Smoked Fish Cheesecake

This savory cheesecake is perfect when sliced relatively thin as an appetizer, but also works well for lunch or even as an entrée. Fans of our Northern Bagel will be familiar with its creamy, lightly salmony flavors.

Crust:

• 4 Tbsp melted butter

• 1 large egg white

• 1 ½ cups crushed bagel chips

Filling:

• 24oz cream cheese (bring to room temperature before mixing)

• 4oz sour cream

• 3 Tbsp cornstarch

• 1 tsp salt

• 2 large eggs

• 10oz (.625lbs) smoked fish, de-boned and flaked (we suggest 8oz smoked lake trout and 2oz smoked sockeye salmon [for color], but any combination will do)

• ⅓ cup finely chopped chives

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. In a small bowl, combine melted butter, bagel chips, and egg white. Press the mixture into the bottom of a 10-inch spring-form pan. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven to cool, and adjust the oven to 250°F.

3. In a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, blend the cheese, sour cream, cornstarch, and salt until combined. Mix in the eggs. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the smoked fish and chives. Pour mixture into the cooled crust.

4. Bake at 250°F for 1 hour, then turn off the oven and let sit in the oven (don’t open the door during this process) for an additional hour. Cool on a rack for at least 4 hours. Carefully un-mold (you may want to run a knife around the edge first) and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Tip: The flavor of the smoked salmon is more apparent as the cheesecake warms up after refrigeration, so you may wish to allow your slices to warm up a little before serving.

5 Things: Leap Day Eve 2020

Welcome back, friends and foes alike, to our weekly dish. Due to some time mismanagement, this week's 5 Things™ will be an exercise in speed-blogging, and is brought to you by fish oil capsules, two bags of this tea, and Patricia's Chocolate Chip Cookies.

You certainly have a busy Friday ahead of you, whether it's a day at work, a promise you've made, or just 100% doing you, so without further ado, here's the goods.

We're hiring again.

A few folks moved to Seattle, a handful of us have enjoyed vacations, and the weekends (plus select weekdays) have been busier than anticipated, and as such, we've come to find some spots that need filling in our fairly barebones operation.

If you're looking for part time deli or dishing work (12-20 hours to week, which will grow into more hours closer to Summer) at the coolest spot in Duluth, shoot Greg (our H.R. guy) a résumé at greg@nwsmokehaus.com or drop one off in the deli. We're especially looking for weekend availability at this time.

Benefits include competitive wages with annual raises, a free meal with every shift*, a sweet employee discount, cool coworkers, lots of snacks (y'know how I'm always talking about the fun new food I get to eat—this blog barely scratches the surface), and much more that doesn't fit into my speed-writing regimen.

*Easily one of the best parts of working for this company, as you may come to discover.

The All Things Traditional sale is coming to a close.

Tomorrow (2/29/20) is the final day of our 10% off mail order sale on any item featuring Traditional Smoked Atlantic Salmon.

The discount is applied to your pre-shipping cart, and is not tied to orders shipped during the sale dates. Plan ahead for your Trad-loving friend's birthday, or a holiday of your choice, and save money by placing your order before midnight on Saturday.

Cajun Finn shirts are going on sale!

For the entirety of March, our Cajun Finn t-shirts are $15! That's $5 off! Best purchased in multiples, so you and the squad can match, these shirts (and all of our merchandise) get you a lifetime 10%-off when you shop in our deli while wearing them.

You read that correctly—stroll into our deli carrying an NWS tote, wearing a hat or T-shirt, and get 10%-off at the register. Forever. Word of mouth advertising (and the odd television spot, and magazine feature) built our deli into what it is, so consider it a token of our gratitude for your marketing help.

A handful of designs that live right by my "desk"

New merchandise is in development.

This coming Monday, the marketing team and any staff who have ideas, are meeting to design and pitch the next wave of Smokehaus swag. From what I've heard, people have already put in a bunch of work on their designs and ideas, and within the next few months, we'll be seeing some awesome new merch in the deli. That's in addition to an awesome piece of Duluth Pack-made Smokehaus gear that we'll be introducing to the world right before Summer.

New and exciting ways to snatch that 10%-off discount are forthcoming.

What type of NWS apparel have you always wanted? Let us know in the comments.

New meat snacks are also forthcoming!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of sampling a tester batch of Maple Bacon Jerky and Hot Dogs (I don't know how we're branding them yet, so I just capitalized the first letters).

For now, I will just say that both of those meat snacks were already quite tasty—even in these early stages—so I can't wait for the rest of you carnivores to try them.

