What is Light Whitefish Salad?
Light whitefish salad is a dish typically made from smoked whitefish, a type of fish known for its delicate and mild flavor. The salad is often made by combining flaked or shredded whitefish with various ingredients to create a creamy and flavorful mixture. It's commonly enjoyed as a spread for sandwiches, a topping for bagels, or as a dip with crackers or vegetables.
What does Light Whitefish Salad Taste Like?
Salty is one of the five main tastes. It has a satisfying and addictive quality with hints of sourness. Salty foods include cheeses, cured meats, chips, and olives. It is used in almost every dish and prepared food. Salt is added to enhance flavor and offer a distinctly salty taste.
Umami is one of five main tastes. It is savory with a depth of flavor. Umami is a taste in many foods, including meat, seafood, beans, and nuts. It is both naturally occurring and created through the specific use of ingredients to create a satisfying taste. Umami is characteristic of proteins and savory dishes.
Ingredients
Whitefish refers to a number of types of fish including cod and haddock. The fish used for smoked whitefish are often oily types. The fish is brined and then smoked to add a woody and smoky flavor to this fishy tasting fish. The texture is flaky and can be firm or light. Smoked whitefish is served cold or hot and can be eaten as is, or used as a bread topping, among other options.
Botanically speaking the tomato is a fruit, but in the culinary world it is used almost strictly as a vegetable. Tomatoes are a nightshade plant that grow on tall, thick sturdy stalks. There are many varieties of tomato, but the most common type is round and red. It has a thin skin that covers its extremely juicy and soft flesh. The center contains seeds wrapped in a gelatinous film. The tomato is sour with a hint of sweetness. It can be sliced into rounds and wedges or diced into small chunks and is eaten raw or cooked.
Light mayonnaise is a reduced fat mayo. Mayonnaise is made using oil, eggs and vinegar. In reduced fat mayonnaise, cornstarch and water replace the majority of the oil. The flavor is mild and tangy with a creamy quality, this creamy quality extends to the smooth and spreadable texture. The color of light mayo is off white, or cream. The flavor is not as rich as full fat mayonnaise, but still makes a good condiment for sandwiches and cold meat salads.
Scallions, also called green onions are a thin onion formed into a stalk with a white bottom that sprouts out into two or three thin, tubular branches. They are less than a foot in height and three quarters of the scallion is green. It is easy to cut and chew and is dry with a hint of juiciness. The flavor is spicy and sharp with a green taste. Scallions are used to flavor to savory foods.
Sour cream is a dairy product made by fermenting cream with lactic acid bacteria. The healthy bacteria thickens the cream, resulting in a thick and creamy product with a white color. Sour cream is thicker than yogurt and has a tangy flavor that is milky and mild. It is used as a condiment and as an ingredient in dips, cakes and more.
The red onion is a type of onion and a bulb vegetable, meaning its bulb and not its leaves are eaten. Onions come in many varieties, including white, yellow and red. The onion is usually round and has a thin dry skin around its juicy layers. The skin is a purple/red tone as is the flesh. The body of the onion is made of multiple round layers, that get smaller towards the center. The flavor of onions are sharp and sweet when raw, with an astringent taste. When cooked, these flavors mellow and the sweetness emerges. Onion are a very common flavoring and ingredient for many savory dishes.
Celery is a light green vegetable with tall, thin fibrous stalks and green leaves at their tips. They are extremely juicy and comprised of 90% water. They grow in clusters, sharing a base with about eight or nine ribbed stalks. The texture is crunchy, juicy and has a refreshing flavor that is light, sweet and vegetal. Celery can be eaten raw or cooked into soups and other dishes.
Fresh dill is a a fringed green herb, with slender stalks. The fringe of the dill is dried using mild heat or air, and is gently ground into tiny, short, thread-width pieces. The color is a muted green when dried and has delicate flavor of fennel and anise with a hint of bitterness. Dried dill is commonly used in egg dishes, savory herbed baked goods and with fish.
Lemon zest is used in dishes to brighten the flavors and add a lemon flavor that is floral, citrusy, and anything but sour. Lemon zest comes from the yellow skin of the lemon. When using zest, none of the white pith underneath should be used, as it tastes bitter. The skin is shaved off in tiny pieces and this is what is called lemon zest, which also refers to the small size. The zest contains aromatic lemon oil and not juice. The small size of the zest makes it easy to incorporate into dishes such as pasta or into a cake batter.
The peppercorn plant grows in tropical climate and produces tiny black fruit. The fruit is dried and become hard. At this point it is ground into a textured powder comprised of black and grey dots. It has a flavor that is spicy, pungent and sharp. Pepper is an extremely popular spice, especially in Western cuisines and lends a gentle heat to dishes. There are different varieties of black pepper and the flavor changes subtly because of this.
