Anyway, when my boys were still home, both were great salmon catchers, and the North Umpqua River, just East of Roseburg, Oregon, provided many big salmon for our humble home provision. One of my means to earn a few bucks was providing fuelwood, and the local Douglas Fir loggers left many huge chum piles of ‘Madorna,’ as they refer to it down there.

Being rather adventurous, I figured Madrone might make a good smoker flaovor, and it still is my favorite! [Move over, Alder guys!] So, with the eight heads and other parts my neighbors left me have, I soaked them overnight in salt, a bar-B-que flavor, and a hint of black pepper and chilli, then they went on a make-shift bar-B-que – turned-smoker, and some fresh-cut Madrone. After a few hours of low temp smoking, all were nicely cooked, and the heads fell apart as I gently lifted them off the metal pans on the grill.

The ‘backs,’ as the “frame” is called here, yielded a good pound of very tasty meat slivers, and the heads gave up some cheek muscle, back meat, and went on to yield lots of yummy stock.

That’s when I decided to look up how to use salmon heads for a meal, and your blog came up!

My kids spent their first 11 years near their mom’s home in South Central Pennsylvania – Conewago Township – but we never thought to fish the little muddy streams, or the nearby Susquehanna River. Wish we had!

I’ll tell a wild tale, later, about my butchering a medium-sized snapping turtle! What a crazy time that was!

I try not to hog the belly meat at salmon dinners, but lucky for me, many others don’t know the joy and benefits of this delicious cut of fish. I’ve been eating it for years and am always surprised by people who wonder why I go nuts for it.

Heads are the same way. When I was a starving univ. student in N CA my neighbor had some friends down from the mts. for a “rock cod” trip. The came back with limits and were cleaning them in her yard, putting all the heads in a big washtub. They were amazed when I asked if I could have them and asked what I was going to do with them. Soup, I said, and proceded to show them how much meat was in a large rockfish cheek and around the collar. That soup fed me for a few days. Your story brought back memories. (My advisor called me the optimal forager, as I was always gathering something: mussels, fish, crab, huckleberries, chantrelles, etc)

I found your blog and Holly’s while searching forums for CA hunting opportunities. I’m going to be down in the Clovis/Fresno area for 4 months or so and I’m looking for places to go.

I may have to talk my wife into a trip to Sacto to go to Grange for dinner. Wish I had been able to get in on the duck dinner.

Thanks for a wonderful blog.

To this day, my Filipino step-mother’s favorite dish is fish eyeballs lightly dipped in a vinegar and soy sauce blend. I’ve never had salmon head before. Might have to give it a whirl (if I can ever find a whole salmon). I wonder if mackerel could be used as a quick subsitute for your miso soup as I come across whole specimens now and then.