Some you win!

You know how it is, you see a bargain and can't resist. Well that's how I ended up with a 6lb frozen Pacific Salmon for £1.71 a pound. Now that, in itself, is nothing special you might say. You're probably thinking, "Well just stuff it in the freezer and use it later, don't tell us about it". Well, that's OK if you've not swapped your chest freezer for an upright one that the fish is too big to fit in to!

Never mind, revert to plan B - defrost the salmon, fillet it and smoke it. Mmm... smoked salmon.

I have to admit that it's the first time I've handled a Pacific salmon. I made a lousy job of filleting it, noticing that the flesh isn't as firm as the Atlantic ones (although this may be partially due to it being frozen?). I salted it for a bit longer than normal to firm it up more... my second mistake.

Smoking it wasn't without it's problems either, the smoke generator kept going out - a good clean, and drying the dust in the oven, eventually sorted it out, but not until after much cursing!

It eventually got done by smoking during the daytime and bringing it in at night so that it didn't freeze.

And the end result? Well it looks as if we'l be eating a lot of salmon páté, quiches and the like. The flesh seems to have far less oils than it's Atlantic cousin which means that it's a lot drier and doesn't slice anywhere near as well. It's also too damned salty.

...some you lose!