A Boatload of Fish

[gitano]

Looks to be about an elk's worth.

We figured about a 5 lb average weight. There were a couple of 10 pounders, but there were more 4 pounders than 10 pounders. So 68 times 5 equals 340 and we figured about 50% waste between head, rack, guts, fins and skin, leaving a net of about 170 lbs total, or 85 lbs apiece.

My 34 turned into 28 quarts of "canned" salmon, 10 fillets, 10 steaks, and about 10 lbs (wet) of smoked for the kids to take to college with them. If the new recipe for smoked I'm using turns out good, I may go back tomorrow morning for the last 21 I am allowed get.

It's our salmon for the year.

I've heard that fresh AK sockeye is the best, when "camp cooked

It's good Jamie, but it really depends on the body of water they come from. The longer they have to swim to get to their spawning grounds, the better they taste. Frankly, you couldn't give me Bristol Bay sockeye (reds). On the other hand, Copper River sockeye are "to die for". Same goes for chinook (kings). While kings are good no matter where you get them, they are truly to die for from the Yukon. The ones that spawn in Canada have some 2000 miles to go before they spawn, and they are unbelievably fat.

I like to cut their bellies out and broil them separately. Once I did that with a 20-lb fish and I got a quart jar full of oil from the pan. Which, by the way, is perfect for dipping "dryfish" (hard-dried pink salmon strips) in as you eat it. Normally, one dips dryfish in seal oil like one dips potato chips in guacamole, but if the seal oil comes from anywhere but Southeast, it tastes REALLY fishy. King salmon belly oil is way better than Bristol Bay seal oil.

Paul