MARKETS : Take This Fish and Smoke It

Homarus, 9340 W. Pico Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 273-3004. Open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The Yellow Pages listing for Homarus reads “call for hours.” That’s because when this New York-based fish-smoking company set up its Los Angeles distribution center several years ago, it allotted only a few unscheduled hours per week for walk-in trade. Most of its hickory-smoked Norwegian salmon and other luxury items went to upscale restaurants and hotel dining rooms.

But as people began to taste the company’s wares around town--perhaps the pepper-encrusted poivre-lachs at Bernard’s, or the cold-smoked tuna in David Slay’s pasta salad at La Veranda--Homarus’ reputation in Los Angeles slowly built by word of mouth. To accommodate its growing retail business, Homarus started opening six days a week last October and extended that to seven days in January.

This place is a salmon lover’s paradise, offering a remarkable variety that includes smoked Norwegian, Scotch and Irish styles as well as white salmon baked over hardwood smoke and gravlax cured with fresh dill. All fish, from the tequila-cured salmon to the smoked trout and the buttery sablefish, will have been closely scrutinized by Peter Heineman, the company’s co-owner, at the Homarus smoking facility in Mount Kisco, N.Y.

“Smoking relies on much scientific knowledge,” Heineman says, “but it is still a hands-on art.” Each batch of fish must be hand-checked and tasted several times during the curing and smoking process. Many variables, including the weather, affect the product’s final outcome.

Heineman built the company’s temperature- and humidity-controlled smokehouses to his own specifications after traveling through Europe to gain fish-smoking knowledge. He visited such well-known smokeries as A. S. Neil’s in Scotland, and the traditional smoking kilns of Norway.

Heineman credits his expertise in buying quality fish to his training at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, followed by a stint in the aquaculture business. Much of the salmon is raised in farms at the base of the glaciers in Norway’s fjords. Other aquacultured salmon may come from the icy waters of Scotland or the remote Faroe Islands, halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The controlled environment of these farms yields fatty fish with rich, silky texture. Wild fish, while often better, are of less consistent quality.

With co-owner Karen Ransom, who’s in charge of marketing and sales, Heineman started Homarus by offering some trout he’d smoked in his family’s L. L. Bean smoker to a well-known New York chef. Soon the pair was delivering smoked trout from a station wagon to the likes of the Waldorf and La Cote Basque. Today their wares sell in such tony New York spots as Balducci’s and Zabar’s.

Because prices at the Homarus smoking facility in Mount Kisco are about 30% lower than at retail shops, East Coast customers often line up there on Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., when the factory is open for sales and tours. Here in Los Angeles we can shop at Homarus seven days a week, order party platters with such things as smoked jumbo shrimp and scallops and send fish assortments nationwide by UPS, all without lining up on Saturday . . . or these days, even calling for hours.

SHOPPING LIST

COLD-SMOKED FISH

* Traditional Smoked Salmon: For all its varieties of smoked salmon, Homarus buys the large 3- to 6-kilo No. 1 grade (meaning unblemished) fish. Slices from these salmon are about the size of a cocktail napkin, unless you buy the tail portion, which sells for half the price of the center cut. The Homarus facility is under rabbinical inspection, and the salmon and other scaled fish are deemed kosher.

For its traditional smoked salmon, by far the best-known smoked salmon style, Homarus uses light-pink Atlantic salmon. Unlike the usual varieties of salmon you find in a deli--lox (unsmoked) and Nova (a smoked salmon which gets its name because it used to be made from Nova Scotia salmon)--Homarus’ smoked salmon is dry-cured, rather than brine-cured.

Either method of curing removes some moisture from the fish, making the flesh denser. It also raises the salinity level so that when the fish is smoked at a low temperature (to leave the flesh moist and allow complete penetration of the smoke flavor), the salt prevents bacterial growth in the still-raw meat. Dry curing is more laborious than brining because the cure, a mixture of salt and sugar, must be applied to salmon sides by hand. Homarus uses the smallest amount of salt possible so the salmon’s flavor will dominate. However, this means that the cure has to be applied twice, then checked periodically and re-salted in areas that need additional cure.

