“Eating with the fullest pleasure—pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance—is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend.”
—Wendell Berry
My first salmon cookbook was published in the spring of 2005. Two years earlier, with my book proposal accepted and a signed contract and an advance in hand, I decided it was important to travel in order to research salmon. My idea was to obtain a global perspective on the salmon industry—both farmed and wild—so I booked tickets to Norway, Scotland, and Alaska. I took along my husband, Greg, to serve as my logistics person, freeing me to study and take notes, and to make sure I didn’t get lost, which I’m good at doing.
Norway is the birthplace of salmon aquaculture, so it made sense to travel there first. We visited the Norwegian Wild Salmon Centre (Norsk Villakssenter), on the banks of the Laerdalselvi, the longest river in Norway and the most famous salmon watercourse in the country. Opened by His Majesty King Harald on June 15, 1996, the Centre is dedicated to the preservation of wild salmon in Norway and offers extensive historical, scientific, and cultural exhibits for visitors. The Atlantic salmon stocks, severely depleted in the region due to overfishing, destruction of habitat, and the disease and inbreeding caused by farmed salmon, were the focus of scientists and conservationists working together to bring public awareness to these issues. It was there that I gained insights into the life and legends of Atlantic salmon and learned what Norway and the European Union were doing to protect, manage, and sustain the dwindling number of wild Atlantic salmon.
In Scotland, we visited an organic salmon farm within the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation, a trade association whose members are responsible for representing the industry in political, regulatory, technical, and media issues. The salmon farm, located near Ullapool on the far northwest coast of the Scottish Highlands, was established in 1977 and is the oldest independent fully integrated salmon farm in Scotland. The farm handles all stages of the production process, from egg to the initial processing of salmon fillets. To have a firsthand look at the farming operation, Greg and I were fitted with float suits and boated out to the net pens that were nestled in a protected sea loch. Not only was this a second-generation, family-run business but all of the employees we met were invested in the preservation of the environment and the care of the fish. They had grown up there, they were raising their children there, and they were feeding the salmon to their families.
The opportunity to see a “best practices” salmon farm was valuable and also hopeful, because the only salmon sold commercially throughout Europe are farmed salmon, and they typically come from a handful of large multinational corporations who control the aquaculture industry. There are important differences between salmon raised organically and salmon raised conventionally: Pen density is much lower for organically raised salmon, which optimizes the health and well-being of the fish. This lower density leads to less pollution of the seabed from undigested feed and feces, though this claim is being disputed. And new since 2010, all fish meal and oil used in organic farms must come from waste products of fisheries independently recognized as sustainable by the nonprofit Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which operates a widely respected certification program.
In mid-May 2003, Greg and I visited Cordova, Alaska, shortly after the start of the salmon season for commercial fishermen. We spent time on an independent commercial salmon boat observing how sockeye and king salmon are caught by drift gill nets, the method of fishing used on the shallow channels of the Copper River Delta. Salmon fishing in Alaska is tightly regulated and managed for sustainability by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which is why Alaska is the global leader in the preservation of wild salmon stocks.
Now, more than ten years after I researched and wrote my first salmon cookbook, I have been given the opportunity to write this new cookbook—to develop new recipes, revisit and update some readers’ favorites, and once again focus deeply on the issues and challenges of both wild and farmed salmon. The reality, however, is that I never stopped watching the salmon industry. When Salmon: A Cookbook was published in 2005, I set up a Google alert on my computer so I could zero in on news articles covering farmed and wild salmon. I wanted to keep current with the science of aquaculture, the threats to wild salmon stocks and our oceans, the latest medical studies on the dietary benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, and how the marketplace for both wild and farmed salmon was evolving. In chapter 1 of this new book, I focus on the changes and advancements that have occurred in these areas over the past decade and also look at emerging topics, such as closed-containment salmon farming.
No matter how enticing the recipes and photographs might be, I encourage you to read chapter 2 before you start cooking. Here, I provide information on what to look for when shopping for salmon, including how to check for freshness and how to decode the labels on farmed and wild species. You’ll also learn the best ways to store, freeze, and thaw salmon. Most important, this chapter contains essential techniques for salmon preparation, such as how to scale a fish, remove its gills, fillet it, and remove the skin and pin bones. I have also included two easy techniques that might appear “cheffy” at first glance, but I urge you to try them both and taste for yourself the amazing results. In just a few simple steps, the first one explains how to prepare a salmon fillet to achieve cracker-crisp skin, as it is served in the best restaurants. The second technique is brining. Although I have been a proponent of brining turkey and wrote about it extensively in my two Thanksgiving cookbooks, and even extended that same technique to pork, it had never occurred to me to brine salmon. Try it. The difference in taste and moistness is remarkable and well worth the very easy extra step.
Chapters 3 through 6—the recipe chapters—make up the heart of the book and are organized by technique (rather than by course). From appetizers to main courses, each chapter highlights a different approach to preparing salmon: raw and cured, on the stove top, in the oven, on the grill. Chapter 3 explores how to eat raw salmon safely as carpaccio and tartare and how to “cook” it with citrus to make ceviche; how to cure it with salt, sugar, and alcohol for gravlax; and how to pickle it with vinegar and spices in the style of herring. I include two of my favorite gravlax recipes, one traditional and the other less so, and both are delicious. In chapter 4, nearly every conceivable way to cook salmon on top of the stove appears: pan searing, braising, poaching, stove-top grilling, smoking, and stir-frying.
Chapter 5 turns up the heat with salmon in the oven. The recipes feature slow cooking, roasting, baking in parchment, broiling, searing in a cast-iron frying pan on the stove top followed by a high-heat finish in the oven, and even a low-tech sous-vide method. The latter is one modernist technique I am delighted to present.
In chapter 6, you’ll need to fire up the grill. I have included recipes for a whole fish stuffed with aromatics, for using an alder plank for a wood-scented fillet that is a classic of the Pacific Northwest, and for wrapping fillets in cedar sheets for a Japanese-style presentation or in banana leaves for a Southeast Asian–inspired treat. You’ll also discover salmon cubed and threaded onto skewers, formed into burgers, and cut into strips for tacos—all of them among my family’s favorite summertime dishes. Here, as in every recipe chapter, my goal is to help you build skills to achieve perfectly cooked salmon. With techniques mastered, the fun of improvising can begin.
I’m a huge fan of leftovers—salmon in particular—so I wanted to add a bonus chapter to the book. In chapter 7, you’ll find recipes that utilize leftover salmon for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner. With cooked salmon in the refrigerator, you can pull out a cast-iron frying pan and make hash, or whip up a frittata with spinach and goat cheese. Salmon gets reimagined in a chunky chowder with corn, stirred into risotto, or tossed with pasta. All are fast, easy, and flexible. Instead of forming burgers with salmon, make meatballs for a party and use the leftovers to make a salmon bánh mi sandwich. These leftovers feature big flavors and global tastes.
Everything about salmon fascinates me—its life cycle, the variety of species, the controversy and challenges regarding wild and farmed salmon, its health benefits, and its remarkable value as a protein source. As a cook, the versatility of salmon inspires me, it nourishes my body, and it brings me pleasure at the table. My global jaunt in search of the salmon story, which provided the context for my first book and deeply informed this new one, has been life transforming, connecting me to fishermen, biologists, conservationists, and aquaculturists. Salmon is a glorious fish—a fish that we need to respect and protect so that it can provide us pleasure and sustenance forever.