The Woes of Vacuum-packed Salmon Slices

[CookieMonster]

there are many techniques/methods for thin sliced 'preserved/cured' salmon -
the classic lox
hot smoked
cold smoked
gravlax . . . .

in small quantities one finds these in vacuum packed plastic pouches.
great.
but how does one get the thin slices back?

the pressure from the vacuum packing smishes slices together into one solid mass.
the slices are so thin and delicate, 'peeling' them apart generates "shredded salmon"

this came up following the avocado discussions.
DW was perusing her lieblings restos - avocado on English muffin with lox, capers and slivers of onion . . got on her list . . .
so I did that - but had to resort to "julienne salmon" as thin slices was a total bust.

I've had 'salmon substituted for Canadian bacon' on eggs Benedict - yummy thin slices . . .
how do they do that?
in-house slicing?

 

[karadekoolaid]

There's a local company over here that does smoked salmon and they separate the slices with thin sheets of plastic. that certainly helps a little.
I usually defreeze the salmon overnight, from the freezer to the fridge, then leave it out on the counter for about an hour before I use it. Not perfect, but then freezing concentrates the water in the fish to ice, then when the ice melts, there's a vacuum.
I also get Chilean salmon, which is ok, but nowhere near as good as the Alaskan, Scottish or Norwegian varieties.

 

[badjak]

The ones we get also have plastic sheets between the layers

 

[CookieMonster]

hmmm, the thin plastic sheets is a great idea! I've not seen it in any brand hanging in our market...
but I am going to check more carefully.

Wegmans deli uses the separator sheets when I ask for 'extra thin slice' speck - they are the only place near here that even carries 'real speck'.... I wonder if their deli also does smoked salmon....

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

Find somewhere you can buy a chunk of and slice it yourself.
I buy this. It’s comparatively cheap per kilo and everyone loves the texture of it thicker sliced.
It freezes well so you can cut a fillet into two (or four if you’re not greedy like us) and pull it out of the freezer when you want it.
Works well for eggs benedict.

 

[Timenspace]

Recently I bought frozen 2 piece salmon fillet boxes, but it had to be defrosted for 8 h...of course, 20h went by, and a dark brown line appeared, so I threw all unopened out.