No matter how you enjoy your sushi, you probably wonder: How long can you save sushi?
Sushi’s lifespan depends on how you save it. At room temperature it will last two hours at most. In a refrigerator you can keep it for 24 hours safely. The freezer can keep it the longest, holding it for up to three days. though you might not want to tell your sushi chef that you are keeping it like that.
But that is putting the cart before the horse. There is more to sushi than just the fish, such as the seaweed and the rice, not to mention any seasonings or vegetables bundled together with them. Talking about sushi learn how to reheat sushi without damaging the taste.. The nature of sushi means preserving all of these together, so you need a method that preserves all of them.
How To Store Sushi
The first thing you are going to want to know is that there is a world of difference in the efficacy of storing sushi in the fridge versus the freezer. The fridge will keep sushi preserved for no more than a day at most.
A freezer, on the other hand, can keep the whole sushi roll frozen for three days. You should freeze sushi. Don’t use the refrigerator unless you know you will eat the sushi soon after your store it.
Now, if you know anything about storing fish, you are probably aware that frozen fish can be good for up to three months. Shouldn’t sushi follow this same rule? Well, the sushi itself does, but the rice that comes with the sushi does not. If you have sushi on its own, it can last much longer. Rice, however, never lasts.
As such, freeze the fish part of sushi. Don’t freeze the rice. At least not for as long.
Any vegetables that accompany your sushi will usually freeze pretty well. You do not need to worry about avocado or cucumber fillings to sushi, as both of those can freeze and last longer than the sushi itself.
Sushi is usually eaten cold, and it actually can be eaten frozen, although it is not recommended. This is only due to the affect freezing has on the taste, however. And even then, the taste might not be affected. The big thing to watch out for is not frozen sushi, but thawed sushi.
You see, thawing the sushi has to take place in the airtight environment of a refrigerator. Bacteria in the air just love raw fish too much to pass it up. If you thaw your sushi at room temperature, especially on a kitchen countertop, then it runs a high risk of being colonized by dangerous bacteria.
Thaw your sushi in the fridge. Don’t thaw your sushi at room temperature.
Is Frozen Sushi Good?
Again, if you like sushi, then you will like frozen sushi. This does, however, present an opportunity to mention that there is some sushi that will taste better after being frozen than others. This is not to say that they will taste better after being frozen and then thawed. No, there is some sushi that tastes good right out of the freezer.
Squid and mackerel in particular have been noted to taste almost identical in the freezer as out of the freezer. It is strange that this has been the subject of rigorous scientific study, but sushi is a somewhat risky food to eat. The final product is so simple that it has to be complex at every step of the way up to it.
It is a food served raw, but to serve a food raw you need to know exactly what is in the food, exactly how to preserve it, and exactly when to eat it. Behind the curtain, there is a lot about the preparation of sushi that goes on to make sure it is safe to eat. So, be sure to appreciate that.
In Conclusion
Sushi is a beautiful and delicious dish that is surprising in its durability. One would think something that requires so much patience and foreknowledge might be fragile and prone to the elements. And outside one’s freezer, that might be true. But sushi can last a long time and keep quite well in the freezer.
You do need a bit of knowledge yourself to keep the sushi from going bad after you store it. But if you take care of your sushi, your sushi will take care of you.
