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Soup or
Chowder
(King Salmon)
Ingredients:
- King Salmon
- Boiling Salt Water
- Rice (1/4 cup)
- Chopped Celery
- Carrots
- Diced Potatoes (2 med.)
- Chopped Onion (large)
- Pepper ( to taste)
- Curry Powder (1/8 tsp.)
- Chives (optional)
- Dehydrated vegetable
First off you have to clean
the king salmon. Remove the skin and gills. Cut into 2x2” cubes. Bring to
boil in salted water. Boil for 15 min. and skim off foam. Add rice, Celery,
Potatoes, Carrots, and Curry Powder to taste. Then add Dehydrated
vegetables, and Chives (Optional), cook till done and EAT!
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Tom Cod
Delight
Now fish liver is very good either boiled or fried, it’s
really super rich. When we were children, it was always very important to
Mom, whenever they caught Cod fish, the children would eat the liver of the
Cod fish cause of the vitamins (vit. D). They always made sure us kids got
the liver.
If you have ever been to somebody’s house during winter
months, when the people catch Tom Cods, then you’d see the Tom Cods head
with its liver stuffed in its mouth. It’s cooked that way and it is very
VERY tasty! Yet it doesn’t look very appealing, but it’s quite tasty.
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Boiled
Fish Stomach
(King Salmon)
Ingredients:
- Stomach
- Salt
- Water
- Gravy (Brown or White)
Take the stomach ( NOT intestine) out of the
fish, most likely the stomach of a King salmon, turn it inside out and wash
it several times through-out the day, and boil it in salted water. Cook
till done. Take out and chop it up and then make your brown (or white)
gravy and put your chopped stomach in it. It’s really very VERY tasty!
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Boiled
Heart (In Gravy)
(King Salmon)
Ingredients:
- Heart
- Oil
- Water
- Chopped Onion
- Salt
- Pepper
- Brown Gravy
Cut heart in half and put in skillet with a little bit
of oil and a little water, simmer until tender, then add chopped onion and
add salt and pepper to taste. Make your brown gravey and add them together
and serve over rice. That is simply delicious! You can also can the fish and when
you want to use it, just open it up and add your gravy and onion and salt
and pepper.
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Humpies
and Other Delicacies
The male humpies have a deposit of fish fat and there’s
no meat in that part. It is the flesh of the fish, only kind of fatty jelly
type stuff, that’s really crunchy when you chew it. You slice all of it,
and there’s hardly no bone in it and you can easily remove the bone with no
problems. The custom was to cut the hump off the humpy and slice it real
thin and crunch away on it. It’s the same way with eating raw fish head.
When I was a kid, when we went up the bay, we used to
take the heads on a humpy, (where the gristle is around the nose) that was
always my favorite piece. We would slice a chunk from the nose and eat it
raw! I don’t know if you guys (young kids) heve ever eaten salted eggs!?!
Well, it has the same flavor, but without the salt. It’s always been the
custom and always will be!
The custom (traditional) thing for our people, was to go
to the head of the bay during certain periods of the fishing season to have
a cookout. They group there and catch a salmon that has gone up stream,
usually a humpy, the bigger the hump the more appealing it was ( it’s cut
up). The head is cooked, the fins are left on, all that’s removed is the
intestines. They put it in a pan of hot water and let it cook on the open
fire (beach). If you didn’t have any salt, they would throw in some goose
tongues, they provide lots of salt and wild chives and it’s very tasty!!
You use that boiled fish and pour that seal oil over it, that is up to your
individual taste, you can use bacon grease or Wesson oil (tastes just as
well). I guess years ago my grandma and grandpa used to go up there to do
that.
The Washington State Indians processed and cooked their
fish the same way. They would build a big fire and then let the coals burn
down, then they took poles 4 to 5 feet long and stuck them all around the
fire.
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They would split the fish down the back (not down the
belly side) and place it by the fire ( on the poles) to cook. They would
have the fish turned towards the fire, and every once in a while, they
would turn the fish.
Grandma Anesia Moonin would bake yeast bread, and while
they were baking their fish, they would dig a hole under those coals and
remove all of the fire and other pieces of wood from it. Then they would
place dough in a Dutch oven and place it in the ground then put hot coals
all around the oven (top, bottom, and sides) and let it cook. They would
let it cook for half an hour or so ( Mom said it seemed like an hour!) and
it would be done. Anyway, when Grandpa was ready for his meal, they came
and dug up there bread, had their hot tea made the fish baked and had goose
tongues for salt.
Interesting things they did, things we don’t even try to
do now! They also used to cook beaver and duck. Grandpa would catch them
and cook them the same way they  would
cook the fish.
Fish in
a frying pan.
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How To
Cut the Fish
Ok, to fillet a fish out, you take your salmon and wash
it off. Very carefully remove the head. I usually remove as little waste as
possible. Take it right at the back of the head there, and start cutting it
there and down through the gills. Then you take and split the fish down the
back, right above the back bone. You can fillet right down the back so that
there isn’t any bone left. I cut the back-bone down by the tail and then
turn the fish over and do the same thing. All you have left is that little
ol’ back bone, and there you have your filleted fish!
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Smoked
Fish
The best time to smoke fish is in the spring before the
flies arrive. That’s when the Red Salmon are running in English
Bay (Nanwalek). First you have
to catch your salmon, take it and split it, filet it out like we do, then
cut it in about 1 ½ in. strips. Tie two strips together.
