I visited several fishing camps while in Alaska as part of my first leg of the Great Salmon Tour to experience subsistence fishery at Tanana Village, an Athabascan community along the Yukon River. Each of these camps and their associated fishing areas have belonged to an extended family over many generations and this is where they spend most of their time during the fishing season. These camps are not only a place to stay while fishing the river for salmon. This is also where all the catch is prepared and processed so that the meat can be stored over long time without going bad.

Salmon is an abundant resource that is available only over a short window of time and all societies that utilize this resource have found different ways to preserve the fish for the coming months. The Athabascans use many ways to process the fish so it can be stored over winter; they smoke, dry, salt, jar, and, in modern times, freeze it. As I observed the process, I realized that the most important part of preserving the fish is the way it is cut before being dried or smoked. The use of a particular cutting method depends on several factors and the way that the flesh will be preserved. There are also a cultural and traditional aspects to the process that are handed down from generation to generation. And, maybe as important, the work at the fish camp creates social bonds among participants - a sense of community and togetherness - as the extended family converges on the cutting site when the catch is brought in. I was lucky to be invited to join over several days the Moor family at their camp where I could witness the whole process. While there, I joined in collecting the salmon from the fish wheel, observed the cutting of the fish, and was shown the different ways of processing the flesh. I am most thankful to Pat Moor for being willing to show and explain to me on camera the process and different ways of cutting the fish. Visit the video page to see a full vidoe how how salmon is prepared for drying and smoking.

The Fish

The decision on how to cut the fish starts with the fish itself. All salmon are not the same, and, especially, not the Yukon River salmon. Each fish differs in their stage of maturity, fat content, size, and species. For instance, the summer-run chum salmon spawn in the lower part of the Yukon River. They, therefore, enter the river in a late stage of maturation and with developed spawning colors. Since Pacific salmon only spawn once, they divert most of their resources to reproduction as they enter the spawning grounds, fat is metabolized and even muscle tissue is dissolved. Thus, the summer-run chum salmon have a low fat content and the flesh is of low quality for human consumption. Most importantly, the low fat content makes it difficult to preserve the flesh for use later during wintertime; consequently, the summer-run chum salmon is mainly used for dog food which gives it its common name “dog salmon.” (Footnote: The fact that the dog salmon is not used for human consumption does not mean that this run is unimportant for the people here. Dogs and dog races are an integral part of the culture in Tanana Village. And the ability to keep dogs is based on the harvest of summer-run chum salmon.) In contrast, the Chinook or king salmon spawn much higher in the Yukon River watershed, a large portion even migrates all the way over the Canadian border. They enter the Yukon River at an earlier maturation stage and the flesh has a higher fat content than the dog salmon. Chinook salmon is the preferred and main salmon resource for the subsistence fisheries.

However, the differences in the fish's condition is not only dependent on what species they are; the condition of individual fish also vary within species. Chinook salmon that spawn in the tributaries of the lower Yukon River differ from the Canadian bound salmon. Further, there is a natural individual variation in size, fat content, and maturation stage even among fish of the same run. The time of the season also affects the condition of the fish, for example, fish returning later are often at a later maturation stage and therefore of lesser quality. All this makes each fish unique, and each fish must be evaluated for its condition, use, and how it shall be cut. One way of evaluating the quality of the flesh is its color; pale looking flesh indicate low fat content and low quality.

In addition, diseases and parasites affects the usability of a fish and the quality of the flesh. During the last decade, the Chinook salmon in the Yukon River has been plagued with a high prevalence – as high as 30 to 40% in some years – of a protist parasite of the genus Ichthyophonus spp. The presence of the Icht – as it is locally called – can be determined by grayish-brown streaks throughout the flesh, a different odor, and white spots on the heart. Besides the obvious potential consequence that this may have on the salmon runs, the parasite also makes the flesh unusable as it prevents it from drying and curing properly. This is yet another factor to include when evaluating the usability of the fish and how to cut it.

Preparing the Fish for Filleting

Once on the cutting site, the head must be removed and the fish rinsed. Even this is not a straightforward process. As Pat is telling me between puffs of his cigar, how to cut the head off depends on how the filets will be cut. If the filets are to be scored (cut across), then the collar and cheeks may be retained. But it the filets are to be stripped (cut longitudinally), then the collar and cheek should be cut off.

The first part of preparing the fish is to gut it. The family members cut open the belly from head to vent and then remove the heart, gonads, and intestines. However, before throwing away the innards, they examine the heart for Icht which shows its presence with white spots. If Icht is found, the fish is not usable for drying and smoking and, consequently, not suited for human consumption.

Surprising to me, the eggs or caviar from the salmon is not used or sold. Surprising because I read in the National Geographic how poachers in Kamchatka, Russia, harvest the eggs for their high value, but leave the carcass of the Chinook salmon to rot in the river. I do not know, but there may be restrictions on the commercial sale of eggs from subsistence harvested salmon.

In any case, once they have removed the innards, they take out the blood line. But as Pat explains [this is] not necessary, but it makes it cleaner on the table when you filet them if the blood line comes out. The fish is then taken to the river where it is washed and rinsed before going to the fileting table.

