Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with salmon

What do I do with over-dried salmon jerky?

Señor Pantalones — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 17:51:35 -0800

Good use for over-dried salmon jerky? Goal: Make salmon jerky
Result: Left it in the dehydrator too long. I now have what used to be 3 lbs of salmon, fully dried. It's not enjoyable to eat on its own, as it is more like crunchy fish flakes.

Any good use for this?

Easy salmon recipes please.

Kimberly — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 10:40:15 -0800

Please give me your tastiest, go-to salmon recipe worthy of serving company. We're having guests with limited diets and we don't cook fish much. Our local fishmonger is having a sale on King Salmon and we'd like to make a nice dish. The only requirements I have are that it be relatively uncomplicated for someone who doesn't really cook fish much and that it's not a pasta dish (because a family member just won't eat pasta unless it's traditional spaghetti with marinara). There are members of the family who are big tartar sauce people so maybe something that has a sauce as well (although it doesn't necessarily have to be tartar sauce)?

What kind of fish would you tell a fish newbie to eat?

CommonSense — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:59:32 -0800

Fish newbie here. Tell me what to eat. Most of my life, I haven't eaten seafood. A few years ago, an ex-GF introduced me to sushi rolls, and I've come to quite enjoy tuna and salmon rolls. I got adventurous, and now I occasionally sear a nice tuna steak at home. I'll have salmon dishes on occasion at restaurants. (One odd twist: Despite not eating seafood all my life, there's ONE exception -- I grew up eating tuna fish sandwiches on occasion, so I've always been able to handle that.)

I haven't ventured too much beyond that, though I'd like to. Once or twice, I tried a little bit of shrimp at a very, VERY nice restaurant here in town, one I felt I could trust, and it was pretty decent. (Kinda reminded me of chicken, oddly enough.) I've had crab cakes a couple of times, and they're OK, but they had just a subtly "fishy" taste to me. I had a rockfish entree recently, and a monkfish entree another time, and both were good, I thought. (Again, they were at high-end restaurants, where I felt I could trust them to do a good job.)

I have tried oysters once or twice, as part of a tasting menu at uber-fancy restaurants, but I found them just a bit too salty/"fishy" for my tastes (it kind of reminded me of swallowing sea water). Crabs, lobster, etc. kind of scare me just from an aesthetic point of view.

I live in Baltimore, so I almost feel obligated to eat more seafood. "Lake trout" is a local specialty, but I feel like that's way too hardcore for me at this juncture.

So . . . knowing what you know about what I've eaten (and enjoyed) so far, I'd like to get some recommendations about other kinds of fish (or seafood in general) that I can move on to safely.

I could totally handle being in charge of a veggie curry....

charmedimsure — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:39:54 -0800

We are cooking a Valentine's Day dinner of salmon together tomorrow. What are some good (vegetarian) sides to go with? Wine? Simple dessert? What else am I forgetting? The salmon comes from the stock of frozen Copper River red fillets he caught this summer; we will likely broil or grill it unless we come up with a better idea. Taking ideas for blow-your-mind marinades, and for the aforementioned better ideas.

I eat fish very rarely and meat never, so I almost never do this kind of cooking (big hunk of protein + sides). My assignment is come up with tasty ideas and give him a shopping list so he can grocery shop and prep ahead of time. Since I get home pretty late, it would be nice if the cooking itself didn't take more than an hour.

Help?

Making the most of frozen salmon

Earl the Polliwog — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:41:57 -0800

I just ordered some wild Alaskan salmon online, partially in hopes of being able to prepare sushi for myself at home. But the fish feels a little spongy when I eat it raw after defrosting it. Is this because of how long it's been frozen? Is there any way to revitalize fish that has been frozen for a period of months? The website states that the freezing process meets sushi / raw consumption guidelines. The packages state that the fish were caught last August.

Save my soup

tacit_urn — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:23:54 -0800

Condensed Milk != Evaporated Milk. Following this Salmon Chowder recipe I mistakenly used a can of "Sweetened Condensed Milk" instead of the Evaporated Milk that was called for. My beautiful, expensive, organic, soup tastes like candy. What can I add to it to cut the sweet?