The smoking, done at a leisurely pace, takes place under refrigeration. Hardwood smoke is blown into the smokehouse from outside and circulated with fans. Smoking begins at 60 degrees to coax the fish oils to the surface of the fish, where they will absorb the most smoke flavor. The temperature is then slowly lowered at intervals to 38 degrees, allowing the flavorful oils to migrate back into the flesh.

Finally the fish is skinned, trimmed and sliced with the company’s new German “fresh slicers,” which--unlike the old slicers still used by many smokers--will work on unfrozen fish.

In addition to Atlantic salmon, Homarus smokes Pacific King salmon from Washington. Since Pacific salmon is leaner, as well as darker in color, its texture is firmer than the Atlantic fish.

* Scotch- and Irish-Style Salmon: The Scotch style, from Scottish fisheries, is treated with a sweeter cure that includes Scotch whisky. If you taste the Scotch salmon alongside the traditional style, you’ll notice a mellower flavor and a slightly firmer, drier texture. Irish-style salmon includes single-malt Irish whiskey in its cure and is smoked over peat. It is not shipped to the shop regularly and needs to be ordered in advance.

* Gravlax and Sushi Salmon: For its gravlax, Homarus starts with “sushi salmon”--a very lightly cured and smoked fish used in sushi bars--and coats it with fresh dill and seasonings. This is a slight twist on the classic Swedish gravlax of unsmoked salmon cured in a mixture of salt, sugar and dill. The Homarus version has a nice fresh taste, rather than the completely cured quality of typical gravlax or of Homarus’ traditional smoked salmon. Sushi salmon itself, minus the dill and sugar cure, may also be purchased on special order.

* Novelty Cures: Someone at Homarus came up with the idea of coating a side of smoked salmon with a cracked-pepper seasoning mix so that when it is cut, the tiny black edging that rims each slice adds another delicious flavor dimension. They called it poivre-lachs , and its enormous popularity has inspired other coatings, including the tangerine peel and chrysanthemum leaf flavor used at hotels in Hong Kong. There are also rosemary-mint and lemon-dill coatings. Poivre-lachs is always in stock at Homarus; the other styles must be specially ordered.

* Smoked Tuna: While most smoked tuna you see in the marketplace is the ordinary hot-smoked variety, Homarus cold-smokes prime sushi-grade yellow-fin tuna loins. The company buys the loins from Japanese fish purveyors who get the best selection of this hard-to-acquire cut by meeting the tuna boats at the docks and examining the fish before it gets to market. Tuna has much denser flesh than salmon and must be cured in brine, rather than with a dry cure. The meat is very soft and slightly smoky. I like to eat thin slices of it with a sauce made by mixing sour cream, mayonnaise and a few drops of fresh lemon juice and accompany it with crusty French bread.

HOT-SMOKED FISH AND SEAFOOD

Salmon and tuna are the only fish Homarus cold-smokes. Other fish, and shellfish such as shrimp and scallops, are hot-smoked at about 160 degrees. Anything to be hot-smoked is first brined in a mixture of water, salt and sugar. Every fish has its own characteristics and requires its own brine recipe and smoking method. But the recipes aren’t always strictly followed; the smoker may alter them to accommodate variations (in fattiness or size, for example) in different batches of the same kind of fish. The brining acts as a preservative, just like dry curing, and the hot smoking completely cooks the fish.

* Baked Salmon: You wouldn’t expect something as prosaic-sounding as baked salmon to have the pedigree of Homarus’ thick fillets of farm-raised white salmon from the Baltic Sea. The baking referred to is hot smoking, which leaves a subtle hardwood essence in the moist, meaty salmon sides. Because these Baltic salmon eat no shrimp or other crustaceans, their meat has barely any trace of the familiar “salmon” color. Perfectly white but indubitably salmon-flavored, it’s a real show stopper in buffets or as a first course, surrounded by baby lettuces. I like to serve this fish cold with homemade mayonnaise, adding extra lemon juice and a little lemon zest for more piquancy.

* Smoked Trout: The owners have a special fondness for trout, the item that launched their success. They buy it from farms in Idaho, Utah or Chile, where the icy waters yield fish with rich, buttery flesh. Smoked on the bone, which preserves the moisture and sweetness of the meat, each fish is then carefully filleted and individually vacuum-packed.

