My friend, Suburban Times columnist Don Doman’s recent article about the goodness of salmon has inspired this piece. Because, indeed, salmon is a tasty fish, healthy because of its Omega 3 oils, and very, very versatile. Also, here in Washington State, it’s one of the native fish and, therefore, widely available. My husband and I have been to pretty much every salmon hatchery in Western Washington by now, fished for salmon (he not I), and created many a dish from pretty much any part of the creature (I not he).
There is salmon and salmon, of course. The Atlantic salmon is available all year because it is farmed; which also makes it cheaper and less healthy than the salmon that is seasonal around here. Steelhead and rainbow trout are basically the same fish, but steelhead live part of their life in the sea, which is why they are also called salmon trout. Salmon has less cholesterol than steelhead though. And then there is sushi grade salmon – caught quickly, bled upon capture, gutted soon after, and iced thoroughly. In Asian stores it is shelved separately from other salmon that should be cooked.
I ate my first salmon trout in Torbole, a gorgeous small-town on the northern end of Lago di Garda in Italy at age fourteen. The restaurant’s name was befittingly “Al Pescatore”, i.e. “At the Fisherman’s”, and the fish came simply grilled and with a little melted butter and some lemon to squeeze over. I forget what sides they served; the fish itself was so impressive. The restaurant still exists, by the way.
At home we had mostly typical German sea fish – no salmon for a long time. And on New Year’s Eve, we sometimes had lox. Only in later years did my mother pan-fry salmon filets which we got deep-frozen from the store.
Anything fish was hailed in our home. I grew up on it. Our entire family loved seafood. We experimented with anything we could lay our hands on – which back in the 70s wasn’t that much if it had to be affordable, too. When my mother made marinated fried herring, a German specialty, the entire family sat around the kitchen table and helped gut, skin, and filet the fish. We children became really good at it.
Ever since being my own home-cook, I have been experimenting with fish and seafood all kinds. Here in Washington State, of course, salmon has to be top of the list (along with rockfish and lingcod – but that’s another story). We have planked salmon on the BBQ grill and pan-seared it many a time. And I have learned to create salmon dishes in ways other cultures do.
Only recently, I created a lovely poke bowl. Mix soy sauce with a bit of wasabi, add chopped scallions, cube sushi grade salmon and let it soak in the marinade for about half an hour. Add sesame seeds and, if you have it at hand, some grated dried kelp. Top a bowl of cold Thai rice with it – it’s heaven in a bowl.
Or try gravad lox. This takes a little longer. “Gravad” means buried, by the way, as the Scandinavians used to dig holes in the ground and ferment their fish in closed vessels. They still have a dish called “lutefisk”, that is created in this way. Now, today’s gravad lox is a totally different and certainly not fermented dish. You best use sushi grade salmon for this. Get two filets of the same size. Place enough aluminum foil on a platter that it will wrap up the two filets later. Mix salt and sugar at a 1:1 ratio and pour a third of it on the foil, add whatever fresh herb you want to it. A classic is dill. Place the first filet on top of the mixture. Top with more salt-sugar-mix and herb; then cover up with the second filet, and use the rest of the mix and herb. Wrap your salmon tightly and place the package in a deep platter in the fridge for 72 hours. Turn the package every 12 hours; it will leak because the mix draws the water out of the salmon and makes it storable. When done, unwrap it, rub off what you can, and slice thinly. It’s delicious with a honey-mustard sauce and hash brown patties.
A rare treat once came to us in the shape of a chum salmon an indigenous fisherman gave to us. When I cut open the fish, I found about a pound of Keta caviar inside! Needless to say, this delicacy got cleaned as well and relished on cream cheese sandwiches. The rest of the salmon was fileted. The carcass was cooked down and made some marvelous fish stock. The now finished carcass went into the compost. There is literally no part of a salmon that isn’t useable. Your turn to enjoy now!
Susanne,
I follow your writing quite a bit from way over here, but I have to say, your article today seemed somewhat fishy.
Did I ever tell you about my being a deckhand on a Westport, Washington charter fishing boat? If I was still contributing to The Suburban Times in the form of Westside Story, I bet my commentary with you today would have motivated me to write a Westside Story. I can see the title, Westside Story – Westport Fishing. Then you could have gotten even with me by feeding my corny joke back to me. “Joe, your Westside Story is kind of fishy.
As my dad use to say by way of his holiday greeting, “Have a 5th on the 4th and stay off the roadways leaving the drinking and driving to the amateurs.” That was my dad’s way of wishing you a happy 4th of July.
Keep writing.
Joseph Boyle
Have a fifth on the fourth, and you can’t go forth on the fifth, Joe. No, I didn’t know you had a fishy part in your biography. You need to come back west and write Westside Stories again. We all miss them. Happy Fourth!
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, now I’m hungry for salmon again, again. Chum salmon was introduced on Top Chef a few years ago. Peg and I just looked at each other and said, “Chum salmon?” But you are right, all salmon is up for grab . . . or grub. I enjoyed your article, especially about the family gathering around to prepare herring. This is what we used to do when the smelt were running on the Cowlitz. Whenever I see smelt available drool breaks out and I buy and Peggy fries. Thanks for the salmon article . . . there’s never enough salmon to go around . . . and the same goes for most fish.
Don
Thank you so much for YOUR inspiration, Don. Because I was drooling reading YOUR article, and the tip about ordering “just undercooked” in restaurants was a lesson.