How "done" should restaurant salmon be?

soelo — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:33:37 -0800

How "done" should restaurant salmon be? How should my friend ask for it to be less done? A friend and I both like salmon and often order it when we eat out. She always complains that hers is overdone. I have only felt mine was overdone once (and underdone once) that I can remember in the 30+ times I have ordered it. Is one of us "correct" or is it just a matter of preference, like with steak? When I felt it was overdone, it was chewy and when I felt it was underdone, it was translucent in the middle. I like it flaky but opaque. Whenever I have seen her overdone salmon, it has been opaque but did not look chewy.

Secondly, I'd like to point it out to her that she is rarely satisfied with salmon that she orders and am wondering if she can ask for it to be underdone. I can imagine some places will just say no to undercooking meat, but are there magic words or phrases that will describe the level of doneness she is hoping for?

Help Me Make Better Salmon and Trout

smitt — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:39:48 -0800

Cooks of Ask Metafilter... I need some help with cooking fish. I like to make salmon (or trout) frequently, but I have a hard time doing it right. I tend to bake in the oven. I have a nice fish rub, and I usually slice up lemons and cook the fish on a bed of lemon slices. So far, so good.

Where I have difficulty is knowing how long to cook a piece of fish, depending on the weight/size of pieces I have. I also have temperature issues, in that I'm not very positive what's an ideal temperature I should be cooking the fish at (for the respective size/weight).

I have a friend, who's a brilliant cook, but her advice on these matters extends about as far as "Well, you just know when it's done, you know?" ... I don't.

What this all results in is that I'm pretty damn inconsistent. Sometimes the fish comes out perfect, sometimes it's downright bad. Hope me!

Not that kind of planking.

andrewcilento — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:33:29 -0800

Where would I pick up some cedar grilling planks in Nassau County, NY? I want to grill some salmon tonight, and I'd like to try plank grilling. I know you can get these online, but even my Amazon Prime membership won't get them here quickly enough, so that's out.

I live right near where Plainview, Hicksville, and Bethpage meet. I don't want to trek out to the east end of Long Island for something like this; would a place like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods carry this? Does anyone know a better place to get them?

(I've heard you can just go to a hardware store, get some cedar, and saw it down, but I don't have a saw, so... not an option for tonight.)

"Fish I like" -- where does this come from?

unSane — Wed, 04 May 2011 11:14:26 -0800

"Fish I like: Cod, Salmon, Whales". Can anyone identify this comic monologue about fish for me? Probably from 1980s England. Much longer excerpt inside. All I know is that my friends and I quoted this to each other all the time around 1980-82. Now one of them has accused me of making it up, and I'm pretty sure I didn't. It goes like this, and you have to use a pedantic tone of voice when reciting it.

Fish I like: cod, salmon, whales.

I like cod because they taste good
I like salmon because they're good swimmers
And I like whales because they're really, really big

Fish I don't like: sharks, pike, roach

I don't like sharks because they eat people
I don't like pike because they eat other fish
And I don't like roach because they're crap

For some reason we thought this was absolutely hilarious, or at least the 'crap' bit.

Stir any memories?

What shall we do with a drunken salmon early in the mornin'?

killdevil — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 20:16:43 -0800

What simple, tasty things can I make with a large quantity of canned salmon that I bought at CostCo in a moment of fishy overenthusiasm?

Fishing in Puget Sound

thewalrus — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 06:15:04 -0800

When is really the best time to fish for salmon in the Puget Sound / Georgia Straight area? Is it exclusively a late fall/early winter sport? Family members have recently purchased a 24' cabin cruiser type powerboat and would like to try fishing for salmon. They've gone through the appropriate training courses and safety info and have been using the boat with great sucess in the San Juans since spring of this year. Nobody has tried catching a fish yet, however...

