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This smoked salmon method is really what most people know as kippered salmon. There is no liquid added, it is a dry brine, very sweet.
Work with salmon fillets. Cut the fillets across into strips about 1” wide.
In a large bowl, mix together 6 cups brown sugar and 1 cup salt. You can adjust the total amounts as long as you remember it’s 5 or 6 parts of brown sugar to 1 part salt. I use canning and pickling salt.
In a bucket or other container, layer sugar-salt mix with salmon.
One layer at a time until all your fish is used up. Make sure sugar-salt is the top layer. Loosely cover and place in a cool spot for 24 hours or so. I put the bucket on the floor of my basement.
The salt draws out the moisture in the fish so that when you remove the lid the next day, the fish is submerged in liquid. Take the bucket to your work area (my kitchen table).
Draw a bowl of cool water and dip each piece of salmon into it, then place onto baking sheets covered with absorbent towels. Once all the fish is laid out, pat the tops dry with absorbent cloths.
Let the fish sit, under a fan is best, for several hours while a skin develops. Beads of moisture should emerge from the fish, but don’t worry about it if it doesn’t.
Put the fish onto racks in your smoker and smoke as manufacturer suggests. We like mesquite chips. This part takes us about 3 hours or so.
Our smoker runs hot and it’s easy to burn it, so keep a close eye.
The finished product. Now we will vacuum seal some and can some. We did about 15 sockeye salmon in this batch. There were a lot of small ones.
NOTE: 7/16/2022 Last summer I purchase a Traeger smoker. I smoked my fish on the “Smoke” setting for about 2 to 2.5 hours. Perfect. Oh, and I used 3 Bristol Bay sockeye filets (they average around 8# compared to Kenai/Kasilof/Copper) and about 10 bellies — that filled my Traeger. The brown sugar was 3 cups and the salt was 1/2 cup.
Canning instructions to myself: use the pressure canner. Add water to the level marked over many, many years in the canner. Bring the water to a boil. Load pint jars with smoked salmon chunks and put them into the canner while you’re waiting for the full boil. Once boiling and pints are in, set the lid, but keep the stopcock open. Let the canner boil. Once steam exhausts from the stopcock in a steady stream for ten minutes, shut the stopcock. Let the pressure build to 10. Adjust the stovetop flame to keep a steady 10 pressure for 110 minutes (1 hour and fifty minutes). Remove from heat. Let it cool down for at least an hour before opening the stopcock to release the pressure. Then another hour or so before opening the lid and removing the jars. Wild fluctuations in pressure or overfilled jars will result in the jars exhausting liquid into the canning water. It doesn’t hurt anything, it’s just messy.
Use canned smoked salmon to make dip for crackers by combining 8oz. cream cheese with one pint of flaked canned smoked salmon. You may have to heat the smoked salmon first in order to get it to flake, and then maybe heat the cream cheese to get it to stir properly. I use the microwave for both tasks. This is simply the BEST smoked salmon dip known to creation. Seriously. I kid you not. –Paula
We are having a BUMPER crop of raspberries. Here is a raspberry pie favorite. It’s based upon a recipe found in Sunset Magazine’s June 1990 issue called French Raspberry Pie.
Go pick some raspberries.
You’ll need 4-1/2 cups to start. Rinse and then dry on absorbent towel.
Mix together 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup tapioca, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. salt.
Stir in 1 cup sour cream and let sit for 15 minutes.
Distribute raspberries into an unbaked 9″ pie crust.
Pour sour cream mixture evenly over the raspberries. Set pie on sheet to catch drips. Bake at 400 degrees F for 45-50 minutes.
Pie is finished when filling is bubbly and surface is browned. Once cooled, garnish with 1-1/2 cups fresh raspberries.
Raspberry Pie Recipe
4-1/2 cups raspberries (+ 1.5 cups for garnish)
1 cup sugar
¼ cup quick-cooking tapioca
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup sour cream
Unbaked 9” pie crust
Rinse berries and drain on absorbent towels. In a small bowl, mix sugar, tapioca, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in sour cream; let stand 15 minutes to soften tapioca.
Put 4-1/2 cups raspberries into pastry shell. Pour sour cream mixture evenly over raspberries. Bake at 400 degrees until filling bubbles and surface is browned, 45-55 minutes. Let cool, then pile more berries on top.
This is a must-have for Rhubarb Bread Pudding.
Grand Marnier Hard Sauce
½ cup softened butter
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. Grand Marnier, more or less to taste
Beat butter until fluffy. Add powdered sugar gradually until incorporated, scraping sides of mixing bowl. Add Grand Marnier and beat again, making sure all is incorporated. Spoon into serving dish. Serve by placing dollaps onto servings of warm bread pudding.
This recipe is based upon one found at Food.com by Kaarin. It is so rich and delicious.
