Worse than skin is the presence of scales. Somehow the commercial preparers carefully prevent their inclusion, never find one. Surprisingly, our 2 cats more or less regarded salmon as ho-hum, but dived into tuna.
I'm hankering for salmon for quite some time now. I like patties, had them often as a kid, but no longer appreciate the frying in grease. Tonight's the night! Copied a baked salmon patty recipe, will bake them up, and eat two on rye bread with a slice of Cheddar! But, when it comes to meat, I won't stop eating it until gastric distress makes me, or I can no longer chew it! Frank
@Ken Anderson Don't think I ever had it. Canned, at home, fresh, baked, at the various buffets here, but not smoked. during my youth, the corner store (another lost forever good thing) had smoked fish displayed on the counter by the cash register. Not cooled in any way, came in wooden boxes like peaches used to, same size. Propped up on an angle, top cover removed, the fish were whole, without heads, within a lining of waxed paper. Called them "smoked fish", as though that told of their identity. Delicious, they were cleaned, can't recall if my Mom had to bone them, but probably. I think she called them Pickerel. I loved them, they tasted wonderful. Unfortunately, the budget only permitted buying perhaps once a month. The old man handed her $55 each Monday after he cashed his check, which she used for the week to buy food, clothing, any other needs, while frugally squirreling away some dough for "someday". Someday happened once when our old fridge croaked, and she produced funds to buy a new one! That's how we lived. Simple. No plastic credit. As few monthly payments as possible. He NEVER in his life financed a new car, but bought new by saving however long it took. Frank
We smoke it, and half-smoke it and can it. You can make it into a smoky sandwich spread that way. The Pacific has 5 species of salmon, each are traditionally used in different ways.
In Ekuk, I was introduced to Eskimo candy which was simply sticks of smoked salmon. I’m not sure of the species but at the time I believe the sockeye was running. A short story: I had three Full buffets for three to four meals a day for the 1500 people employed at the processing plant in Ekuk. My help was assigned to do the veggies, an extensive salad bar ( we had several vegetarians) and all the sides but I prepared no less than 5 mains with meat, fish, pork, beef, sauces and the soups. I had everything down to a science whereby everything came out on time, fresh looking and temped out for whatever food it might have been and since my standards are very high, I get a tad ticked if something isn’t right. It all happened just before dinner and about 15 minutes left before loading up the buffets. Salmon season was into it’s 3rd day and we heard that one of the boats had come in with a full load so with no real previous warning, the custom of “first catch” came into play. They loaded about 500 lbs. of gutted, scaled and deslimed salmon into my kitchen and expected it to be presented for dinner. Well folks, dinner is going to be a little late because there is no way I can skin, cut, season and bake off that much salmon in 15 minutes! I’m fast and accurate but not that fast. Luckily, salmon is probably the only fish that can be skinned with a nick of the knife and a wave of the hand between the skin and meat and filleting them is almost as easy. A little seasoning, smear it with mayo and some sliced tomatoes and into the giant rotary oven everything went. Between the salmon’s arrival in the kitchen to about half of it heading for the buffet was an elapsed time of about 30 minutes and the main thing, applauds from the employees was reward enough for upholding the tradition of first catch. One thing did surprise me though. The tradition was so well observed that the nearly 100 vegetarians also waited for the presentation of first catch even though their food was ready and waiting for them.
In my opinion, as far as pre-packaged commercial smoked salmon goes... This tastes good, particularly the cracked pepper. This is disgusting. These are the only kinds of smoked salmon that the store I shop at carries. It should be no surprise that home-smoked salmon generally tastes even better, although I'm sure it's possible to screw it up. There was a fish that we had in the UP of Michigan that was locally referred to as a "sucker," although I believe the real name was "red horse" or something with "red" in it. The only legal way to fish for suckers was with a spear. I think there were even rules about how many tines the spear was allowed to have. I believe the spears had three, maybe four. The suckers were fast though, so it was hard to spear them. Fortunately, I can tell you this because I think the statute of limitations has run out by now, the suckers ran at the same time that the smelt did, and it was quite common to catch some suckers in the net while fishing for smelt. Legally, they were supposed to be released, but we would generally just stick them with a spear. Anyhow, the only way that I have ever eaten a sucker was smoked. My understanding is that they weren't very good cooked any other way. One of my uncles had a smoker that he had made out of an old refrigerator, so he would smoke them for us, as well as salmon and trout, and they were pretty good that way.
We eat smoked salmon a lot in this house... at least 4 times a week. Hubs eats the hot smoked fillets in your first pictures Ken..usually chilli, tandoori or cracked black pepper flavoured I prefer wild smoked salmon slices...or smoked salmon crescents filled with smoked salmon and cream cheese mousse I can't stand canned salmon in any form, that's VILE!!! I like smoked trout as well..although unsmoked is fine too...we can tickle our own trout at the river through the woods just behind the house...
How did they turn out? We had salmon patties often when I was a kid because canned salmon was cheap. Didn't like them then. DO like them now, but don't have the patience to prepare them. Never tried them with cheese or bread. We just ate them as is.
@Nancy Hart As a kid, we ate them just like that, although my Mom being Czech, always included some sort of side dish, but what went "with" salmon patties, I forget. Oh, they turned out very good, if a bit dry. Recipe called for baking 10 minutes, or until top side turned brown. My top sides, after turning, were still not brown, so I baked closer to 20 minutes. Know better next time, but was concerned the chopped onion contained would be "too tough", as my Mom used to put it! They were about 3 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick. Just the right size to place one on a half-slice of rye bread, with a slathering of mayo, then a slice of cheddar, topped by the other half-slice. I used two slices of bread, therefore two "salmon-burgers". Great mix of tastes, as we Poles and Czechs are so fond of! Frank
Our 99-cent store had these name-brand salmon single-helping pouches for 99 cents each; 6 have been sitting in the pantry for some time now. After asking my wife how she gets the fish out of the pouch, I thought as an in-between snack this would be nice, and nutritious. Only 70 cal., 13 gm. protein. Tasted pretty good, not too salty, I ate it right out of the pouch; not very filling, for this glutton, though! Half-way finished, I read beyond the top of the nutrition stats: Product of Thailand. First reaction, Ugh. Second, go ahead, yer hungry, finish it! Would you buy/eat this stuff? Frank
Frank, We in Alaska don't generally eat pinks, especially from Thailand. Pinks are the bottom of the salmon species and the only one many Americans are familiar with.
Maybe off topic a little? This thread reminded me of a road trip our family took to Alaska (1962). We chose the route to Valdez. It was August, apparently salmon spawning season. The streams near Valdez were filled with salmon, all orange/red, deformed, and obviously on their last legs. It was rather sad and messy. But life goes on. (Scenes like this picture)
Well that's not very appetizing...I have some salmon in my freezer....probably not on my menu for tonight.