Holy Smoke 



...It's Seafood 



By Kathy Hart 



Large amounts of tuna, salmon, 

 bluefish and scallops are going up in 

 smoke. Nationwide, Americans have 

 developed a taste for the woodsy 

 flavor of smoked seafood. Once 

 considered a high-priced specialty 

 item or ethnic food, smoked seafood is 

 becoming as common at the grocery 

 store as fresh Parmesan cheese and as 

 affordable as other value-added meat 

 products such as stuffed pork chops 

 and marinated chicken breasts. 



Smoked seafood has a strong, rich 

 flavor, so a little goes a long way, says 

 Joyce Taylor, Sea Grant's seafood 

 education agent. It can be eaten plain 

 as an entree, added to a cracker as an 

 hors d'oeuvre, paired with a bagel and 

 cream cheese or added to pasta, 

 chowders, sauces, salads or pizza. 



"Add it to a dish where you want 

 a flavor punch," Taylor says. 



Think of bite-size pieces of 

 smoked salmon in a cream sauce over 

 pasta, a hearty winter chowder with 

 hunks of smoked grouper or a gourmet 

 pizza topped with smoked bluefish. 



The possibilities are endless 

 for the cook willing to experiment. 

 Simply substitute smoked seafood in 

 place of its fresh counterpart or 



instead of a flavor enhancer such as 

 bacon, Taylor says. 



Smoked foods need no additional 

 cooking. When adding smoked seafood 

 to other dishes, do so just before 

 serving. Long heating periods will 

 cause the smoked product to dry and 

 lose its richness, Taylor says. 



Where do you find smoked 

 seafood? 



It's increasingly available at 

 supermarkets and specialty food stores, 

 through mail order and right off the 

 racks of home smokers and grills. 

 Although smoked salmon is the most 

 popular and prevalent smoked seafood, 

 a variety of other species — bluefish, 

 tuna, grouper, mackerel, mullet, drum, 

 scallops, oysters and shrimp — are 

 being offered by retailers. 



More smoking companies are 

 setting up shop nationwide, offering 

 consumers a variety of high-quality 

 products at affordable prices. 



Bill Limieux operates Carolina 

 City Smoked Seafood in Morehead 

 City. Limieux smokes "anything caught 

 in local waters" as well as a few 

 nonlocal species, namely farm-raised 

 Atlantic salmon. He sells his smoked 

 delicacies over-the-counter at his retail 

 outlet, by mail order to people around 

 the world, and to local caterers and 

 restaurants. 



In addition to his smoked fish and 

 shellfish, he sells a much-requested 

 jerky made from tuna and a few value- 

 added products such as smoked grouper 

 spread and a smoked salmon cheeseball 

 rolled in black pepper. 



Most of the fish is smoked as 

 fillets, Limieux says, because this form 

 offers more surface area to absorb the 

 flavors of the brine and smoke. Fattier 

 fish such as bluefish and mackerel are 

 the best candidates for smoking. Their 

 higher fat content helps maintain 

 moisture and flavor during smoking. 

 But leaner, milder species can be 

 smoked too. They just require closer 

 monitoring. 



All seafood is brined in either a 



10 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1995 



