Strange. And, as you say, a bummer, but the taste should be like the stuff you can buy ready made, but with a more developed smoke taste, and also a bit more "creamy". Your result looks perfect, so it maight be as simple as that you do not like cold smoked salmon..
Here's something you could try if you still have the filets.
Serves 4 to 8, maybe as starters.
Hard boil 8 eggs, let them cool down and chop them up into pieces, uneven pieces are nice. Put the eggs in a small casserole, add some cream,pepper and some chopped leaks. Add approx 6-8 slices of cold smoked salmon and
let it simmer, stir so the egg yolks and cream blends. Adjust salt. (Wait until you have added the salmon and then some.)
Make 8 crepes, and distribute the mix on the crepes, roll. Sprinkle cheese on top, and putt in a hot oven until they are grated, does not take long.
Delicious, and the salmon won't be raw anymore.
By the way, cold smoked salmon is not a "extreme" recipe. Since you did not enjoy the salmon, you should not try this one, but maybe some other fish-lovers would like to try. This food is enjoyed aroud christmas here in Norway.
Rakfisk, or soaked fish, sort of translated.
The rakfisk is put into a tub and then fluids are formed, it is brined. In the oldest sources, on the other hand, the rakfisk is mentioned as "brine- cured fish". And of course, originally the fish was buried or put in underground cellars. The supposition for this conservation method is an even soil temperature at about 4 degrees Celsius, and that's why the tradition is found around the polar circle at the northern hemisphere. We know of raking of salmon, herring and shark in addition to the gwyniad and trout/char that are the most commonly used today.
You use some trout (mountain trout or char is the best), though farmed trout will also do. They should be about 750 g big.
Scrub the fish so that all the slime is gone, remove gills and guts and rinse well so that all the blood is gone. Scrub the blood stripe with a fish brush. Rinse the fish and put it in vinegar solution for about half an hour. Let the fish rest and the vinegar run of for a while.
Put the fish in a tub with strait sides. Close side by side with the abdomen up. The abdomen is filled with ocean salt, 60g per kg fish. Some sprinkle tiny amounts of sugar to speed up the raking, but not more than a pinch for each layer of fish.
Then the fish is put under pressure with a lid that fit down into the tub and a rock, and placed chilly. A stable temperature at about 4 degrees Celsius is the best, but it should at least be below 8. After a couple of days you should check if the fish is brined. If it is not enough fluids to completely cover the fish, add salt brine containing 40g salt per litre of water. Some place the fish at a higher temperature for some days to make it brine better, but that should one be very careful with.
Leave the rakfisk for two to three months. Rakfisk is well conserved in the brine. When the fish is appropriately rak, you can put it into a new 4 percent salt brine, which will slow down the rake process. An other method for slowing it down is to put the tub in the freezer - or outside if you live in a place in the world where it is stably cold for some time of the year. As long as the fish lay in the brine it will not freeze. Otherwise the rakfisk is not good for freezing.
Enjoy the fish with lefse, small potatoes, akevitt, beer, sour cream, and raw unions
This recipe goes back to the middle ages.
Warning- there is a botulism- risk involved. Do not use fish that has been stored on the ground, and be careful with hygiene.