The Mistake That's Easy To Make With Smoked Salmon Dip

Smoked salmon dip — that smooth, salty, protein-packed snack, app, or hors d'oeuvre — is an easy treat to make at home for parties or even just a more-festive-than-most desk lunch. Maybe even a little too easy. For, as simple as smoked salmon dip is to whip up for any occasion, it's also poised for pitfalls. As with so many other blended foodstuffs, overworking is the path to your smoked salmon dip's potential ruin.

Overmixing is a common mistake when making burgers, often leads to taxed and tacky mashed potatoes, and causes so many other potential recipe blunders. Giving the old 110% is actually a detriment when it comes to combining ingredients in these instances. The common denominator in terms of risk is that you'll end up with a much tougher texture than expected. Smoked salmon dip, as vulnerable to this fate as any, requires gentle restraint — and even the dismissal of one appliance commonly used in its preparation.

A lot of smoked salmon (rather than crab) dip recipes call for a turn through the old food processor or other motorized chippy-chopper of your choice. What if, instead, you just didn't use one? What if you untethered yourself from the machine assembly and eventual cleanup, all those moving parts now gummed up with fish flesh? What if, instead, you mashed it all up with a big fork? Why, you'd end up with a delicious smoked salmon dip, of course.

Since you still want to avoid overdoing it, using two separate bowls can help if you're trying to be extra cautious. Smash your softened cream cheese, sour cream, herbs like dill, seasonings, and lemon juice in one bowl. Crush the smoked salmon in another. Then, fold the contents of both bowls together to combine. This will result in a marginally more rustic final product, but one that deliciously evades the danger of turning out too dense. As with versions made with electronic help, serve with crackers, toast points, crudités, or a sliced baguette.