Toast 8 slices Italian bread
Cut into 1/2″ cubes
Melt butter into milk and pour over bread. Let sit 15 minutes.
Mix together eggs, sugar, salt, and cinnamon.
Run outside, pull rhubarb, clean, and trim.
Chop rhubarb.
Mix rhubarb with eggs mixture.
Mix rhubarb and eggs mixture with soaked bread mixture.
Pour into buttered baking dish.
Sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans
Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes.
Serve warm with Grand Marnier Hard Sauce
Rhubarb Bread Pudding Recipe
8 slices Italian or French bread, lightly toasted, cut into 1/2” cubes
1-1/2 cups milk
4 Tbsp. butter
5 eggs
1-1/2 cups sugar
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
4 cups rhubarb, chopped
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup pecans, chopped
Put bread cubes into a large bowl. Heat butter and milk together until butter is melted. Pour over bread cubes and let sit for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix together eggs, sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in rhubarb.
Stir eggs mixture into bread mixture and pour into buttered baking dish. Sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 55 to 60 minutes until set.
Serve warm with Grand Marnier Hard Sauce. Serves 8-10
Grand Marnier Hard Sauce
Grand Marnier Hard Sauce Recipe
½ cup softened butter
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. Grand Marnier, more or less to taste
Beat butter until fluffy. Add powdered sugar gradually until incorporated, scraping sides of mixing bowl. Add Grand Marnier and beat again, making sure all is incorporated. Spoon into serving dish. Dollap onto servings of warm bread pudding.
This is what constitutes a fancy meal at my house. It isn’t complicated, but does take time and planning. The recipe is based upon one my mother cut out of a magazine and I’ve eaten it nearly all my life.
Recipe First, in three parts:
1) Meatballs
1# lean ground beef
2 Tbsp. finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. finely chopped parsley
1 tsp. dried oregano leaves
½ tsp. dried basil leaves
¾ tsp. salt
Dash pepper
2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients; toss lightly to mix well. Shape mixture into ¾” meatballs. Brown the meatballs in hot olive oil in large skillet. Remove meatballs from pan, set aside.
2) Sauce
¼ cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. finely chopped parsley
2 14.5-oz cans chopped tomatoes, undrained
2 6-oz. cans tomato paste
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. cayenne
½ cup red wine
Saute onion, garlic, parsley in olive oil until tender. Add remaining sauce ingredients, stir well. Add meatballs. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 1-1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
3) Remaining Ingredients
8-oz. lasagna pasta
1-lb. Mozzarella cheese, diced
1-lb. ricotta cheese or cottage cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Prepare 10-12 lasagne noodles by boiling as package indicates. Drain and rinse.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 13X9” baking dish.
In baking dish, layer half the ingredients, in this order: lasagna, Mozzarella, Ricotta, tomato sauce with meatballs, and Parmesan; then repeat.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, uncovered, or until heated through. Let rest for 10 minutes. Serves 6-8.
The meatballs should be fairly small (no more than 3/4″) so the dish as a whole stays fairly flat. I used fresh basil today.
I used fresh basil in the sauce, too. I like to cut everything very fine for this recipe.
This is all the meatballs.
Here’s a picture of the sauce before it has simmered. It’s a very thick sauce. Stir it occasionally.
As you can see, the sauce is dolloped on, not poured. Here is what it looks like just before going into the oven.
Finished. Now let it rest for about ten minutes so it’s easier to slice and serve.
This recipe is based upon one found in Betty Crocker’s Cookbook. I could not find the year of publication, but it was my grandmother’s cookbook and she was born in 1914. This is a quick and easy dessert to make, if you have the cherries on-hand, which I always try to do. I’ve been reading a bit of back-and-forth online about butter vs. margarine vs. shortening and I don’t know what to think. When I see a recipe calling for margarine I always use butter, but when I see a recipe calling for shortening, I use vegetable shortening, like Crisco. All of that is to say that it’s possible that this recipe can be changed for the better, but I have only tried it the way described here.
This is not cherry pie filling! It is a can of tart cherries, packed in water. I imagine you could use fresh or frozen pitted cherries and crush them a bit to get the required amount of juice for the sauce. Or simply forego the sauce and eat cake!
Cherry Carnival
1-3/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
¼ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
¾ cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 14.5-oz. can pitted sour (red tart or pie) cherries
½ cup chopped walnuts
Stir flour, baking powder and salt together in bowl. Add shortening, sugar, egg, milk, and vanilla. Drain the can of cherries, but save the juice into a liquid measure (you should get about ¾ cup-good!) and set aside. Add cherries and walnuts to batter and stir until well mixed. Pour into greased 9” square pan. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Serve hot with hot Clear Red Sauce (below).
Clear Red Sauce
½ cup sugar
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
¾ cup juice, drained from can of cherries
1 cup water
¼ tsp. almond flavoring
3 drops red food coloring (optional)
In saucepan, mix sugar and cornstarch. Gradually stir in juice and water. Stir constantly over medium heat, let boil for one minute. Remove from heat and add almond flavoring and red food coloring. Serve hot over Cherry Cake.
