I'm the king! of 11 pounds of salmon.

July 20, 2008 5:04 PM

Fathers-Day-Fishing-Outing: Success. Yay! ...but I'm more accustomed to tiny, easily-packable, easily-fryable bluegills, and with the relative freezer space, too. I've got a whole king salmon saved (off-site) for smoking next month, but what do I do with the other eleven pounds?

I asked them to save the carcasses, and have two+heads simmering for stock, but ohgodthere'smore in the freezer--in addition to all the filleted meat. Apart from grilling a side (bbq sauce+bacon is the plan for that one)... please nominate ideas and recipes for the rest of it, as well as the stock. Salmon smoking advice and canning thoughts welcome, also. Merci!

posted by mimi to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

We always make fish boil after catching a bunch of salmon on Lake Michigan. Here's a link to a traditional recipe here. Salmon, potatoes, onions, and salt. It's amazing how good these four ingredients taste together. Don't worry about the quantity of the recipe. We just cut the ten person recipe in half. And we don't generally cook it on an open fire, but in the kitchen. It is delicious.
posted by Roger Dodger at 5:22 PM on July 20, 2008

I'm not familiar with methods, but, why not smoke the whole thing? To me, smoked salmon is like the bacon of the sea, so you can never have too much of it.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 5:59 PM on July 20, 2008

Er..smoke it and FREEZE it, that is. Triple bag, suck out the air and pop in the freezer. I have a few pounds that I've been working on for the last 6 months that's stored in the freezer. I take it out, hack off a chunk and either thaw or defrost in the microwave. Mmmmmm.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 6:01 PM on July 20, 2008

Cat Pie has it (and eponysterically at that). There is no such thing as too much home-smoked salmon. A chunk of freshly thawed smoked salmon makes the perfect hostess gift, thank-you present, potluck contribution, low-key bribe, etc.

A delicious alternative: home-made gravlax.
posted by ottereroticist at 6:12 PM on July 20, 2008

ooh! The gravalax sounds awesome. Cat Pie Hurts, do you have a real vacuum sealer or just use ziplocs?
posted by mimi at 6:50 AM on July 21, 2008