Capt. Charlie’s Smoked fish spread (always better if someone else makes it and gives it to you), but still one of my favorites, even if I have to make it.
Smoked fish spread is really simple. The main ingredient, of course, is smoked fish. I won’t go into how to smoke fish in this recipe but you can do it yourself, take your fish to a local smokehouse, or buy it in your local fish market. The species of fish really doesn’t matter, but usually it will be an oily fish such as mullet, mackerel, kingfish, or for you northerners, salmon or such as that. Smoked salmon is the only cold water smoked fish I know of.
Now that you have your smoked fish in hand, flake it up with a fork or your fingers into a bowl of the appropriate size. The rest of the recipe is just like making tuna salad – use your mother’s recipe, or if your mother never made it or wouldn’t tell you how she did it, use my recipe.
• Diced onions (very fine)
• Diced celery (very fine)
• Miracle Whip or Dukes Salad Dressing(or mayonnaise, if you must)
• Sweet pickle relish
• Diced pimentos (for pretty color)
• Tabasco sauce (if you want heat) I also like Tiger Sauce…
•Fresh Lemon juice to taste
Mix all the ingredients with the fish in the proportions that you like, eat it on your favorite cracker or bread, or make a nice salad plate with tomato and cucumber on lettuce, or just spoon it from the bowl straight to your mouth, but by all means enjoy it. You can add salt and pepper to taste after you have mixed it all together, but usually the smoked fish has enough salt and pepper without adding any more.
I want everyone to remember that if you are not going to eat the fish you catch, please handle them carefully and return them to the water quickly. Don’t just catch and kill fish for nothing, they are too valuable as a natural resource to waste any of them at all.
Capt. Charlie’s Smoked Fish Spread
Good fishing, tight lines and happy eating,
Capt. Charlie
