Van De Kamps frozen fish products have been a part of my families meal plans for 30 years. While I love fish, it’s not one of my husbands favorite foods, however he does enjoy frozen fish sticks and fish fillets. Van De Kamps Crunchy Fish Fillets remind me of fish sticks, only larger.
Last week I purchased a 21 ounce box of Van De Kamp’s Crunchy Fish Fillets, with the intention of making fish sandwiches out of them, for lunch and dinner.
The box is blue and claims that the Van De Kamp’s Crunchy Fish Fillets are “100% Whole Fillets”, and that the box contains 12 pieces. It also guarantees a “fresh taste” and shows the freshness pouch that is used to contain the fish.
Opening the box, the bag I saw was not what I expected to see from something advertised as a “freshness pouch”. It is simply a clear plastic bag, and I have freezer bags that are thicker than this one. I thought maybe the fish would be vacuum sealed in this “freshness pouch”, but that was not the case either. Granted, there was no freezer burn on my fish fillets, but the packaging simply surprised me.
These are small fillets, measuring 2 7/7″ by 2 3/8″, and are almost 3/4″ thick. The picture on the box reveals the cross section of a fillet, and it looks like a tender, flaky whole fillet of white fish. The back of the box states that these fillets are “100% whole fillets, never minced”.
The 21 ounce box was suppposed to contain 12 fish fillets, but my box contained only 11 and one small oddly shaped piece that was about 1/3 the size of the other fillets. I have written the company over my concerns, as they do have a guarantee printed on their box, but it is for the “fresh taste guarantee”, so I will see if they respond to my concerns.
The fillets take 28-30 minutes to cook in a preheated 425 degree oven, and no directions are given for preparing these in a microwave. 30 minutes was too long of a cooking time for my oven, so the second time I prepared these I baked them for 26 minutes, which was perfect.
Van De Kamp’s Crunchy Fish Fillets are made from Alaskan Pollockm and are coated with bread crumbs to give the fish that crunchy texture, which they do have. Two fillets are one serving size, and contain 220 calories, 10 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, zero grams of trans fat, 35 my cholesterol, 420 mg sodium, 20 grams carbs, less than 1 gram of fiber, and a generous 11 grams of protein.
I have been happy with the Van De Kamp’s brand of frozen fish for years, but I think there was a problem with quality control with the box that I purchased. My children always loved these fish fillets, and for what I consider a frozen “fast food”, these aren’t too bad. I wouldn’t say that the inside of the fillets look even remotely close to the picture on the outside of the box, but when made up into a fish sandwich, with homemade tartar sauce, they weren’t too bad.
