canned and smoked salmon
Smoked and canned salmon are a real treat on backcountry trips. So delicious, and packed full of protein and Omega 3 fats! You can eat it right out of the can or package, or you can dehydrate it for a lighter weight option with a longer shelf life. If you do bring it on the trail in the can or package, remember that canned salmon has a longer shelf life than salmon packaged in plastic (typically found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store).
The old guy at the local smokehouse told me that their smoked salmon packaged in plastic will keep unrefrigerated for up to seven days in cool weather. I’d be reluctant to go that long, but I’d carry it for three or four days before devouring it. Be a shame to waste smoked salmon by letting it sit too long!
My preference for eating smoked salmon is right out of the package. It’s heavenly. I’d rather bring it on the trail fresh, carry the extra weight and eat it within the first few days of a trip. However, on a longer trip, I certainly would enjoy having some dried smoked salmon to put in eggs, stew, a stir fry or some goulash type dish. It dries up to be light and fluffy and is even good for munching plain. So on a long trip, I bring some of both.
Canned salmon has all its natural water, so it’s heavier than smoked salmon. In my opinion, canned salmon ought to be dried, then rehydrated on the trail, so you aren’t hefting around the extra water weight as well as the heavy metal can the entire trip.
The lightest-weight option: Dried salmon
Since canned salmon has water in it, when dehydrated, its volume will shrink. One 15 oz can of salmon measures at 2 cups and dehydrates down to 1 cup. The two photos below use different size measuring cups:
15 oz canned salmon measures 2 cups before drying
15 oz canned salmon dries to 1 cup
Smoked salmon is already partially dried, so it won’t shrink down much. A packed 1/2 cup of smoked salmon will dry down to a loosely filled 1/2 cup:
smoked salmon was roughly 1/2 cup before and after drying (this is the dried salmon)
The How To:
1. Remove the salmon from its package or can, drain well and remove skin and any bones. You can eat the bones for the added calcium if you like.
2. Crumble the salmon and lay out on a dehydrator sheet evenly and thinly. Make sure no big chunks are sticking to each other.
canned salmon on dehydrator tray
smoked salmon on dehydrator tray
3. Dry at 155°F for 4 to 5 hours, or until dry to the touch. Check periodically for pieces that need separating or rotating.
TIP: As it dries, it gets really crumbly and small pieces will fall through the mesh of the dehydrator tray. Line your dehydrator bottom with parchment paper to catch all the nuggets of goodness and add them to the storage container once you package it up. I don’t recommend just scraping them up off the unprotected and potentially icky bottom of the dehydrator compartment, unless you keep it squeaky clean. Remember, you’ll be storing the food for some time, and the less chance for bacterial growth, the better.
4. The salmon is dry when it’s dry to the touch and not squishy at all.
5. Cool completely before packaging.
dried canned salmon: hard and crumbly
dried smoked salmon: soft and crumbly
6. Remove from dehydrator sheet and store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place. If you notice any condensation in the container after a day or two, it’s not dry and needs to be returned to the dehydrator for more time.
7. See my Food Drying 101 page for more details on food drying and storage.
Rehydrating Salmon on the Trail
If you are using dried salmon in a hot dish, just throw it in while the dish cooks. If it’s soup or stew, don’t worry about adding extra water. If it’s something drier like eggs, add about 1 Tbs water per 1/4 cup dried salmon.
If you want it plain on crackers or some munchable snack:
1. Cover the salmon in water.
2. Let sit for 10 minutes, occasionally moving it around to make sure all pieces get equal water time.
3. Drain off any excess water.
4. Eat and enjoy!
p.s. Don’t drain the water off anywhere near camp if you’re in bear country. It would be like a beacon for them! If you’re a real backcountry hero, you’ll drink it to impress your campmates.
Thanks for the idea! I would not have thought of drying salmon in a dehydrator, but I like the ability to bring concentrated salmon into the backcountry. I’ll encourage someone else to impress me with their salmonwater quaffing skills, or take my chances with the bears.
Your spreadsheet is great too. I like the way you included response and notes fields for every meal and day. You were always attentive to what you ate, but I can see that’s gone up exponentially, and I’m glad all the attention is paying you back. Glad you’re sharing it too. You’re such a good writer/blogger!
Yeah Michael, I wouldn’t have thought of drying it either, when I lived in a land-locked state. But now I eat a lot more salmon, and realized I have to have better options for long backcountry trips. The salmon-drying was motivated by a trail recipe I’m planning to share soon – a coconut milk salmon chowder. Yum!
It surprised me how tasty the dried smoked salmon was – I could munch on it all day.
As far as the spreadsheet – if you haven’t ever dealt with healing from a chronic illness that involves a lot of food reactions, it may seem over-blown, but many people in those shoes use some sort of food journal to track reactions in the attempt to figure out patterns that lead to answers. The chart was the best way for me (personally) to do that, since fishing back through a hand-written notebook for patterns seems like a mountain of a chore! Yeah, it brings out the OCD in all of us, but sometimes that’s a gift 😉
Thanks for the props! I hope all’s well in your world too!
I have used spreadsheets like that in the past, Sue, so I hope that proves my OCD cred. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2010, right about the time I started grad school, and I kept track (or tried to) of my reactions to different foods and tried eliminatng the problem ones. I “got over” RA about a year later thanks to antibiotic treatment and stopped tracking my diet so carefully. I also used a spreadsheet to count calories when I was doing weight training early on. I think tracking your diet is a very good idea for lots of reasons. I’m sure if I were paying that kind of attention I’d find more ways to feel better. Autoimmune disease just makes it a necessity.
Michael – interesting that the antibiotic tx helped your RA symptoms go away… maybe a persistent viral infection was just enough to keep the autoimmunity awake and active. Good for you! I know a number of people who use the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) for RA, and it’s very helpful. For future reference, the nightshades (eggplant, peppers, all potatoes except sweet potatoes and yams, pepper spices – dang! no more chipotle sauce! – and some other more unusual veggies) are known to be one food category in that particularly exacerbates RA symptoms.
How would I go about dehydrating fresh salmon in a dehydrator? I live in a port city and I don’t trust the stuff around here that is packaged and I can’t do anything canned because of the aluminum.
Brea; I’d bake, grill or steam the salmon first, then dehydrate it using the same temperatures in this post. I’m not sure how well dehydration temperatures would kill parasites, and having had some fresh salmon with worms in it, I prefer to be safe on that count! I’d even put some lemon and salt on the salmon in baking, to end up with a tastier dried product. Let us know how it comes out!