Halibut

Halibut keeps 1–3 days refrigerated and 6–8 months frozen as a lean fish. Given what it costs, it is worth storing properly: on ice, in a covered dish, in the coldest part of the refrigerator.

Halibut is exceptionally lean and dries out faster than almost any other fish, both in the fridge and in the pan. If you are freezing it, wrap it airtight and consider a glaze — dip the frozen portion briefly in cold water to build a thin ice shell, then wrap. That shell sublimates instead of the flesh and dramatically reduces freezer burn.

Wild Pacific halibut is highly seasonal, and much of what is sold outside the season was frozen at sea. As with other counter fish, do not refreeze thawed product.

Thick halibut steaks take longer to chill through than thin fillets. Give a large piece extra time over ice before you count on it being properly cold.

Halibut is among the leanest fish sold, with roughly one to two percent fat, and it is that leanness that defines both its virtues and its failure modes.

Almost no fat means almost no rancidity, hence a 6–8 month freezer window. But it also means there is nothing to buffer moisture loss. Halibut dries out in storage more visibly than fatty fish: the surface goes chalky and opaque, the edges curl and harden, and the flesh turns from translucent pearl to a flat dull white. That desiccation is a quality failure long before it is a safety one, but it is the most common way expensive halibut gets ruined.

The muscle is dense and firm — much firmer than cod — so it does not gape the way flakier whitefish do. Softness is therefore a more meaningful warning in halibut than in cod. Flesh that feels mushy or holds a fingerprint has gone significantly downhill.

The smell test works normally here, since halibut is a marine fish with the usual trimethylamine oxide chemistry. Fresh halibut smells clean and faintly sweet; sour or ammoniac means discard.