Move over, land-based charcuterie boards. Wild Alaskan seafood charcuterie offers all the variety you dream of when building this delicious feast for the eyes.
Setting themselves apart from traditional approaches to charcuterie, wild Alaskan seafood charcuterie platters are incredibly healthy. After all, they’re full of lean protein, anti-inflammatory omega-3s, and a wide range of antioxidants that you don’t typically find on charcuterie boards.
We’ve put together some ideas to help you build an amazing charcuterie with wild Alaskan seafood, highlighting what we think are the most important elements.
Preserved Salmon
Whether it’s cured, smoked, or dried, wild salmon is going to be the star of your wild Alaskan seafood platter. Pick one or more to use as the foundation of your charcuterie spread.
Psyched about how your latest batch of gravlax has turned out? Bring it on board. Try making Martha Stewart’s recipe for juniper and gin gravlax, which is loaded up with a mix of citrus zests. There’s even a Meyer lemon relish to go along with the fish to bring out its sweet, savory, citrusy notes.
Instead of gravlax, or in addition to it, add a pile of our smoked sockeye to the party. Ready to eat straight out of the package, it’s an effortless way to introduce intensely delicious protein to your platter.
Consider making salmon jerky for your charcuterie as well. Salmon jerky serves up some serious texture, and it usually has an element of sweetness and smokiness in its seasoning blend, flavors you definitely want to highlight. From Chef to Home’s recipe for salmon jerky uses brown sugar, honey, and sriracha for sweet and spicy results, but if maple syrup is your thing, try out the recipe from Great British Chefs instead.
Dips and Dippers
Wild seafood makes for an excellent dip, schmear, or spread. As salty, high-flavor components of a charcuterie board, these will give you the freedom to add in seasonal vegetables or other crunchy ingredients to use as you dipping tools. Raw carrots are a classic choice, but chunks of pickled beets, radish coins, sliced fennel bulb, and spears of cucumbers and summer squash will add tantalizing color to the mix. Non-veggie options could include slices of crusty baguette, crackers, or Italian-style gristini.
Wild salmon rillettes is a rich, luxurious dip that will elevate any charcuterie board you put together. Usually made with butter, rillettes would be perfect to serve with bread or radishes. Saveur’s recipe for rillettes has some capers and whole-grain mustard folded in for added interest. Equally rich is this recipe for a fresh cod brandade from Leite’s Culinaria. It can be served either hot or at room temperature.
Made with cream cheese and dill, this smoked salmon terrine from Bon Appetit is layered like a cake, adding visual interest to your charcuterie.
For more spreadable, dippable ideas made with salmon or even some of Alaska’s white varieties of fish, hop over to our blog post for lots of seafood schmear inspo.
Breads and Crackers
You’ll always want to have at least two different types of bread-like ingredients on your charcuterie platter to have your textural bases covered — ideally, something chewy and something crunchy. Pair dense slices of black bread together with water crackers, herbed focaccia with mini rye toasts, or a nutty multigrain loaf with garlicky croutons.
Condiments and Pickled Things, Compotes and Nuts
A small dose of mustard can add zest and spice to any charcuterie board. Practically any mustard will complement seafood, so just pick your fave.
As for pickled things, pickled veggies offer palette-cleansing acidity and refreshing texture to balance out your board. Green tomatoes, beets, cucumbers, sweet onions, and capers are always good options.
For a dose of sweetness as a contrast to all the savory you have going on, try to choose a jam that is a little sour. Lingonberry jam, for example, is a classic Scandinavian choice to go with fish, but cranberries, pomegranates, sour cherries, or even nectarines are a good balance of sweet and tangy. In fact, you may even want fresh or dried morsels of these fruits in your charcuterie spread.
And to cap things all off, definitely include nuts in your charcuterie stylings. Beyond their culinary qualities, they’re chock-full of healthy fats, which seems only fitting for a wild Alaskan seafood charcuterie. Walnuts are a particularly good accompaniment, considering their high omega-3 content and favorable omega-3 to omega-6 ratio of fats — a nutritional composition that mirrors that of wild-caught Alaskan seafood.
