DIY frozen food- why do you blend the food?

[newfly]

Sorry for stupid question for a noob.

Why is everyone blend fresh seafood (shrimp, clams, fish etc) to make frozen food? If you blend it , isn't it going to mushy and just pollute the tank?

I would think you want small chunks?

 

[ichthyogeek]

If you add gelatin, all the small bits that the fish won't normally eat get bound together into large chunks that the fish will eat.

You do want small chunks. However, different strategies have different payoffs.

If I use a high speed blender/food mixer, everything gets zapped real quick, but there's a risk of cooking the food to a certain degree (has happened with squid and shrimp, where the mixture turned pink).

If I use a cheese grater, then the pieces of food turn out perfect! But it's time intensive to grate everything, as well as to work quickly in order to grate the food while it's still in a frozen enough state that it doesn't gum up the grater, or becomes hard to handle.

If I use a knife, then I can get the chunks to be small, but it's hard to get a good technique down. Most pellets and foods aim for 1-2 millimeters. For me, an intermediate home cook, that is still a ridiculously small amount for me to aim for (basically it's a mince, but smaller). Especially given that you have to slice the food at least three times (once for cross section, another time to give you strips, and the third to mince it).

 

[newfly]

thanks. I have some experience mincing meat with knife. Let me try that next time

 

[Paul B]

I have never put seafood in a blender in my life. It makes mush

 

[newfly]

I have never put seafood in a blender in my life. It makes mush

What do you do Paul? Do your chop up into smaller pieces with knife?

 

[vanpire]

I light freeze the seafood and use a meat grinder. You can control the size with the meat grinder. But you have to remember to freeze the seafood first but not ice hard freeze.

 

[Fezbearer]

I have never put seafood in a blender in my life. It makes mush

Same, however I've had good success freezing it and using the grater attachment on my food processor.

 

[Adamantium]

I've tried making fish food in my nutribullet. Wound up with coral food. It chops things WAY too fine.

 

[Paul B]

I slice off paper thin slices with a sharp knife

 

[Crevalle]

I've been kicking around trying a salad shooter/electric cheese grater type thing for this. Should work well with frozen seafood.