Smokin' Salmon -- Everyone Starts With Fish And Smoke, But Techniques And Tastes Give The Northwest Delicacy New Distinction

Mar 17, 1996

John Hinterberger

WHO MAKES THE BEST smoked salmon in Seattle? It may be a pair of interlopers - with French accents.

Smoked salmon has been a tradition in the Northwest for centuries, before the British and American settlements. Styles, methods, tribes and recipes varied. But the basic product had certain similarities.

Salmon, condiments, wood smoke.

The species of salmon would change with the seasons or locale. The flesh might be salted or sweetened. The smoke might be alder or something else; its temperature could be hot, warm or cool.

A few decades ago, when the local and regional salmon fishery was more productive - and a weekend trip to Neah Bay or Westport almost automatically resulted in four to six kings or cohos headed home on ice in a beat-up cooler - smoked salmon was a ubiquitous Seattle household item, usually canned, sometimes backyard-smoked.

Some of it was good. A lot of it was so-so. I still recall grim circular "appetizers" of proudly presented canned smoked salmon, lurking under a slurp of chutney, topped with sour cream and circled by crackers (usually Triscuits). As a newly transplanted New Englander, I failed to comprehend what the fuss was about.

Other products, however, were more appealing. Before Christmas every winter, there was a considerable rental-car pilgrimage from Sea-Tac to Ballard by pilots from international flights (notably SAS), lining up at the counters of the Port Chatham Smoked Seafood plant, picking up gift-wrapped slabs of Portlock for transport back to Copenhagen, Stockholm or Oslo.

Port Chatham (and its Portlock brand) is among the most venerable of the Seattle smokehouses, founded by the Nilson family at Port Chatham in Alaska during the 1920s and moved to Seattle in 1949. It is still the area's predominant line of smoked salmon, widely available at its own outlets and well-regarded by restaurateurs. Three years ago Port Chatham was purchased by Icicle Seafoods. Portlock is a Northwest standard - made from Pacific salmon (mostly kings and sockeyes) using traditional methods and Northwest wood, alder. It produces several kinds of smoke-preserved salmon, from "Nova" (lox) to Gravlax to salmon-strip "candy."

Wayne Ludvigsen, former executive chef at Ray's Boathouse and now one of the restaurant's managers, cited Port Chatham as a top example of traditional Northwest cures and smoking: "They use native wild salmon; you can taste the cure, you can taste the smoke."

Almost six years ago, a new entry into the local smoked salmon ranks appeared. It looked different, a deep translucent orange instead of rosy red. It tasted different: mild and buttery, while still firm. And it was made from a fish not native to our waters (though reared in them by the millions): farm-raised Atlantic salmon.

Produced by an unlikely team of haute cuisine French chefs - Gerard Parrat and Dominique Place - the G&D Nova, or "Euro-style," smoked salmon began raising eyebrows. In the past year it was rated among the best in the nation by both Gourmet magazine and Cook's Illustrated.

I first sampled the product when Gerard and Dominique, who are close friends, began running test batches at Parrat's North End French restaurant, Gerard's Relais de Lyon in Bothell. Place had recently closed his award-winning Madison Park restaurant, Dominique's Place (now Sostanza). Place now runs the smokehouse in Juanita full time with his wife, Chouchou.

How is it produced? Part of the process is a closely kept secret.

But essentially it is a cold-smoked process (75 to 95 degrees depending upon fish size, with a designed mix of fruitwoods and alder) using farm-raised Atlantic salmon from up and down the Pacific coast.

The only other seafoods that G&D smoke are custom products for other fish processors, such as Bruce Gore, whose premium line-caught coho, tuna and bass are smoked by Parrat and Place for Larry's Markets (under Gore's label).

A group of us assembled recently to taste-test an array of Port Chatham's Pacific Portlock Nova-style salmon versus the Atlantic salmon fillets of G&D Superior Food Products Inc.

It was, by enthusiastic consensus, a pleasurable task - helped along with some capers, red onion, cream cheese, crackers, a frenzied black cat and a bottle of champagne.

Of four tasters, only one preferred the Portlock (she chose the Nova-style sockeye), judging the G&D: ". . . too mild; not enough smoke for my taste."

The rest chose G&D, citing its firmer texture (we all agreed the Portlock Copper River King was too soft, bordering on mushy), richer mouth feel and mellow, non-fishy aftertaste. Said one taster: "It's like eating the best-quality sushi."

One Portlock product that won unanimous approval was its dill-coated Gravlax: "Different, appealing and tasty," read one set of notes. G&D recently started producing Gravlax, which was not included in this tasting.

Gerard and Dominique are selling their Euro-salmon to 120 restaurants nationwide (40 in the Seattle area) and to Japan. It's retailed here at Larry's Markets, Thriftway stores, Pasta & Co., Red Apple and, during the winter holidays, The Bon. For mail order: (800) 858-0449. Prices range from $16 a pound for kippered salmon to $22 a pound for the Nova.

Port Chatham also exports to Canada and Japan. They hand-salt and dry-cure their salmon (from three to 20 hours), rinse and dry overnight and then cold-smoke the Nova for between five and seven hours at 65 to 75 degrees, using primarily alder, with some applewood for special applications. Retail prices are between $17 and $18 a pound. For mail order and catalog sales: (800) 872-5666, or, locally: 783-8200.

John Hinterberger's restaurant and food columns appear in The Seattle Times in Sunday's Pacific Magazine and Thursday's Tempo. Greg Gilbert is a Times photographer.