Keep your eyes on our social media platforms and we'll let you know the day they appear in the deli.

Speaking of the deli, I'm just about due for an opening shift there. Enjoy the photos that Zac adds to this blog, and have a pleasant rest of your day.

We love you forever.

5 Things: All Things Traditional

All of February, we're running a 10%-off mail order sale on all Smoked Traditional Atlantic Salmon products, including A Hygge Box.

Instead of regaling the release of four new sandwiches, and the return of two sandwiches, or blathering about the ongoing emptying of our office, we'll let this week be a self-guided tour. Follow the links to explore the world of Smoked Traditional Atlantic Salmon—an item that consistently hangs at the top of our bestsellers list.

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In other news: Yesterday, your friendly neighborhood blogger had his first bite of The Pack Lunch—the premier sandwich of our upcoming collaborative relationship with our own friendly neighbors at Duluth Pack—and it is really good! Haus rye, with horseradish mayo, a quarter-pound of Corned Bison, cornichon pickles, red onion, maple syrup, and lettuce comprise this perfect trailside sandwich, which will be launched alongside an awesome new Duluth Pack-designed Smokehaus tote bag. Expect a launch date sometime shortly after the ides of March.

In similar fashion, an as-of-yet unnamed smoked fish sandwich will be arriving around the same time. A lovely supporter of the Boundary Waters won the naming rights in the Friends of the Boundary Waters auction last year. We can't wait to see what sort of name they come up with!

5 Things In The 2020 Hygge Gift Box

We could all use a bit more hygge in our lives. Hygge is a useful, if tricky to translate, Danish term describing "a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being," and it's the central principle guiding our midwinter gift box.

At NWS, we believe that feeling of contentment and well-being can be found by reveling in the good things that surround us in our Northern home. We also believe that, in this workaday world, sometimes embracing hygge requires a little inspiration—just the gentlest push. That's why we've curated this year's box of local goodness aimed at providing you and your loved ones with the means for a cozy evening in.

This weeks 5 Things will take a closer look at exactly what makes up the 2020 edition of the Hygge Gift Box!

NWS Traditional Smoked Atlantic Salmon

Our Traditional Smoked Atlantic Salmon is buttery, sweet, and smoky. To many in our loyal customer-base, this smoked salmon is the taste of Northern Waters Smokehaus, and they'll make a pit-stop in Duluth on their way North (or South) just to procure a piece. The centerpiece of every Hygge Gift Box is a half-pound slab of this delicious smoked fish.

Local Midwestern Cheese

Cheese is literally calming—it's been scientifically proven! Beyond that, cheese just tastes good. We choose our cheeses with love and care, and you'll feel it. Each Hygge Gift Box comes with a selection of one of our favorite regional cheeses, just like we sell in our deli.

Snooty Fox Tea

Nothing evokes "comfortable conviviality and ... well-being" quite like tea. Local tea artisans Snooty Fox Tea Shop have provided us with an assortment of their most calming and convivial tea blends. Each Hygge Gift Box contains seven sachets of Gold Spice Rooibos, Boreal Forest Herbal Blend, or Sauna Steamer Black Blend. Enjoy life like you enjoy tea—sip by sip.

Epicurean Cutting Board

Epicurean produces top-quality cutting boards and kitchenware right out of our neck-of-the-woods. Our friends at the Epicurean Factory Outlet in Superior, WI provided the perfect utility tool for your curated hygge experience: A compact walnut woodgrain cutting board. This beautifully-crafted walnut board is the perfect size for a mini charcuterie platter featuring your smoked salmon and local cheese, and it will ingratiate itself as a favorite piece of kitchenware.

Blue Heron Trading Co. Dish Towel

For the final contribution from our local friends, we just walked down the hall to the Blue Heron Trading Company. This beloved kitchen store is not just our #1 source for replacement vegetable peelers and fantastic $1 cups of coffee, but also provided the final touch to your hygge experience—a hand towel! Whether you use it as a table-cover under your charcuterie platter, use it for clean-up, or both, this Blue Heron-branded towel will serve you well for years to come.

(Bonus Thing: Raincoast Crisps from Patricia's Pantry)

A bonus for purposes of this blog's allocated number of Things™, our resident baker savant Patricia has crafted these wonderful crackers especially for the Hygge Gift Box. Blending nuts, seeds, and dehydrated fruits with herbs and just a touch of brown sugar, the Raincoast Crisps are the ideal compliment to the included smoked salmon, cheese, and tea, and, with their nutritious ingredients-list, are virtually guilt-free snacking.

The Hygge Gift Box is now available exclusively online! Each box is tastefully assembled per order.