This would be in Puget Sound off the coast of Skagit or Whatcom counties in WA state. I'm looking at the WA state government's fish & game website which has some recommended schedules:

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/salmon/whenwhere/area.html

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/salmon/whenwhere/area_pugetsound.pdf

What are our realistic chances of catching a fish in November, assuming we're totally clueless?

Sake recipes?

emilyd22222 — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 09:44:22 -0800

What can I do with a bottle of sake? I bought a brand of sake I'd never tried before, and it's pretty bad. I added it to smoothies this morning, and I may make one of the salmon recipes that came up on a Google search. What other food or drinks can I make with it? Any other creative uses?

can i catch salmon in boston?

lrodman — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 10:16:00 -0800

I'm starting to fish in the Boston area. Can you catch atlantic salmon at any point somewhere around boston? Google offers no help.

I am...MACK SALMON!

AugieAugustus — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:17:05 -0800

SalmonFilter: Help me devise a guaranteed home-run broiled salmon recipe, ideally involving cheese and wine. Sometime in the next 4-12 days I will be cooking a dinner for myself and two hungry guests involving a 1.8-pound salmon filet I got at the local co-op. I have broiled salmon once before, and it was a success, but I sort of improvised on the ingredients—some garlic here, some rosemary there, etc. This time I want to do something less haphazard.

Parameters:
- I want to use cheese, like maybe parmesan. We are big on cheese.
- The recipe should not be too elaborate or fancy. I am neither an experienced cook nor trying to impress anybody, so it should be nearly impossible to screw up.
- I would like to use dry riesling, but this is not compulsory.
- Heavier is better; I want this meal, as much as possible, to induce a blissful catatonia of holiday-season proportions.
- As there will be three people eating this, I suspect I'll need a hearty accompanying dish. Potato suggestions preferred.

The truth about freezing salmon to kill parasites, please.

HotToddy — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:47:02 -0800

I am seeking science-based answers (i.e., not dubious factoids passed along from one food blogger to the next) to the following questions: When making gravlax, 1) at what temperature and for how long must it be frozen in order to kill parasites, and 2) what is the risk of consuming gravlax that has never been frozen, both in terms of likelihood of getting parasites and what they'll do to you. If it matters, this is wild Alaskan sockeye purchased the day after harvest at Pike Place Market in Seattle.

how do I judge the quality of salmon (or other fish) in the supermarket?

krautland — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:04:11 -0800

how do I judge the quality of salmon (or other fish) in the supermarket? I just bought some terrible smoked salmon. it wasn't even cheap and the packaging informed me it was "wild alaska salmon, certified to the standards of the marine stewardship council" (I translated that from german). so I thought it wasn't farmed and that I'd in fact be getting some premium wild salmon to garnish my slice of bread with but I was wrong. this salmon has no texture, the color is awfully orangy-looking now that I've been able to closer inspect it and it's just one solid color without any shift at all. I also can't taste anything thanks to some bitter smell.

please help me not make this mistake again. please tell me how to look at fish in a market and understand if it's good or bad or new or old or quality or cheap. please recommend how to judge packaged salmon as well.

oh ... us seals don't help me much ... they rarely have them in german supermarkets.

Cooking Novice Attemps Salmon Dish in Quest for Love!

lemonfridge — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 02:00:32 -0800

I'm a complete novice cook, but I'm cooking salmon tagliatelle for my girlfriend on her birthday. I've made it twice for myself but I think it could be better... Ok, so far I'm frying the salmon fillets with a drop of oil till they are almost done, then adding some chopped spring onions to the pan during the final few min.

Then I'm adding cream and chives to the pan and mixing it all together, breaking up the salmon.

Add the salmon to the cooked tagliatelle, mix mix mix, serve. Serving with some nice bread and some wine.

It tastes fine, and my sister and dad have both enjoyed it. I just want to make it tastes a little bit more special. Any suggestions?

please note: I have never ever ever cooked anything before in my life. I don't enjoy it at all and I get extremely stressed during. Please keep it simple! :)

Do Salmon Return to the Steam Where They Were Born to Spawn?

edavidoff — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:37:50 -0800

Do scientists really know that salmon always return to the stream where they were born in order to spawn? Or are they just telling us a charming story? Scientists have been telling us for at least 50 years that salmon always return to the stream where they were hatched when they are ready to spawn. Is there any documented proof of this? Because I can't think of any possible way to prove that they behave like this.