Fileting

Sharp knifes, that is what you need to efficiently filet a fish. Really sharp knifes – and good techniques.

Standing next to the filet table, I watch Pat cut the knife into the flesh along the spine on the back of the fish. I adjust the camera as I try to get closer to the action. Slicing quickly with the filet knife, Pat expertly cuts the filet off from the rib bones, lifting the filet as it is being cut loose. Moving from head to tail, he cuts his way down the length of the salmon but stops short of cutting the filet lose at the tail. He then turns the fish around and similarly cuts lose the other filet. However, the three parts of the fish - the two filets and the spine with the bones - are still attached together by the tail.

He then proceeds to cut off the middle part and the backbones from the rest of the fish, and then hangs the two filets attached by the tail over a pole for further cutting later. Then, holding the backbone up in the air and cutting between the smaller bones, Pat explains A long time ago, and, really, some people do it today, they would take the backbone like this [holding the bone dangling], and they would cut them like this [he cuts slits between the ribs] so that the air comes in to them. They would salt them and smoke them and in the winter time they would make fish soup. Then, as an afterthought, he added Hardly anyone does that anymore.

“Butthole” meat and other flesh

Just as different fish differ in the condition of the flesh, the different part of the fish differ in fat content and quality. Certain parts of the filet, for example, the butthole meat, as Pat calls it, some of the belly, and the flesh of the pectoral fin, are cut off to be mixed and preserved in jars. As Pat cuts the lower part of the belly off the filet, he explains that the flesh has a high fat content, which makes the meat uniform in fat content when cooked during the jarring process.

He then cuts off the rest of the belly. As he does so, Pat explains that this part is often scored and hung on a pole to dry or to be smoked. This time, however, the belly meat is to be brined and salted so it later can be used in making soups.

To strip or to score? – That is the question

Strips

At last, if the filets come from a large salmon, the filets are cut off from the tail and the cheeks and collar and their bones are cut off so the filet can be stripped. Pinning the filet to a nail on the cutting board, Pat picks up and tests the edge of a different and larger knife than what he used for filleting. Being satisfied, he starts to cut the filet longitudinally into strips. Starting at the tail end, without cutting the strip off, he slices a long thin piece of the filet. Then cutting all the way he makes another slice along the filet. In this way he gets two long and thin strips of salmon that are connected at the upper end so that they can be hung over a pole.

Pat continues the cutting of strips, occasionally feeling with his fingers for the small pin bones that run in a row down the middle of the filet. Feeling the pin bones, he explains, we will strip the fish up until the pin bones. And sometimes I will strip that pin bone meat, and we salt it and brine it and I hang it on a different pole. We only leave it in the smoke for two or maybe three days at most, after which we can jar it. The jarring process gets rid of the bone, partly because of the salt and partly because of the jarring process. As he explains, Pat cuts out the pin bones and throws the strip with the bones in a separate bucket. He then continues to strip the rest of the filet.

Scoring

Other, smaller salmon may be scored instead of stripped. Scoring means that the meat of the filets are cut across the filet so that the filet consists of striped pattern of cut flesh. However, there are two ways of doing this.

As Pat continues to explain, his wife lifts another fish on the cutting board and makes it ready to be scored. If you are going to do old style cutting ..., you will leave this part of the collar on, and you will split the cheek so it would not sour [cutting sound] … like that. Pat takes a pause, draws a few puffs of his cigar, coughs: And then you will score it like this [showing how he cuts the fish across], and that is why you need to keep the collar on as it helps hold the fish apart so the fish doesn't fold together and sour. He emphasizes how important it is that the different pieces of each score do not touch each other.

Then another filet is made ready to be scored. Pat goes on to explain the new way of scoring the fish. A new way to do it, is you take and you cut the cheek and everything off and you cut the fins off. He then scores the filet before proceeding to cut down along the middle of the filet – and you take and split it down like this … and … you hang it like that over a pole, like that. Holding his hand up in the air with the the split filet hanging over his fingers he shows how the filet is hanged on a pole. And believe it or not, even though you are getting rid of the collar and fins, it dries so much faster that it traps the fat inside and there is no difference in weight with the dried fish.”

Feeling satisfied, Pat leans back, looks at my camera, and says jokingly We will be famous, going to Hollywood.

Wondering what they would do to the strips, whether to smoke or to dry them, Pat explains to me that they would do both. Some people do not smoke them and just leave them outside … and they call them sun-dried. I kind of prefer mine that way, I do not like to put too much smoke on mine. I do not like it when you get cotton-mouth from too much smoke. But smoke in its own peculiar way, I do not know why this is, somehow function as a preservative, and so does salt. But when the chum comes we hardly put any salt on them at all. Whether or not to strip them depends on the age of the fish that is coming back, because if you get five or six years old chum coming back, then they are big enough to strip. But most chums are small, and we have to make dry fish out of them because it is too much work you just have a short strip that is maybe only 14 inch long.

With that the show and tale is over, and all the family members goes back to concentrating on the cutting of the fish, but not without having time to joke and talk gossip over the cutting boards. I continue to walk around and being in the way with my camera.