Last week someone offered me some free fish, which I readily accepted. He said something about some heads, so I thought he meant the fish had heads or some heads were included.
Well, I got home and to my dismay (initially), the entire bag was salmon heads. My first thought was that I had no time or inclination to deal with them, and to give them to the stray cats. Then my frugal-try-something-new-and-see-how-it-goes instinct kicked in. I did a quick internet search for what to do with fish heads, and was interested to learn that in some cultures the head of the fish is the favored part due to being the most nutritious.
I didn’t like the looks of any recipes that I found – too labor intensive. But I decided it would be a shame to feed the outdoor cats before seeing if any of the fish would benefit my family! The fish heads were all from salmon, and were large. We put about eight into a pot with some water, brought them to a boil, then let them simmer for a long time.
My plan was to debone them and use the salmon meat for some kind of fish dish. My first thought on opening the pot was that the cooking liquid looked just like the liquid in canned salmon. And my second thought when I began deboning the fish, was that minus the tip of the head, it looked exactly like the canned salmon I used to buy! The same skin, bones, and the way the chunks of fish were – same physiology. It makes economic sense that the filets are sold at a higher price, then the leftover heads are canned and sold for less. Realizing this definitely shifted my perspective on using the salmon heads from viewing it as a less desirable leftover to a lucky find!
However, the taste is what the biggest ‘wow’ was. It was tender, flavorful and delicious! I made two 9×13 pans of salmon loaf using the meat from these heads and when we had them for lunch, my kids were like, “Yum, this is sooooo good!” The flavor was much richer than canned salmon, really tasty. And to think that at first I almost gave it to the stray cats!
Avivah
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