Serve with whipped cream or ice cream, if desired. The sauce is easily re-heated in the microwave. I always end up with too much sauce because people eat the leftover cake for breakfast and they don’t bother putting sauce on it.
Well, I’ve missed an entire month! Life happens. Here is one of my all-time favorite breads, based upon Sunset Breads (Lane Publishing 1984). I should have posted it at St. Patrick’s Day as that is when I usually make this, but life interfered then, too. Ha!
Irish Soda Bread Recipe
4 to 4-1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
3 tsps. Baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ cup sugar
1/8 tsp. cardamom or coriander (optional)
¼ cup firm butter
1 egg
1-3/4 cups buttermilk
In a large bowl, stir together 4 cups flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and cardamom (if used) until thoroughly blended. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until crumbly, In a separate bowl, beat egg lightly and mix with buttermilk; stir into dry ingredients until blended. Turn out onto a floured board and knead until smooth (2 to 3 minutes).
Divide dough in half and shape each half into a smooth, round loaf; place each loaf in a greased 8” cake or pie plan and press to make dough fill pans. With a razor blade or sharp floured kife, cut a 1/2” deep cross in top of each loaf.
Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven (350 degrees for glass pans) for 35 to 40 minutes or until nicely browned. Makes 2 loaves.
Stir dry ingredients together, then cut in butter. Mix in liquid ingredients. Remove to flour-covered board and briefly knead.
Divide in half and place into two greased pans.
Cut a cross in the top of each loaf with a floured knife.
Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until nicely browned. Served warm, it’s awesome!
This makes a great side dish to burritos or barbecue brisket. It’s based upon a recipe found at Food Network. I don’t have frozen corn, never have, but I try to have canned corn on hand for occasional use.
Beat 4 ounces softened cream cheese, a 15-oz. can creamed corn, a 15-oz. can whole corn, 1/2 cup cornmeal and 1/2 chopped onion.
Stir in 2/3 cup milk, 3 Tbsp. melted butter, 1 beaten egg, 1 Tbsp. sugar, 1/2 cup shredded cheddar, and salt and pepper.
Spread in a buttered 2-quart casserole dish and bake 50 minutes at 350 degrees.
Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
I split and toasted these with butter, then piled on the pulled pork with barbecue sauce and sauteed sweet peppers. Oh, yummy!
Hamburger Buns Recipe
1 Tbsp. yeast (1 pkg)
1 cup warm water
2 Tbsp. oil
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. salt
3 cups bread flour (apx)
Egg Wash (1 egg yolk mixed with 2 Tbsp. water)
Sesame seeds
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add oil and sugar. Let sit for a few minutes. Stir in egg, salt, and 2 cups flour. Stir and stir and stir. Gradually add enough flour to make a dough stiff enough to handle. Knead well. Once it is smooth and elastic, place into greased bowl and cover. Let rise until doubled. Remove from bowl and cut dough into 8 equal pieces. If you are making sliders, cut into 15 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and then flatten. Place on greased baking sheet (I fit all of mine onto one sheet, but I should have used two.). Let rise until doubled. This second rise will take about an hour. Carefully brush each bun with egg wash. Sprinkle buns with sesame seeds. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Sliders should take about 10 minutes.
This recipe comes from Out of Alaska’s Kitchens (Alaska Crippled Children’s Association, Inc., 1961). My mother has a recipe in that cookbook, from when we lived in King Salmon in 1959, called Fresno Pudding. It’s a raisin pudding, similar to this chocolate one I’m going to tell you about, but so unctuously sweet that it makes your teeth hurt. I digress.
I’ve been dieting for months and had an unstoppable chocolate craving. I frantically whipped together this dessert and dove into it as soon as it came out of the oven. All better now. I like this dish because it’s one step, everything goes into the baking dish at one time, but it comes out of the oven as a cake with sauce.
Hasty Chocolate Pudding
Stir together dry ingredients:
1 cup flour
¾ cup sugar
1-1/2 Tbsp. baking cocoa
3 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
Stir together these liquid ingredients and mix with dry ingredients:
½ cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. melted butter
Spread batter into greased 8X8” baking dish.
Mix together syrup ingredients: ½ cup sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, 4 Tbsp. baking cocoa, and 1 cup hot water. Pour over batter in dish. Do NOT stir. Bake 30 minutes in 350 degree oven. Serve with or without whipped cream.
Stir together dry ingredients.
Stir together liquid ingredients and add to dry ingredients.
Spread batter into greased baking dish.
Mix together syrup ingredients.
Pour syrup over batter. DO NOT STIR.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Cake rises to top of dish and sauce lies beneath.
Serve topped with whipped cream, or not.
Foods Passion 