82

I don't tend to eat much fish, but in the supermarket earlier I saw some smoked salmon which didn't need cooking, and some salmon fillets which did. They looked the same really - both 'raw'. I decided to buy some of the fillet. It was nice, but a very different flavour from when I've tried smoked salmon in the past. The cooked fillet was quite chicken-y with a slight earthy/fishy taste, whereas smoked salmon has a very strong fish flavour.

Why do they taste so different? And why is smoked salmon safe to eat without cooking when other smoked fish do need cooking?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] DireLlama@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

This really shouldn't be the top rated comment. Cold smoked salmon is smoked at 15-25°C for about half a day. If temperature were the key, you would achieve the same effect by just placing it on the countertop overnight.

[-] OmegaMouse@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago

I didn't realise how complex this was! So with hot smoked salmon, the temperature is hot enough to kill bacteria but not denature the protein (so it still looks 'raw'). Cold smoked doesn't cook the fish but imparts the smoky flavour, and it's made safe to eat by other preservation methods? (as per @MargotRobbie@lemmy.world's comment)

[-] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Well, smoking is a wide variety of processes and very food dependent, but hot smoked food is usually cooked. For example, if you buy Alaskan smoked salmon, they look cooked and a bit jerky like; similarly, for Texas style smoked briskets, the meat is cooked slowly over a couple of hours inside a smoker.

Maybe it would be easier to watch a video on cold smoked salmon to see how the process works.

[-] DireLlama@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes, @MargotRobbie@lemmy.world is correct (sorry, I haven't figured out yet how to link usernames). Hot smoked food usually doesn't keep for more than a few days, if that, because it is cooked. AFAIK, in cold smoking, the smoke itself even has a preserving effect because it kills surface bacteria and dehydrates the outer crust, but the fish is also salted or brined. As noted in other comments, there are a wide variety of different techniques. Note: I'm not an expert, so I may be off on the details. I just used to work next door to a smokery and chatted with the owners sometimes.

[-] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Oh don't worry, you did it right!

this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
82 points (100.0% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35848 readers
1187 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS