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THE BEST: Smoked Salmon


pups224

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Instead we have this thread pointing out that all of the smoked salmon in New York and indeed most of the country is exactly the same, because it all comes from Acme Smoked Fish in Brooklyn.

Having said that, the best smoked salmon in New York is at Russ & Daughters. :cool:

I've been curious about this for a while -- the NY Times article that FG links to says that most of the smoked salmon out there is from Acme, but this doesn't entail that it's all the same product. Russ & Daughters might, for example, have certain specifications for, say, the eastern Nova that they get from Acme (for example, how it's smoked).

Also, as the Times article states, a lot depends on how the fish is stored and handled:

"We sell plenty of salmon to retailers who don't really have the experience to do it justice," Billik said. "There are about 10 or 12 quality outlets I'd be happy to shop in every day. Even though it's the same salmon, these 12 merchants are going to handle and present the product differently."

FWIW, about 6 months ago I did a comparison between Russ & Daughter's Gaspe and Barney Greengrass's eastern Nova purchased within about 20 minutes of each other and thought that the Greengrass had the edge. But both are excellent products.

Edited by dagordon (log)
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I was being slightly tongue-in-cheek; there are definitely differences not only in handling but in the fact that the top-tier places buy whole smoked sides of salmon and hand-slice them to order whereas your average grocery store or bagel shop is selling the pre-sliced stuff. IIRC the earlier thread considered the theory that the top places might be getting higher quality fish or fish made to their custom specifications, but no evidence emerged that that might be the case.

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Instead we have this thread pointing out that all of the smoked salmon in New York and indeed most of the country is exactly the same, because it all comes from Acme Smoked Fish in Brooklyn.

Having said that, the best smoked salmon in New York is at Russ & Daughters. :cool:

Not quite true. There are several purveyors and then there is the imported salmon.

Which smoked salmon at R&D do you like. There are about seven different kinds?

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I'm partial to the eastern nova from zabar's, but it does matter very much who slices it.

I want pancakes! God, do you people understand every language except English? Yo quiero pancakes! Donnez moi pancakes! Click click bloody click pancakes!

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Assuming there are distinctions -- handling, slicing, specifications -- that make the same type of salmon from the same supplier different, the problem with every comparison I've heard of is sample size. Even if a resource-heavy publication like the New York Times does a product comparison, it tends to be based on one sample from each establishment. But when you're dealing with a natural product, with variation from fish to fish (especially if it's wild-caught), and with differences in slicing technique from person to person even within the same store . . . well, you would have to work with a lot of samples from each place in order to do any sort of meaningful comparison of ACME fish versus ACME fish.

Edited to add:

Rubin Caslow, 86, Leader of a Smoked-Fish Dynasty, Dies

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
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Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Not quite true. There are several purveyors and then there is the imported salmon.

Which smoked salmon at R&D do you like. There are about seven different kinds?

I'm a big fan of the scottish smoked salmon - at R & D...but they're all pretty fine.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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  • 4 years later...

As I think about fulfilling my mother's yearly christmas order for smoked salmon, I thought I would revisit this thread. Has anything emerged to challenge Russ & Daughters in the past four years?

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As I think about fulfilling my mother's yearly christmas order for smoked salmon, I thought I would revisit this thread. Has anything emerged to challenge Russ & Daughters in the past four years?

No.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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  • 6 years later...

Bumping this topic to ask a question. I am picking up an entire side of smoked salmon a local organization sells as a fundraiser this weekend. I would like to make and pressure-can, so it would be shelf-stable, a smoked salmon spread. The only smoked salmon spread I have ever made is with cream cheese, which is excellent, but I don't think it would hold up to pressure canning. Any ideas? Could I do a sort of rillette with olive oil? What seasonings? Pressure and time? My tendency is to let the smoked salmon carry the spread, with just a little dill and lemon juice and zest. 

 

Any help out there?

Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

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  • 2 months later...
On ‎10‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 2:43 PM, kayb said:

Bumping this topic to ask a question. I am picking up an entire side of smoked salmon a local organization sells as a fundraiser this weekend. I would like to make and pressure-can, so it would be shelf-stable, a smoked salmon spread. The only smoked salmon spread I have ever made is with cream cheese, which is excellent, but I don't think it would hold up to pressure canning. Any ideas? Could I do a sort of rillette with olive oil? What seasonings? Pressure and time? My tendency is to let the smoked salmon carry the spread, with just a little dill and lemon juice and zest. 

 

Any help out there?

On a recent episode of Alaska The Last Frontier, I was interested to see that one of the things they do in the spring is take any salmon that is left in the freezer, brine and smoke it, then pressure can it with some oil. I don't remember the exact details, but can't help to think that the product would be much better if it was pressure canned without all that time in the freezer. I would imagine that smoked salmon spread could be made as needed using that shelf stable product.

HC

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As a matter of fact, I made a smoked salmon spread yesterday from some salmon I smoked myself. This is a picture of the one I made for us, but I also made a foot long one for the guys in the truck shop where Deb works. I brought it in around 9:30 this morning and at noon, Deb sent me the picture of how much was left.

HC

IMG_3353.thumb.JPG.bff81bc29e5227f51a173ab48e1db2f6.JPG568229831.thumb.jpg.828fda43f8d38b3cbfd1931c83d880b8.jpg

 

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