Geshmak Veyse Fish!

The lox and cream cheese get all the hype. It’s flashy, rich, and iconic. And don’t get me wrong, it’s delicious. But too often people act like the road stops here when it comes to bagel condiments. Unless you’ve been to a deli like Russ & Daughters, you don’t know what you’re missing. Luckily, I’m here to tell you.

What is whitefish salad, you ask? And why does it look like that?

This is a smoked whitefish. It’s literally a white fish (usually cod or herring) that has been slowly smoked for several hours. It’s delicious and a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish food. Smoking is a natural method of preservation, which was crucial for meat before refrigeration was widespread. It’s not known if smoked whitefish originated in New York or back in the Old Country. Regardless of where it’s from, I’m just happy someone invented it.

To make it into salad, the smoked fish is simply mixed with mayo and herbs (although it’s also great on it’s own). Unfortunately, due to the small Jewish population in Portland, I have been unable to secure a venue at which to procure this delicacy. When Costco carried it for about two weeks, we bought as much as we could and I haven’t been able to find it since. That’s why today I’m gonna make it from scratch.

We have to start with the fish. Traditionally, cod or herring is used, but those are both not common here on the West Coast. Instead, we’re gonna use rockfish, which is still a ‘white fish’ and cheaper because it’s local. Trust me, you do not want to use expensive fish for this.

First, we make a very simple brine:

But Zev, you say. That brine has no flavor – no herbs or anything. Why do we need to brine fish anyway?

Glad you asked. Smoking makes meat extremely dry (you’re cooking with smoke at a very low temperature for an extended period). If you don’t brine something as delicate as a whitefish, you’re gonna end up with fish jerky and that’s not what I want – brining ensures the fish will be moist.

Long story short, we’re gonna brine our fish in the fridge for three hours.

After which, we’re gonna rinse it thoroughly, and then set it to dry on a wire rack for an hour or so. This will help create a ‘pellicle’ which is basically a skin that’ll help smoke stick to our fish.

Finally, it’s time to fire up our smoker. Today we’re just gonna use charcoal with a little bit of pecan wood.

We want to keep our temperature between 150 and 200 degrees, which is difficult when we realized that we forgot the heat deflector (basically a big metal disk that goes between the fire and the grill). Doug (who was my grill assistant) made the risky switch – he took the grate off with the fish on it and placed the heat deflector on the open flame. Once we had it in place and we were working with indirect heat, we wer in business.

3 hours later, and our fish is looking and smelling fantastic.

Now begins the long and arduous process of tearing the meat into bite-sized pieces while avoiding the tiny bones. (I ate several pieces during this process.)

Check out our ingredients for the salad itself:

Pretty straightforward here – mix all of our ingredients together, and then fold the fish in.

Jo made a beautiful salad to go with our whitefish, which we would be eating on some A+ Grand Central ciabatta.

So, after hours of marinating and smoking and preparation – how did it turn out?

The whitefish salad was overall delicious – it tastes like an upscale version of the deli stuff (which is usually a more uniform consistency without big pieces of fish). At times it was a little too salty, which is interesting because no salt was added to the salad, meaning the brine itself must have been too salty.

But after it dwelled in the fridge overnight, that excess saltiness (in my opinion) miraculously vanished – perhaps the flavors just needed more time to mingle.

While whitefish completely from scratch is undeniably delicious, it is also laborious. If you want to try this recipe but don’t want to spend hours brining and smoking fish, you can get a vacuum-sealed smoked whitefish from Whole Foods. But if you have some time on your hands and some bagels to eat, I recommend doing it from scratch. As far as smoking goes, it doesn’t get much easier than this if you have the proper equipment. Consider this post your introduction into the world of bagel accessories beyond lox and cream cheese.