Happy Fourth to you and Peg!
I enjoyed your article as well Susan, and Joe’s & Don’s commentary….of course.
Now….I would like to share some other matters that will likely be of interest as they relate to Chum Salmon……………
Chum, Dog Fish, Calico, Keta (species name) and Silverbrite (the latter 2 are commonly used commercial names).
Yup….for most folks Chum/Dog is associated with those toothy, gnarly, greenish-&-purple-barred-skin, nasty-looking salmon that usually have washed-out, & soft flesh, even at times when they appear to come “fresh” from the Sound, like at Kennedy Creek in Mason County or Mud Bay in Thurston.
Usually when they are like that some fisher-people just throw them back in the water after enjoying a wild fight with the often-pugnacious and sometimes-very-large male (a.k.a., “Buck”) piscatorial specimens.
On occasion people will keep the less-intense colored and more-firm-fleshed results, usually saying something like, “Well, they ARE pretty good smoked!” And, there are even a few like Susan who like the female’s (“Hen”) eggs. By the way, there is one hell of a market in Asian countries for Chum/Keta caviar….more on that in a bit.
There used to be superb Chum Salmon runs on the Puyallup, Carbon, and Nisqually Rivers and on the beaches and streams of the Hood Canal. Year after year I have watched them swim thru the water in huge, v-shaped hordes. In fact the early Chum runs on the Nisqually provided what are called “Silver Bright” Chum that have flesh that is a rich-Orange with just enough oil to make them one of THE best salmon for eating in whatever way you like to cook salmon.
I prefer to use my Treager Grill using a bit of Mesquite w/a bit of Cherry wood pellets….at first I smoke Salmon fillets for about 30 minutes, then kick up the temp to 350-degrees, baste the meat with a lemon, butter, dill, and garlic sauce and bake until the flesh starts to come apart. I finish it off with a last basting and serve with a nice white wine.
Well, unfortunately, the Chum are much-diminished throughout the Puget Sound and Hood Canal waters and rivers. For about 3 years now a fisher-person is NOT ALLOWED TO KEEP CHUM. In 2020 ALL CHUM FISHING WAS SUSPENDED for the Hood Canal and Nisqually Rivers, including the net fishing used by WA tribal fishers.
This year Marine Areas 10, 11, 12, & 13 require the release of Chum…that includes most rivers in those areas (i.e., that’s North, Middle, & South Puget Sound and Hood Canal).
Why? Good question….here are my observations towards answering it.
Chum Caviar is a highly desired and pretty-expensive delicacy, especially used in Sushi dishes….$170 for 1 kg/2.2lbs from Amazon. The eggs are large, salty, lightly fishy yet nutty-tasting. The money to be made from these fish eggs is remarkable.
But…..as in most human endeavors, especially when there appear to be unlimited/infinite numbers of “product” available, the specters of over-harvesting/waste rear their ugly head. To wit……
I have seen non-native fishers dump the carcasses of the Chum they caught on the beach if the fish did not meet the desired “quality” for keeping them.
I have found Chum carcasses dumped in parking areas near fishing places….naw, too much effort to clean these ugly bastards…to hell with it.
I have a recent video taken by WA Dept of Fish & Wildlife showing them hauling 2 native gill nets out of McCallister/Medicine Creek, filled with dead Chum.
In the early 90’s I was looking for a place to fish on the South side of the Nisqually River, just below the Tank-Crossing Bridge of Ft Lewis. As I was going thru pretty-dense brush looking for a good place to fish, I picked up the strong scent of something dead. Not knowing what was dead, I carefully moved toward the smell. In a small clearing near the shore I found a pyramid-shaped pile of dead Chum that was 4-ft high and 8-ft across smelling to high-heaven. All of the Chum Hens were stripped of their eggs and the Bucks had their “throats” cut.
In the late 90’s I was attempting to fish for Chum at the Hoodsport Hatchery. There were gill nets everywhere so it was difficult to find a “lane”. Finally, I gave up, but as I was leaving I saw a WA native fishing boat drive up to their net and start hauling it in. Much to my surprise and disgust I saw the fisherman cut the throat of every live Buck Chum and throw them back into the water. Every Chum Hen had its belly cut open and the eggs dumped into a large container with the carcass being tossed in immediately.
Side note: Several times during this century and especially in 2015 the Hood Canal suffered major sea-life die-offs (e.g., fish, shellfish, including clams and crabs) due to Hypoxia….lack of Oxygen. What causes that? Over-abundance of Organic materials (e.g., sewage, fertilizers, and dead fish) deplete dissolved oxygen as they break down in the surface water. And, as more sea-life dies, more organic nutrients are added….a virtual “perpetual-motion” machine.
Of course global warming and other factors are issues, but….the wanton killing and failure to use a valuable gift of nature has a lot to do with it as well….by people of all backgrounds and cultures.
Bottom line….we ALL had better wake up and truly be stewards of our wildlife…otherwise all we will have left are memories.
Dear Eric, what a horrific story. I totally agree with you – this is NOT how Nature should be dealt with. It’s horrendously mindless. I’m always appalled when I hear about the chemical pollution that takes place in the Sound due to human neglect of precautions. But adding on purpose and kill just because something is not desirable are two things that will indeed will return like a boomerang on us … and the generations to come. Thank you for sharing this. I should hope that your input adds to making us all a bit more mindful of the treasures at our hands and that we ought to use them wisely and with measure.
Happy Fourth to you! Susanne