Candied Salmon

gaat (Oncorhynchus nerka)

This recipe shows how you can incorporate a savory ingredient in your ice cream. I use smoked salmon here, but you can substitute bacon or another smoked ingredient. Primarily, I'm demonstrating how salty and sweet make an irresistible combination in ice cream.

Overstating the importance of salmon to Alaska, particularly Southeast Alaska is nearly impossible. Salmon undergirds the economic, cultural, nutritional, and even spiritual systems of our region. In traditional Lingít culture, salmon provided the primary source of food, available throughout the year fresh or preserved. Today, commercial fishing is the largest source of private employment in the region, with salmon making up the majority of fishing effort. Sport and subsistence fishing of salmon provide both economic and cultural value to residents of every community in Southeast Alaska. While there are five species of salmon endemic to the region I use gaat, sockeye or red salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in this recipe, due to its local availability, the beautiful red color of its flesh, and its tastiness. While my favorite thing to eat in the whole world is the fatty belly meat of fresh barbecued tʼá, king salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), I prefer using sockeye salmon in ice cream.

Since I first opened my ice cream shop, I tried to make a salmon ice cream palatable for most ice cream lovers. When you think about using local ingredients in Alaska, you come pretty quickly to the need to use salmon. But seafood ice creams are just not part of the American palate.

I tried everything from pure salmon flavored ice cream to smoked salmon ice cream to salmon and cream cheese ice cream. Then one day, my friend Sarah Masoni from the Food Innovation Center in Portland, Oregon suggested the idea of a candied salmon ice cream with salted caramel. I grabbed onto the idea and committed myself to developing a recipe. My goal was to submit to an annual seafood product competition called the Alaska Symphony of Seafood.

During the winter of 2016-2017, I experimented extensively with the flavor idea. Slow winter months of ice cream sales offer a nice window for flavor development. Then, in January, 2017, we convened a group of customers to sample flavor combinations, to focus our efforts on a winning recipe. That night, our loyal customers filled every table in our dining room. From kids to elders, customers tasted different varieties of the flavor, and recorded their impressions on tasting forms, which we later tabulated and examined.

Based on customer feedback, we discovered that consumers really didn’t enjoy chewing on a piece of salmon while eating ice cream. The trick was to include pieces of smoked, sweetened salmon that were so small that they melted in your mouth. Some vanilla in the ice cream base provided balance. And the salted caramel sauce didn’t need to use smoked salt; there was enough smoke in the candied salmon bits. Finally, the immaculately-processed salmon from Taku River Reds provided a clean, fresh taste, without the “fishiness” present in poorly handled salmon.

When we sent the ice cream down to Seattle to be tasted by a panel of judges, we mostly did it for fun, and never thought we had much of a chance at winning the contest. When I flew down to Seattle to attend a reception featuring all of the competition entries, Iwas shocked when our ice cream came in second in the “people’s choice” voting that night. Then, when a similar reception took place in Juneau, we were completely floored when our ice cream won the “people’s choice” award, as well as the overall foodservice category, and the competition’s Grand Prize.

Our community flavor panels at work

score card from customer sampler

Our victory gave us the opportunity to host a booth at the largest seafood show in the US, the Seafood Expo North America. Tyler Whitehorn, a Boston classmate of mine from the Penn State Ice Cream Short Course made gallons of the ice cream recipe at Rancatoreʼs, and we handed out thousands of samples during the two days of the expo. While we failed to land any business there, it was a fun way to get exposure for our brand, and meet seafood producers and manufacturers from all over the world.

For years, we enjoyed serving candied salmon ice cream to visitors to Juneau off of the cruise ships. “Salmon ice cream?!” they would exclaim. After sampling it, a surprising number decided to buy a cone. When you’re in Juneau, you just have to taste the salmon ice cream, right?

Candied Salmon Ice Cream Recipe

You can substitute bacon or another smoked or savory ingredient that you enjoy for bacon in this recipe. The key is to make the bits small enough that they don’t require chewing when you eat the ice cream. You can also just leave out the savory item all together, and have a delicious salted caramel ice cream!

Candied Salmon Flakes

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 pound smoked sockeye salmon

• 2 T brown sugar

• 4 t maple syrup

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Finely chop salmon into flaky pieces.

2. Coat salmon pieces evenly with brown sugar and maple syrup.

3. Bake on a cookie sheet in 200F oven for 30-60 minutes, until dried. Turn with a spatula every 15 minutes.

4. Process salmon bits in a spice grinder until fine, resembling bonito flakes.

Salted Caramel Sauce

INGREDIENTS

• 220 g sugar (1 cup + 1 tablespoon)

• 80 g unsalted butter (6 tablespoons)

• 125 g cream (½ cup)

• 7 g kosher salt (1 teaspoon)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a medium saucepan, heat sugar over medium heat.

2. Continue cooking sugar, stirring occasionally, until warm chestnut brown (about 350F).

3. Stir in butter to combine.

4. Remove from heat and stir in cream to stop the caramelization process.

5. Add salt after cream is fully incorporated.

Ice Cream Base

INGREDIENTS

• 2 c cream

• 1 c milk

• 3/4 c sugar

• 3 egg yolks

• 1 t vanilla extract

• 1/2 t kosher salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until smooth.

2. Prepare an ice-water bath in a larger bowl for chilling the base before refrigerating.

3. Combine the cream, milk, and salt in a medium saucepan.

4. Heat over medium-high heat until simmering. Remove from heat.

5. To temper the egg/sugar mixture, stream in 1/2 cup of warmed cream mixture, whisking constantly. Repeat with another 1/2 cup of warmed cream mixture.

6. Slowly stream in tempered egg/cream mixture into the cream mixture in the saucepan stirring with a heatproof spatula.

7. Continue to heat over medium, stirring constantly, gently scraping the bottom of the pan as you stir, until thickened. (The mixture should coat the back of a spatula or wooden spoon, holding a clear path when you run your finger through it. The base should be thick like tomato soup but no thicker, roughly 165F.)

8. Pour the base through a fine-mesh strainer into a container for chilling. Carefully set the container into the ice-water bath, and stir the base with a clean spatula or wooden spoon until cool. Add vanilla extract and stir until combined. Remove base from ice-water bath, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until mixture reaches 40F.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

1. Once all ingredients are cooled, add ice cream base to machine and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. (Remember to be careful to avoid over-churning). When ice cream is churned, swirl in salted caramel and sprinkle in candied salmon flakes while ice cream is still spinning.

2. When ice cream is ready, remove ice cream and place in freezer safe container (chill ahead of time in freezer so ice cream doesn’t melt on contact).

3. Cover, and freeze for at least 4 hours (preferably overnight).

Expo attendees sample candied salmon ice cream

filmed at the Seafood Expo North America