First, I don't think it's possible to put some sort of a tag on a baby salmon because they are so small. Second, because of the high mortality rate you'd have to mark hundreds of them to have a chance that some will survive to breeding size. Third, you'd have to find the marked salmon among the hundreds that come to spawn in the stream. And fourth, you'd have to be able to prove that none of the marked salmon went to a different stream.

Do anybody know where and when this myth originated?

And I would suppose that they same question would apply, sort of in reverse, to sea turtles.

Are cheap fish oil capsules OK?

bobbyno — Mon, 25 May 2009 12:01:19 -0800

Are Trader Joe's Salmon Oil capsules still good for you even though they are so much cheaper then health food store brands? I would like to take fish oil capsules for health benefits but I found that the prices of fish oil capsules that are "molecularly distilled" and therefore, clear of toxic heavy metals, are very expensive. But, I found that Trader Joe's carries molecularly disitilled salmon oil capsules and sells them for $7 for a large bottle. A comparable bottle of the health food store brands would be $30 to $50 or more. How can this Trader Joe's Salmon Oil be so inexpensive? Are they really a high quality supplement that is benficial to take?

Fish simulacrum

kepano — Sun, 24 May 2009 18:14:01 -0800

Where can I buy a fake (non-edible) salmon fillet? Okay this might be a weird one, but that's what MeFi's for, right? I'm looking to buy a non-edible but somewhat realistic simulacrum of a salmon fillet. It doesn't have to be floppy but it should represent the fish in it's raw state (somewhere between 6-12 inches in length).

(I wish it was for a prank, but it isn't)

I've seen some nifty things done with Fimo, so I'm wondering if Etsy might be the place to look. Any suggestions?

Zazzle My Fishy Fish

rokusan — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:08:57 -0800

I've inherited some fresh cubed salmon (left by roommate who is gone for the week). I'm thinking of grilling it. But salmon is sort of boring. What sort of spice, rub, marinade or other goodness can I use to add some zing? It's fresh but for some reason cut into 1.5-inch cubes. I figure grilling it on skewers would work, but would like to add some extra flavor.

I'll take other ideas too. It's about... I dunno, a pound? About 20 cubes.

How do I bake salmon wrapped inside phyllo dough?

slepore09 — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:13:33 -0800

I had a dish a few years ago that was salmon and wild mushrooms baked inside phyllo dough. It was amazing, very savory and earthy. Does anyone have any ideas on how to replicate?

Maple glazed salmon recipe?

cda — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:46:02 -0800

I need help making maple glazed broiled salmon. I'm trying to replicate a dish I had at a Thai restaurant in Culver City. I need help because the ingredients are so expensive to me that I really can't afford to experiment. So here are my problems with the recipes I have found on the Internet.

I know the salmon I had didn't have mustard. It seemed like plain maple syrup.

Recipes I find without mustard usually call for mixing the maple syrup with orange juice, soy sauce, or vinegar. Can't I just use maple syrup? Why thin it out? I have made this recipe once thinned with soy sauce and it was very disappointing. It was like the maple syrup just disappeared. I applied the mixture just once, 1 hour before baking.

What would happen if I coated the top of the salmon with maple syrup, broiled for 4 minutes, re-applied the maple syrup and then broiled for another 4 minutes?

A crusty dilemma.

Gordion Knott — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:55:42 -0800

On the menu for tomorrow: salmon encrusted with bread crumbs. Can I make this dish without an egg wash? I'm trying to duplicate a restaurant dish, but at the same time avoid using eggs. The salmon was tender; the bread crumbs flaky (I'll be using seasoned Italian bread crumbs).

How can I get the bread crumbs to stick to the salmon without an egg wash? Is this doable using non-dairy ingredients?

Also, for tenderest results, should I bake or deep fry the salmon after breading it?