* Smoked Sable: This is an East Coast term for the cold-water West Coast fish also known as butterfish or black cod. Sable’s rich, slightly flaky meat (high in omega-3 oils and thus presumably very healthful) smokes beautifully. Homarus prepares 2- to 4-pound fillets and slowly smokes them at about 110 degrees, then sprinkles them lightly with paprika so that each succulent slice has an attractive rosy edge.

* Smoked Sturgeon: During more abundant times in Russia, smoked fish, particularly sturgeon, were favorites among the zakuski, the pre-meal appetizers that could fill a table with enough food for a wedding feast. In modern times zakuski have slimmed down and emerged as the “smoked fish plate” to be found in almost every Eastern European-style deli. Homarus generally gets its sturgeon from the Columbia River or from the Atlantic. Although this large, rather ferocious-looking prehistoric bottom fish can be enormous--up to 300 pounds--Homarus buys dainty 6- to 7-pound fish that yield ideal playing card-size slices. Sturgeon meat has a character completely different from the buttery sable or the flakier whitefish. Some chefs liken the dense, meaty fish to veal, and when smoked it almost resembles poultry. Sturgeon also seems to absorb more smoke than almost any other fish, so it has an intense smokiness.

* Smoked Whitefish and Chubs: The flesh of these freshwater lake fish (chubs are simply small whitefish) ranges from lean to fatty. It’s the fattier kind that Homarus seeks out to smoke over hardwood chips. The fish come out moist and flaky, and although they’re delicious plain, whitefish have all sorts of culinary possibilities. The meat can be flaked into salads or minced and blended with mayonnaise to make a terrific spread or dip. Russian cooks use it in omelets. In Azerbaijan, fish omelets include lots of fresh herbs, especially cilantro. The smaller chubs are also a traditional finger food--you simply peel back the skin and nibble on the delicate flesh.

* Smoked Eel: Americans finally seem to be shedding their prejudice against eel as a slimy sea creature and are beginning to enjoy its rich flavor and compact meat. Like sturgeon, eel absorbs smoke readily and comes out with a pronounced smoky flavor. Homarus’ smoked eel is skinned, completely boned and hot-smoked to perfection. Most of the eel I’ve seen here is imported from Europe or the Far East.

* Smoked Scallops and Smoked Shrimp: The large, briny-tasting Canadian scallops emerge from the smoker light brown and moist, with an almost caramelized exterior. Their sweet meat, merged with the flavor of smoke, has an incomparable flavor. The jumbo white Indonesian tiger shrimp, packaged by the dozen, have a smoky flavor that’s less pronounced. Both these products are usually (but not always) on hand.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

* Smoked Salmon Pate: More like a spread than a pate, this simple mixture of smoked salmon, sweet butter, sour cream and dill is from the repertoire of Peter Heineman’s mother, who studied with the late Dione Lucas and ran her own cooking school for many years. I like to dab it on midget baked potatoes or spread it on dense Russian rye cut into little triangles.

* Smoked Whitefish Salad: Another of Heineman’s mother’s recipes, this is a mixture of minced smoked whitefish spiked with horseradish and smoothed out with mayonnaise. Use it for anything from filling sandwiches to stuffing tomatoes or celery stalks.

* Tofu Cream Cheese Spreads: These non-dairy spreads (which contain no animal fat, of course) are meant to resemble cream cheese, and they do--pretty much, anyway. To the original line of basic flavors--plain, chive and herb-garlic--has been added a tofu cream cheese mixed with minced smoked salmon.

The shop also carries actual dairy cream cheese, salmon caviar in half-pint containers, pasteurized black caviar in jars and Scansen marinated herring in wine sauce and in sour cream.

Smoked whitefish and capers--an easy way to make potato salad seem luxurious.

LINDA’S SMOKED WHITEFISH-POTATO SALAD

1 pound small new potatoes or red-skinned potatoes

8 ounces whitefish

1/4 cup low-fat or regular mayonnaise

1/4 cup low-fat or regular sour cream

2 tablespoons drained small capers

Wash potatoes, leave unpeeled and quarter if fairly large, cut them into bite-size chunks. Steam potatoes or microwave in 1/4 cup water in covered dish until resilient but not completely tender. Chill potatoes.

Skin and bone whitefish and flake into tablespoon-size pieces. Blend mayonnaise and sour cream together. Combine potatoes, capers and mayonnaise mixture and blend well. Carefully fold in whitefish chunks. Makes 6 servings.