Kitchen Essential

There are three varieties of salmon with which we who live in the western hemisphere should concern ourselves. Reputedly king of them all is the Atlantic salmon, the fish which runs up the rivers to spawn in Norway, Finland, Great Britain and Ireland and the rivers on the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada. This is the fish which is famous the world over as a sporting and culinary proposition and is commonly associated with social prestige and affluence. There is no question that the Atlantic salmon is a very fine fish but perhaps his illustrious connections give him a somewhat unfair advantage over his Pacific cousins.

The main groups of Pacific salmon consist of the sockeye, the pink, the cohoe and the keta, also known as the chum or silverbright. Of these four we can virtually discount the sockeye in Britain as catches of this fish are absorbed by the canning industry. The pink, which can be readily identified by the hump on its back, is seldom seen in this country either except in a tin, so we are left with the cohoe and the keta.

The cohoe is a stocky fish, deep in proportion to its length and lacking the streamlined, torpedo-like form of our own Atlantic salmon. The flesh of the cohoe is a rather deep orangey-pink in colour, deeper hued than the pink flesh of the Atlantic salmon and somewhat scorned in some quarters on account of its ‘inferior’ colour. The cohoe is, nevertheless, a very good fish, although very tender to handle when deep frozen and thawed out again. It has a very slightly sweetish taste when smoked which is not at all unpleasant.

The keta salmon is a very similar fish in outward colour and shape to the cohoe, but is somewhat paler fleshed. They are occasionally confused by the commercial packers, as I have sometimes found a cohoe thrown in with a batch of ketas when purchasing salmon for smoking. When this occurs I accept it as a bonus, as the cohoe is higher priced than the keta. The keta has a flesh colour similar to that of the Atlantic salmon, although, all things being equal, it has a lower fat content than the Atlantic and cohoe varieties. Cooked in the traditional manner, it is rather tasteless compared with the other two, but can, with care, make an excellent smoked product. In fact without any attempt at deception on my part, I have frequently had my smoked keta mistaken for Scotch salmon.

If I were to make a choice, I would prefer a fresh run Atlantic salmon to any other, but not every Atlantic salmon caught is by any means a fresh run fish. Many rod-caught fish have lain a long time in low water or have battled their way past innumerable obstacles, have lost condition, and are what the smoker terms ‘dry fish‘. This situation never arises with imported Pacific salmon. All fish are caught by commercial fisheries at the mouths of the rivers, so every Pacific salmon is a fresh run fish and superior in quality to a tired Scottish fish taken late in the summer.

I picked up a very useful tip from an experienced hotelier regarding the treatment of frozen Pacific salmon. As some of the oil is lost during deep freezing, oil must be fed back into the fish to achieve the best results. I do this by painting the fillets with olive oil halfway through the 24-hour air drying period, which falls in between brining and placing in the kiln.

Filleting

A very sharp, thin-bladed knife with a pliable blade is required for this operation. I use one made by J. Marttiini, of Finland, which is available at most gun and fishing tackle shops.

In the case of whole salmon, the fish must first be gutted, slitting the underside from the vent to the lug bones. The blood channel must then be removed from the back of the gut cavity. The membrane should be broken by the forefinger and the blood channel taken out, preferably under a running tap. There are several large veins present in the belly walls of the fish, and these will turn black during smoking unless punctured and squeezed out. If these veins are ignored, they will not affect the flavour or keeping qualities of the fish but detract somewhat from the appearance.

To fillet the fish, leave the head on as it provides something to get hold of. The neck should be cut through until the spine is reached, as close to the head as possible, leaving the hard shoulder plates intact as these are necessary to assist in the hanging of the fillets or sides. The knife blade should be turned at right angles, so the flat of the blade lies parallel to the length of the spine. You will find it easier if the back of the fish is towards you. A straight cut should be made, slicing through the ribs where they join the spine, cutting the entire length of the fish with the knife blade held all the way at right angles to the length of the body. The large dorsal fin can cause trouble, so the blade must be fractionally raised to pass above this obstacle when it is reached and the same applies to the anal fin lower down. When the first side is freed, the fish should be turned over. This may be harder to remove than the first, as the remaining side has acted as a supporting cushion when removing the first side.

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