I smoke the fish
for 4 days, maybe 5 days, depends. After that I place my fish into my
drying shack. It’s a little compartment next to the smoke house with a
screen wire around it so other animals wont get into it. I let it dry
there. After it’s dry to what ever texture you like, if you want it salty,
you can freeze and put it away salty. If you like it the way I do, I let it
dry there for maybe 4 to 5 days then I put it away in the freezer. You can
take that fish out sooner (about 3 or 4 days) and cut it into chunks and
place it into the oven to bake it. If you want, you can freeze it, so you
can use it for bacon. You find that the longer you keep your fish in the
freezer (especially Red Salmon) the more fat it looses, it dehydrates.
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Smoke
Fish Brine
Ingredients:
- Hot
Water (about 4 gal.)
- Salt
(Coarse)
- Brown
Sugar
- Raw
Potato
I usually use a 5 gallon bucket of hot water, it’s
usually not quite full, about ¾ way full and a coffee can (2 lb. Can)
filled with salt. I mix that in with the hot water. It’s not really hot
water, it’s warm water. And mix it until it is all dissolved and add brown
sugar. By the time it’s all dissolved, the water should be cold. You don’t
want to put your fish in warm water because your fish will fall apart. You
want the water cool (or cold). I stick a potato in the water (I don’t stick
a nail in the potato like most people do, I find if I do, my brine is too
salty!)Ok, if the potato comes to the top, I feel that my brine is just
right. I place the fish in it, (in the brine) for 20 minutes no longer!
I find if it is in 30 or 40 minutes, my fish is just too salty. I’m not
much of a salt eater, but everybody seems to like the flavor of my fish.
Then, I remove them after the 20 minute soak, and wash it in another bucket
of water, this also has to be cold. I wash them a couple of times, then I
hang it in a smoke house and let it hang over night just like that. After
it’s drip dried a little over night, I go and start a slow smoldering fire,
not a hot fire but just a smoldering fire of cotton wood, I never use
anything else but cotton wood.
I smoke the fish for 4 days, Maybe 5 days, depends.
After that I place my fish into my drying shack. It’s a little compartment
next to the smoke house with screen wire around it so other animals won’t
get it. I let it dry there. After it’s dry to what ever texture you like,
if you want it salty. If you like it the way I do, I let it dry there for
maybe 4 ti 5 days and then I put it away in the freezer. You can take that
fish out sooner (about 3 or 4 days) and cut it into chunks and place it into
the oven and bake it. If you want, you can freeze it, so you can use it for
bacon. You find that the longer you keep your fish in the freezer
(especially red salmon) the more fat it looses, it dehydrates.
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Pickled
Fish
Ingredients:
- Vinegar
- pickling
spices
- onion
- fish
When you make pickled fish, you have to use salted
salmon, (salmon that has been cured). You usually soak the fish out in cold
water for a day or maybe two. It also depends on your taste. Then you cube
it, (cut it into chunks), and then you add the fish to your pickles. You
can add water if you don’t do that, cause once when I did, it spoiled on
me. One hundred per cent vinegar seems to stay forever!
With herring, I like to remove the bone, you know, the
back bone and kinda have it filleted out when I pickle it. The more onion
you have, the tastier it is! Some people pickled salted fish heads that
way, it is very good! The king salmon heads are nice and gristly and chewy!
There’s many ways on how to make fish. You can bake fish (it’s really
beautiful baked), boiled, pickled, soups, pies, salted fish, and canned
fish. When it’s in a pie, (it is very, very good), deep fat fried. I deep
fat fry my fishy after I have salted it, the children like it very much. If
you like commercially mad fish sticks, you would like it that way! Take
your salt fish and cut them into abot ine inch thick squares. Then soak for
2 days. Then I make a batter, (I have my skillet hot), then I dip the fish
into the egg mixture and into the flour milk batter, (you can mix it all
together if you like), and back into the egg again, then put in the flour
and cracker and then in to grease and deep fat fry it. It just takes it a
couple minutes to cook. They eat salt fish raw, soak it over night in cold
fresh water and have as bacon the next mourning.
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Dried
Fish
Dried fish is very simple to make. Early Spring and late
fall is the best time to make dried fish. With dried fish you don’t put
anything on it, no salt, no nothing. It’s just plain and the types of fish
to dry are either Red Salmon, Humpies, and (or) Dog Salmon that have gone
up stream. There meat has turned white there’s no fat in it. It seams if
you dry the fish that have been up the bay already, they have a rancid
taste to them.
When I was a kid, I used to dry everything, Trout,
Herring, Flounders, Halibut, and Salmon, I dried everything. Even salmon
eggs, (You know), the salmon roe, I used to dry them. Have you ever eaten
dried salmon eggs? If you can get them just right, boy are they good!! You
are also able to can then but they tend to spoil on you.
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Uumatak
(Half
dried-boiled fish)
Half dried and boiled fish is really delicious, and a
real delicacy. You usually take the salmon and split it and hang it. You
can leave the bone parting if you want. Hang’em up
and smoke’em for a day or so, and then cut’em up and boil’em. Throw
in some wild chives or dehydrated chives and cook it and serve it with rice
and you can have a wonderful meal! People all over Alaska
fix there Uumatak just like we do, they pour seal
oil over it and eat it. It’s very good!
My latest recipe was to soak the fish in brine and then
smoke them for 2 days and then I canned it. Before I put’em
in the can, I remove the skin and bones I put a small piece of raw garlic
in the bottom of the jar, and then canned it. Put under 15 pounds of
pressure for 70 to 80 minutes, it is just delicious with Silver Salmon!
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