smoked fish Smoked Fish
Nothing Wrong with This Cold Fish!
This article first appeared in the Wine
Spectator.
When you walk into Russ & Daughters, the operating-room-clean smoked fish emporium on New York’s Lower East Side, the glistening smoked whitefish, chubs, sturgeon, mackerel, trout, sable, bluefish, and tuna are all lined up in neat rows, like soldiers ready to march in a smoked fish parade. Salmon is still the No.1 smoked fish, but other smoked fish are on the upswing after a period of mild decline, says Mark Russ Federman, owner of Russ & Daughters. “Smoked fish were once merely a Jewish staple. Now they have gone more gourmet,” he says.
While many still prefer their smoked fish on bagels with cream cheese, restaurants see these silky textured, rich tasting fish as much more versatile. For example, at Duane Park Café in Manhattan, smoked sturgeon is layered onto a cornmeal blini and served with crème fraiche, osetra caviar, and a glass of Alsatian Riesling.
Some chefs have given to smoking their own fish. Cary Neff, chef and owner
of the Sansom Street Oyster House in Philadelphia, smokes the likes of bluefish,
sable, halibut, cod, shark, and brook trout for a three-fish sampler, served
with horseradish mayonnaise. He also smokes oysters and mussels for his raw
bar plateau. “We do a much lighter smoke than smoked fish houses do,” he
says. “It has more of a campsite flavor to it.”
Smoked fish (other than salmon, which were dealt with in an earlier Tastes
column) begin with salting or curing. By far the most common type of cure
is a wet cure, basically a brine of salt and water to which sugar and spices
may be added. Dry curing, in which coarse salt, and sometimes spices, are
rubbed directly into the fish, is less common because it is much more labor
intensive and is less uniform than wet curing. Curing time can range from
several hours (for lean fish to be hot smoked) to as much as two weeks (for
fatty fish to be cold smoked).
The cured fish is rinsed and dried before it is smoked, using a hot or cold method. Hot smoked fish is actually cooked from a few hours to eight hours at as high as 185 degrees until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees for at least 30 minutes, the length of time required to kill most bacteria. During the cooking, smoke is introduced from hardwoods (generally chips) such as maple, hickory or fruitwoods. Smoking gives the fish a shiny yellow cast, which gets darker the longer the fish is smoked.
Hot smoking produces a flaky texture more like cooked fish, one that is more appealing to most Americans. Cold smoking at around 80 degrees for about 12 or 13 hours creates fish with a raw texture favored by Eastern Europeans and Scandinavians. Because it does not benefit from higher smoking temperatures, cold smoked fish is saltier than hot smoked fish.
Here are my notes on a dozen smoked fish I tasted at Russ & Daughters, one of a number of great smoked fish emporiums in New York:
Whitefish. The most traditional of all non-salmon smoked
fish, this Great Lakes fish ranges from one to five pounds. It is sold whole
or cut into crosswise pieces at about $10 a pound. The flesh is flaky and
wonderfully sweet. It makes an excellent salad spread with finely minced
sweet onion and just enough mayonnaise to bind.
Chub. A four-ounce fish with even sweeter meat than whitefish,
its distant cousin, it also tends to be a little smokier because of its
size. Overfishing is making availability increasingly rare.
Sable. Also known as black cod or sablefish, this oily
and rich fish used to be cheap when Jews started using it to replace fished
out carp. Now it costs $26 a pound, in part because the Japanese have been
buying large quantities. Sable dry cured with garlic and paprika (the way
carp was) is sometimes called “chicken carp” by old-timers.
Two to three pound fillets have a meaty look and texture and mild garlic
kick. When it was much cheaper some years ago, Chilean sea bass was introduced
as an alternative. Cured without garlic and paprika, the Chilean sea bass
I had from Abe’s & Son in Philadelphia had a luxurious mouthfeel
reminiscent of perfectly sliced prosciutto.
Sturgeon. “I consider this the finest, most elegant
of smoked fish,” says Federman, who sells it for $36 a pound. Made
from sturgeon from the Great Lakes, not Caspian sturgeon, it is also among
the most delicately textured and subtlety flavored of all smoked fish.
Trout. Cut into steaks much like fresh salmon, salmon trout was my favorite
smoked fish. A sensuous mouthfeel and full-bodied flavor enabled it to easily
stand up to the heavier smoking. It’s a fine value at $10 a pound.
Rainbow trout, farmed in Idaho, are whole, boned 8-ounce fish that have a
firm, tasty flesh though without the silky texture or richness of sable.
Golden trout is a 10-ounce, hybrid farm-raised fish whose pink flesh tasted
like salmon to me.
Herring. This fatty Norwegian fish (about eight ounces)
was covered with tiny black sperm, called milts, the male equivalent of
fish eggs (“The poor man’s foie gras,” Federman says).
It had a hearty, blue collar taste.
Mackerel. Both Federman and I agreed that we didn’t like fresh mackerel
because it was too strongly flavored. But we loved this rich and fatty whole
smoked fish with a slightly dryish texture. A good value at $6 a pound.
Bluefish. Similar in texture to the mackerel, it comes plain or pressed with
crushed peppercorns. As with herring, it is not subtle and thus should eaten
accordingly. About $10 a pound.
Eel. Don’t expect to see these purplish, thin (about
one inch wide and 12 to 18 inches long) filets from Holland at bar mitzvahs.
They’re not kosher. But their buttery texture and rich flavor is
worth trying.
Tuna. Yellowfin tuna is the preferred type of tuna because
when cold smoked this lean fish can easily be sliced, carpaccio style,
the preferred way of eating it.
When it comes to traditional accompaniments, not all smoked fish should be
treated the same. For example, because it is so refined, sturgeon is best
with nothing more than sweet butter and crisp, thin crackers like Finn Crisp.
More robust fish such as mackerel, herring, and bluefish can handle black
bread, cream cheese, sweet onion, tomato, even horseradish sauce (made with
prepared horseradish, mayonnaise and sour cream). Some fish, like eel and
tuna, need only a spritz of lemon and freshly ground black pepper.
Less conventional presentations might include smoked fish flaked or chunked
in salads, including potato salads. For hors d’oeuvres, put the fish
on crackers, cocktail rye or in the leaves of Belgian endive with a dollop
of sour cream or crème fraiche and a sprinkle of caviar. Salmon or
golden trout are good candidates for angel hair pasta with butter and dill.
Steely white wines like Loire Valley Sauvignon Blancs or Chablis can be metallic with smoked fish. Better are wines with some residual sugar like New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs, off dry Rieslings, and Moscato d’Asti. Try Champagne for more delicate fish, like sturgeon. Who needs caviar?
Smoked Fish: How to Get It
If properly packaged and handled, smoked fish will last 5 to 7 days, depending
on the fish.
Abe’s & Son, Philadelphia, PA, 215-742-3800 ($50 minimum)
Barney Greengrass,
New York, NY, 212-724-4707
Browne Trading Company,
Portland, ME, 800-944-7848; www.brownetrading.com
Murray’s
Sturgeon, New York, NY, 212-724-2650
Russ & Daughters,
New York, NY, 800-787-7229
Zabar’s, New York, NY
212-496-1234 (inside New York), 800-697-6301(outside New York), www.zabars.com