Salmon Party Ball

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This Salmon Party Ball is a retro-appetizer cheese ball made of cream cheese, salmon and spices with a smoky flavor and coated in pecans.

October 8th is National Salmon Day! you must celebrate by eating some salmon in your favorite way. If you’re planning on having a party, you will want to print out this delicious salmon party ball recipe. It’s just like the “cheese ball” recipes you might remember (or have seen) from the 70’s, but we’re bringing it back as a salmon cheese ball!

Share the salmon love on social media today using the hashtags #nationalsalmonday, #salmonday and #recipesforholidays.

Be sure to follow my October Food Holidays page so you never miss a food holiday in the month of October!

“My life is what a salmon must feel like. They are always going upstream, against the current.”

-Laura Schlessinger

The History of Salmon:

The existence of salmon dates back 50 to 100 million years ago in Northern Europe. The earliest record of salmon in North America is the 3-meter long Saber-tooth Salmon, with fossils dating back 7 million years ago.

Man ate salmon over 11,000 years ago. The Gauls and Romans created ponds to conserve salmon caught from rivers. We know that it was served on the tables of French kinds in the mid 1300’s – where it was either cooked or smoked.

In the 1800’s, the Lewis and Clark expedition noted an abundance of salmon.

In 1866, the salmon canning industry was born on the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest.

By the 1900’s, fish hatcheries began emerging. And eventually, that led to protection of some of the salmon species as well as fishing limits.

Ingredients needed:

• canned salmon
• cream cheese
• freshly squeezed lemon juice
• grated onion
• horseradish
• salt
• liquid smoke
• chopped pecans

How to make a Salmon Party Ball:

The complete, printable recipe is at the end of this post.

Drain the salmon, and flake it apart into a large bowl.

Add the cream cheese, lemon juice, onion, horseradish, salt and liquid smoke. Use a sturdy spoon to combine the ingredients. Cover the bowl and chill for at least one hour.

Shape the salmon and cheese mixture into a ball, and then roll in the pecans. Place on a serving platter, cover and chill again until ready to serve. 

Serve your salmon party ball with crackers and fresh vegetables (such as celery and carrots).

Fun Facts about Salmon:

• Salmon is the most farmed aquatic animal (after shrimp).
• The U.S., European Union and Japan are the largest consumers of salmon.
• The life span of a salmon is 5 to 8 years.
• Salmon is high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids, which is good for the heart and the brain.
• Alaska is the state that catches the most salmon.
• Pacific salmon and Atlantic salmon cannot interbreed as they have different numbers of chromosomes.
• Salmon can jump up to 2 meters to cross obstacles in rivers.