Salmon Head Fish Stock Recipe

Salmon Head Fish Stock Recipe

Tara Carpenter, NC.

Nutrition Consultant helping people heal yeast, bacteria, and viral overgrowth/infection.

Originally published on April 1, 2019.

Salmon fish heads are packed with tender meat and an especially abundant amount of fat along the jawbone; prized for making rich fish stock as a base for soup of any kind. Salmon fish head stock contains vitamin A, Omega-3, iron, zinc, and calcium.

I was apprehensive at first to make fish stock because I only had experience making meat stock (chicken, lamb, rooster, beef, etc.). Fish head stock felt worlds away as was outside of general normalcy in the place I lived. Simmer fish heads? I imagined the home smelling fishy and turning my family and I off from even trying this wonderful, healing food.

My youngest eating a whole fish, including the eyes and brain, in 2009.

Benefits of fish (and meat) stock are several, including: this liquid gold can strengthen bones and joints, reverse tooth decay, be anti-inflammatory. When consumed regularly and in large enough amounts, fish stock in particular is known for bringing health to the thyroid, eyes, and gut lining. What convinced me is learning that fish head stock is a traditional food that has been around for centuries. Even revered in parts of the world.

Into the kitchen I went, the sucker I am for traditional foods known to heal.

A fish head meal fit for my king of a three year old.

As my readers know I love traditional foods. Milk kefir, cod liver oil, unsalted cultured vegetables, bone marrow, liver. These are the foods I give my attention to. The ones I am talking about. Traditional foods are the constant grace in my kitchen. I hope that one day my own children will be so normalized to them being around and to eating them that one day they too will feed them to their children, my grandchildren.

The above thought process is foremost what propelled me to the fish market to buy two wild salmon heads. Not only did they smell suprisingly pleasant but the stock itself that I made with them was as savory as chicken stock with a lighter, more delicate taste in my mouth. And though my brain felt odd to be drinking fish head stock, my body thoroughly approved! Easy to make too …. 2 hours start to finish.

My youngest son leaves nothing on the fish head but bones.

Fish Head Stock 

Makes: about 5 cups

Ingredients

1-2 pounds of salmon fish heads

2-4 garlic cloves

1-2 bay leaves

1-2 Tbsp. ginger, thinly sliced

Method

1. Remove gills with kitchen shears; these are attached to the head on each end; cut them at the joint where they attach. Discard. If you skip this part, the gills will give stock bad color and off taste. Ask the guy behind the fish counter to remove them for you.
2. Clean thoroughly with water and place in a soup pot with enough water to cover heads by at least 1-inch.
3. Add 2-4 garlic cloves, 2 bay leaves, and 1-2 Tbsp. thin sliced ginger.
4. Bring to simmer and reduce heat to low.  
5. Simmer for 30-45 minutes, should only bubble slightly, note that cooking for more than an hour will turn the stock bitter.
6. Skim off any foam that rises to the top.
7. Strain through a couple layers of cheesecloth.
8. Pick the meat and soft tissue off bones, anything soft is edible, including eyes and brains.
9. Return the meat and tissue to the stock.
10. Store in fridge up to 5 days or freeze several months.

Tips & Tricks

• Add sauteed onions, garlic, leeks, cabbage, or lemon at any point while the fish heads cook.
• Substitute fish stock for vegetable stock in fish chowder or creamy salmon soup.
• Squeamish about fish eyes? No worries, they dissolve into stock and fatty tissue around eyes is rich in vitamin A. Just put the whole head in.
• Fish heads are known to be the healthiest part of fish to eat, esp. spine. 
• Salmon heads give stock strong flavor; if want mild flavor try cod, halibut, bass, or another white fish. Use one type of fish or combo.
• This is a friendly recipe for those on Body Ecology Diet; a healing protocol for gut imbalances (i.e., yeast overgrowth, GBS+).
• If you have leaky gut, Crohn’s, autism, ADHD, seizures/tics, avoid long-cooked broth (stick to short-cooked stocks) because free glutamates (MSG, glutamine, glutamic acid) will increase the longer bones are cooked and this can be bothersome.
• Hard time sourcing fish heads? Special order from these guys. 
• Here’s a list of fish to eat, fish to avoid.

This recipe is from Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel who says that one of the best meat stocks for helping to heal bone/tooth decay comes from wild fish carcasses, heads, and organs.

May all bellies be happy!

References

Nagel, R. (2011). Cure Tooth Decay. Los Gatos, CA: Golden Child Publishing

Paula, CHS. (2012). Author of a website called Whole Intentions Fish Heads in My Stock Pot

Schuette, K. (2017). Stock vs. Broth – Are You Confused. Retrieved from Healthy Home Economist

Worker Bee (2016). Fish Head Broth. Retrieved from Mark’s Daily Apple

Photo credit: https://thedomesticman.com/tag/stock/

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links for products I believe in and use on a regular basis. See more here. All content is for general information only, primarily educational in nature, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your primary health-care practitioner that you, the reader, may require for any cause whatsoever, now or in future. Please consult your primary practitioner regarding any health problem(s) you have and keep them informed to the opinions, ideas, and advice on this site that you find useful. Please email me at tara@happybellies.net for any questions or concerns that you have.

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