Pacific Northwestern Regional Cookery: Fish

When the fishing industry is added to agriculture, the importance of the Pacific Northwest to the world’s food supply achieves even more fame. The waterways presented a veritable fish market to the native peoples as well as the explorers and settlers who followed them. People might dine on whale meat, trout, sturgeon, smelt, herring, halibut, clams (including geoduck, the largest bivalve along Puget Sound), oysters, crabs, and salmon. What could not be eaten fresh was smoked or dried for winter use.