Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese, and Capers Bagel

This open-face smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel is a great breakfast or brunch offering. Most grocery stores sell pre-sliced smoked salmon and cream cheese, which makes this recipe a snap.

Smoked salmon is a preparation of salmon that has been cured and hot or cold smoked. Due to its moderately high price, smoked salmon is considered a delicacy. Although the term lox is sometimes applied to smoked salmon, they are different products. Lox is brined salmon. Lox can be used in place of smoked salmon in most recipes including this one.

The smoking process is used to preserve salmon against microorganism spoilage. During the process, the fish is salt cured and partially dehydrated, which impedes the activity of bacteria. Bacteria like Clostridium botulinum, which can sometimes be present in seafood, is killed by the high heat treatment that occurs during the hot smoking process. The high salt content prevents the growth of microorganisms.

Salmon is a fish with high-fat content and smoked salmon is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids. Three ounces of smoked salmon contains approximately 660 mg of sodium, while an equivalent portion of fresh cooked salmon contains about 50 mg. Other byproducts of the smoking process are nitrates and nitrites, or nitrosamines, which may be cancer-causing. Although, smoked salmon is not a major source of nitrosamines.