Times article, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/opinion/eat-your-hake-and-have-it-too.html.

Sustainable wild fisheries are the result of healthful fish, responsible exploitation, self-sustaining cycles of new harvesters replacing the oldest harvesters,  and a consistent range of abundant biomass within the fishery food-chain.  In the minds of wild seafood aficionados like myself, sustainable fisheries are the dream that contrasts our present reality.  Fisheries continue to buckle under the consolidation of more efficient gear and larger scale harvesters, the average age of fisherman continues to rise as less men and women find economic security in serving their fellow fish consumers by catching wild fish, governments continue to subsidize factory fishing operations inspite of its consequences, fishery managers remain unable to effectively protect the biomass of fish on the lowest rungs of our fishery food-chain assuring the inevitable collapse of more valuable species that exist higher up the food-chain, and  many people remain uncertain about the healthfulness and presence of heavy metals in their wild fish and shellfish.

Now that there is no misunderstanding about what constitutes a sustainable fishery, we can discuss how to encourage behaviors that will take us closer to our goal, if in fact sustainability is the goal.  To that point, all states that have a commercially exploited fishery within their jurisdiction either have a constitutional amendment that includes the protection of its fisheries for the benefit of long term sustainable yield or not.  Therefore, the most “apparent conservation benefits from the refusal of consumers to buy [those] over-fished species” is the continued focus on wild fisheries, furthermore perhaps opportunities may increase for new educated minds to become involved in the ongoing effort to make the dream of sustainable fisheries come true.

Additionally, otter trawl fishing gear produces the majority of haddock [in Maine], while the remainder of the catch is taken with [less efficient] longlines or gillnets.  Assuming that since fisheries had never before experienced the current threat of overfishing until the use of trawl fishing gear became widespread, it could be that consumers refusal to to buy fish that is almost exclusively harvested by trawlers or that is not traceable to its harvesters is an act of protest against trawling.

To conclude, a better goal for NOAA might be to rebuild over-fished species back to levels that had existed prior to overfishing.  Using inconcise language such as ‘healthy’ to describe populations of over-fished species is no less useful than labeling an entire species as “Red Listed”.   Otolith applauds the state of Alaska for constitutionally protecting its fisheries.  After establishing a brand that identifies fish harvested against all odds and in consideration of the greatest efforts to date toward the goal of achieving sustainable fisheries, I would welcome the opportunity to do more for our fisheries.    Someday there can be far fewer trawlers and more skilled fishermen, much less plastic in our oceans and more fish surviving to maturity, more laws to protect our renewable fishery resources and the healthfulness of our fish, and less regulations that serve only to increase the challenges to sustainable harvesters.

“I have a Dream”, Dr. Martin Luther King; me too.