Alaskan Smoked Salmon - Splendid Gift from the Sea

While the waters of the Atlantic have been devastatingly over fished today for Salmon to be placed onto countless million dinner tables each year, the waters of Alaska are still very well populated with fish due to the fact of the guidelines fishermen have to follow in Alaska. In the nineteenth century almost all commercial Salmon were pulled from the Atlantic. Being canned in New England to be eagerly shipped off to California in the 1840s, and by the middle of the 1860's the tasty delights were actually being produced in California and then carried off to the east!

Today all Atlantic salmon come from Canada or Europe, while the waters of Alaska still teem with fish. This is due to modern methods of managing the seasonal fisheries in Alaska. Of the one billion pounds of salmon produced commercially worldwide, about 70% comes from farms, but not so in Alaska. All Alaskan salmon are wild, living free in the waters of the Pacific Ocean before returning to the rivers where they were born.

Long a staple for the bears and wolves of the Northwest and supporting more than 130 other species, salmon was highly prized by native Alaskan peoples. They recognized the value of the red-orange flesh early on and believed that if the fish were disrespected the gods of the sea would be angry and would drive the salmon away from Alaska.

Without the salmon not only the people and animals would suffer, but the land as well. When salmon return from the sea they bring back nitrogen so that the trees and plants thrive, benefitting the herbivores also. The best way to honor this salmon gift from the gods is to take only what is needed and use all that is taken. So it was vital to develop a way to store the salmon caught during their breeding runs back up their natal rivers. That is where Alaskan Smoked Salmon comes in.

The high fat content makes salmon an ideal food to preserve and flavor with smoke. Native Alaskans have been doing just that for centuries. The natural oils of the fish welcome the smoke flavor and retain it in a splendid way. But creating the best mouth-watering Alaskan Smoked Salmon isn't as simple as placing the salmon in the smokehouse.

Cures are categorized in two fields, wet and dry. Wet cures require the meat to be soaked in a brine solution which can contain pepper, sugar, salt, and other spices. The dry variety of curing is typically to produce cured only fish and contains a mix of herbs or fruit, seat salt, and sugar.

Another important fact that must be taken into count while smoking fish is the actually species of salmon. There are actually give different species of salmon which exist in Alaskan waters, and each offers a different taste in the combination of cures and smoking.

In today's market smoked salmon can be found anywhere for the consumer. The local supermarket variety typically is farm raised and cold smoked, but anyone who is a true connoisseur will seek Alaskan Smoked Salmon. Through the process of smoking and curing Alaskan Salmon have been given a flavor which is comparable to that of vintage fine wine.

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