What is Salmon Cream Cheese?
Salmon cream cheese is a dairy spread made with white, soft and mild flavored cream cheese from cows milk. It is mixed with flecks of salty and fishy tasting smoked salmon. The rich spread is a pale coral color and the flavors combined create a mild umami taste that is creamy and pleasing. Salmon cream cheese is spread onto bagels, toast or crackers.
What does Salmon Cream Cheese 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
Milk is almost always sourced come from cows. Sometimes sheep, goat, yak and water buffalo milk are used. In general, store bough milk comes from a cow, unless specified otherwise. Whole milk is white, or cream colored and has a higher fat content than skim milk and therefore a creamier and richer texture and flavor. The flavor is mild and bland with a hint of savory sweetness and is satisfying, especially due to its creaminess. Milk is served as a beverage and used in a multitude of dishes both sweet and savory.
Cream is the fat derived from milk. Other milking animals can produce cream, but it is most commonly obtained from cows. The cream can vary from an off white to a pale golden color. The texture is smooth and can be thick, like a high fat yogurt, or thin, as is often seen in store bought cartons of whipping cream. The flavor is delicate, milky and buttery. Cream is used in a huge variety of food items and dishes, from baked goods, to curries, as glaze for scones, or a flavoring for tea and coffee.
Salmon is a popular fish and are best when caught in the wild, though many are farm raised. This fish has a grey skin and orange flesh. Salmon is an oily fish and has a strong fishy flavor with a textured meat that is extremely flaky, moist and tender. Smoked salmon can be made using any part of the fish's meat. It is first salt cured and then cold smoked. Cold smoking the salmon leaves it looking raw and is usually sliced thin and used as a topping. The flavor is salty, smoky, fishy and milder than hot-smoked salmon, which cooks the fish and leaves a smoky and and fishy flavor with a firmer meat.
Salt is a mineral composed mostly of sodium chloride. It is the main flavoring used in food and is naturally occurring in certain foods, such as cheese, beets, meat and celery, plus many others. Salt is white and has finer granules than sugar. Many commercial salts include iodide, while others exclude it. Most salts are white, while some are naturally pale pink with minerals. Salt brings out the flavor of something and can create a tangy mouthfeel, if used in excess.
Cheese starter is made from milk, or lab made and sold powdered or frozen. The starter is formed of healthy bacteria that quickly facilitates the process of raising the acidity levels in milk and changing it to lactic acid; a necessary aspect in cheese making. This helps the cheese to form and is used by cheese makers to aid in the process of creating their product.
Additives are added to food items in small quantities to improve the flavor, change the texture, enhance appearance, or preserve the item. Additives are both natural and artificial. Natural additives have been used for a long time, while many artificial ones were discovered in the 19th century. There are numerous artificial additives including soy lecithin, guar gum, ascorbic acid and sodium nitrite.
Sugar comes from sugar cane and sugar beets. The sugar is extracted from the juice of both plants and refined into the granulated substance known as sugar. Sucrose, the sweet substance of sugar is a combination of glucose and fructose. White sugar is composed of tiny white, dry granules. The flavor is sweet and neutral. Brown sugar is brown and has more moisture, with a richer flavor that hints at molasses. Sugar is used in both sweet and savory foods.