Salmon Scraps

I know this is an old thread, but thought it best to add it here.

This has to come with a short story… Years ago I used to fish the Lower Klamath River in Calif for Salmon. We’d put in at Terwilliger and using an Alumiweld sled go upstream to fish. Recently the fish population has declined so much they are threatened and I believe the River may be closed to Salmon fishing, or so I’ve heard.

One particularly busy year we camped as usual, at the Terwilliger Riffle Park. In the evening I watched an old Chevy pick-up drive around the campground a couple of times looking for a site; none were available. I flagged them down and offered our camp as a great place to pitch their tent.

Turns out the family was Yurok (Native American) and was there to do some night time subsistence fishing. The wife was probably 15 with a new baby girl while the dad was no more than 17.

We supplied the fire and salad makings while the Yurok family provided the salmon. I had in mind fresh salmon steaks but instead we were treated to grilled Pectoral Fins; those are the fins closest to the gills, they are loaded with Omega 3 fat and unbelievably tasty. Since that night, I’ve kept those fins as a treat for myself even though friends would stare as I cooked them. Once tried, they became converts and asked for them by name; give it a try sometime. The Omega 3 is good for your heart

How about that for utilizing every part of the fish?

I baked up a batch of bellies and collars recently. I can't believe I used to only think of the collars as crab bait. They are the baby-back ribs of salmon!

Salmon and halibut collars are some of my favorite bits!
Anytime we cut troll kings at work I always dig through the dump bins for dinner. =)

Smoked collars and bellies are awesome.

Wow; I'm amazed others have tried and liked the pectoral fins.
I've heard and forgotten them referred to as collars. Got to get that memory fixed someday. I've never tried them smoked, that's on the list for this year. Thanks for the tip.

How true, sometimes the best parts are the ones other folks throw away. I sort of figured I'd get a ration of #&@% for mentioning collars (pectoral fins), I'm so glad some of you have tried this tenderloin of the Salmon (Cheeks too of course). Maybe we'll convert a few others.

Just a tip though... I don't use the Salmon belly strips on the grill. Those are likely the very best Halibut bait you can find , except hatchery trout of course. But of I'd never get caught using a Trout to catch a Halibut; that's probably illegal or something.

Don't scrape them off the bone.  BONE = FLAVOR.  Pan fry of grill them with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Fresh belly for bait?  Naw, I'm eating it!

Psstt ... lingcod and rockfish collars are good eats too.  Hmm, I'm cooking some up right now, fresh from the ocean this morning.

-Allen

My wife grew up in Tokyo. As a special gift families give whole King salmon to relatives. They eat all the meat first and I mean all. Then the head cartilage is boiled and sliced paper thin and served with daikon radish on New Years Day. Only the very thick bones remain and those are boiled for soup stock.

If we judge a culture by the amount of resources it waste then typical American society is way down the list.

Totally understand the Americans are Wasteful sentiment. When I worked the Haitian relief effort in 94-95  we had a massive safety issue to deal with concerning the Haitiians mobbing the garbage trucks to get at the scraps. We couldn't dump because people would actually get into the trucks between the container and the compactor.

One night, the landfill turned into a scene from Dante's inferno as starving locals and International Police Monitor Mission plus US MP's clashed in what became a riot complete with clouds of tear gas and flaming piles of rubbish.

Not all the aid sent there was making it to the people who needed it most. This was how the most less fortunate coped. The misguided efforts of the outside governments were preventing these folks from eating.

Trust me, I wish we all would actually learn again to use the whole animal. How much is wasted so we get sterile filets at Safeway or Costco?

I smoke the carcass.

We fillet out our salmon for freezing/canning/smoking and then brine up the bones and smoke them.  After smoking the meat just falls off the bones leaving you with a pile of salmon candy.   

All those little bits of smoked salmon are great as a snack or in a dip. Mmmm...