Sorry, I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I haven't had much luck tracking down a good thread. I'm interested in taking smoked salmon on a six day trip. How well does it keep on the trail? Are there some brands that are more shelf stable than others? I don't think I'm interested in the "Chicken of the Sea" foil pouch variety, but good quality salmon from somewhere like Trader Joes, etc.
Also, what have you found that goes good with smoked salmon on a tortilla? Capers? Lemon? Cream Cheese? Does cream cheese keep very well on the trail?

Thanks for the help!

Gordon

I've never taken it undried, although it would be likely fine for a couple of days.

I dehydrate smoked salmon though and it totally rocks. It's in my top 3 ultimate trail snacks.


1. Dried Organic Mangos
2. Dried Smoked Salmon
3. Curry Cashews


=D

You can find good foil-pac salmon, even REI carries it from time to time. I avoid those labeled "needs refrigeration" in summer, as there's no way to keep them cool (other than for a night #1 dinner). Cool season hikes I'll take more perishable items.

It's worth finding--I use foil-pac salmon as the basis of a lot of meals.

Cheers,

Rick

Oh Yes - agree with Rick. I do this for lunches. Divine.

The Chicken of the Sea isn't bad really. It is more "wet" than some but tastewise is quite good. Great in wraps!

Obviously it will depend on the outside temperature, but IME for when the days are in the 70s and up, salmon is fine on the second day, and starts smelling kinda funky on the the 3rd. After that I wouldn't touch it. Cream cheese I've carried for up to a week with no problems as long as it's philly and not the natural stuff.

Hard to beat salmon, capers, and cream cheese, but a little red onion is nice too.

I agree that the Chicken of the Sea isn't bad, and when I buy salmon I definitely prefer the Alaskan-caught variety - they've got the only sustainable salmon fishery I know of (and don't get me started about salmon farms). One warning though: The foil pack is about twice as large as it needs to be for the amount of fish you get. I assumed that this was so people wouldn't freak out at paying a lot for a tiny bit of fish, and that it was actually sealed around the part where the fish was, so like a good gram weenie I cut off the excess foil. When I opened the Opsack for our first dinner on the trail, the first thing I noticed was that everything was wet, and the second was that everything smelled like fish. That's right, even though there's a lot of extra packaging they only seal it around the edges. Fortunately the Opsack did its job, and we were able to rinse all our FB-packed food off in the creek.