Salmon Cracker Spread
Apr 08, 2025
I like fish. I like it fried, baked, and broiled. I also like it in certain dishes. One of the fishes I like is salmon, and one of the ways I like salmon is as part of a spread, served with crackers, as a snack.
Today I got the urge to have some salmon spread with crackers. Normally, this would justify a trip to the chilled food counter at a grocery store; but today, I didn't feel like leaving the house.
Now we keep a fair-size stock of canned salmon here, so I thought I'd do a quick search of the Internet and find a good, simple recipe for throwing together an acceptable home-made salmon spread. What I did find was the usual foodie BS about "use only wild-caught, unfrozen salmon steaks" and "only the freshest " herbs and spices.
I also found that apparently no-one publishes a recipe for any quantity less than what might be needed for entertaining a small crowd of a hundred or more.
As a result of all that, I decided to shoot from the hip. This recipe is a Mariner original - meaning I didn't try to copy or cut down one that has already been published somewhere. You might find an identical recipe somewhere, but if you do, it is pure coincidence, and just demonstrates that brilliant minds will frequently have the same thoughts.
Suggested Equipment:
- Microwave-safe plate
- Large dinner fork
- Sealable one-cup container
- Kitchen scale (if needed)
- Common kitchen tools and measures.
Ingredients:
| 4 | oz | Salmon, | Canned, cleaned and flaked |
| 4 | oz | Cream cheese, | softened |
| 2 | tsp | Dill weed, | Dry, rubbed |
| 1 | tsp | Juice, | Lemon |
| ¼ | tsp | Salt, | Common, granulated |
| ¼ | tsp | Black pepper, | Dry, ground, coarse |
| ⅛ | tsp | Paprika, | Dry, ground, fine |
| ⅛ | tsp | Cayenne, | Dry, ground, fine |
Directions:
Prepare the cream cheese for mixing. We buy cream cheese in 8 oz block, so we only use a half-block for this recipe. Put the cream cheese in the center of the microwave-safe plate, and nuke it on "high" for about 20 seconds. This will usually be enough to soften the cream cheese adequately, without getting it too hot.
If you haven't already done so, clean and flake the canned salmon. Our salmon comes in 14¾ oz cans, so for this recipe we have to use a kitchen scale and weigh out the required amount. Add 4 oz of the cleaned and flaked salmon to the microwave-safe plate.
Using the large dinner fork, mix and mash the cream cheese and salmon until well mixed.
Add in the dill, salt, pepper, paprika, and cayenne, and continue mixing and mashing the mixture until all components are thoroughly and evenly distributed, and the mixture assume the consistency of a paste.
Put the resulting paste into the sealable one cup storage container. Seal and store in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
Makes about 1 cup of pretty satisfactory cracker spread. We use it with "Everything" Ritz® crackers.
A cup of this stuff is still more than the two of us need for a snack. You could probably make 3 or 4 people happy - if they like salmon cracker spread! labels:
Fish Snacks Party Food