Reds (for sale, live in, legally)

[mongazid]

Man O'man O'man!!!!!
We just grilled some we brought back for the first time. (Only caught one red compared to million humpies and dogs). So have been kind of waiting for a special occasion to cook'em up. I don't think reds should even be in the same catagory as humpies or chums. The best! That junk in the store should be outlawed or called something else besides sockeye salmon.

[JavaPhil]

Way to go, Mongo. And remember, friends don't let friends eat farmed salmon.

[warptman]

....Or ruin their grills with them!

[Rance]

Hard to beat fresh flesh on the grill. Now I'm hungry.

[Marty Van Diest]

Grilled up a Jim Creek Silver yesterday. Not bad.

[Barkingowl]

Our local spendy market had reds for sale a week ago. But I don't think that $21/lb really qualifys as being on sale.

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by mongazid

Man O'man O'man!!!!!
We just grilled some we brought back for the first time. (Only caught one red compared to million humpies and dogs). So have been kind of waiting for a special occasion to cook'em up. I don't think reds should even be in the same catagory as humpies or chums. The best! That junk in the store should be outlawed or called something else besides sockeye salmon.

Reds aren't in the same category as Humpback or Chum salmon. Reds are the best eating of all the salmon. Silvers are the second best, and Kings are the third best. The Pink and Dog salmon are shipped to the lower-48 in cans. I don't know any Alaskan who eats Pinks or Dog salmon (except for Alaskan dogs of course).

The "junk" Sockeye you are finding in stores are most likely all farmed salmon.

[Metlakatla]

Most of the pinks go to the Asian market. Ocean caught humpies aren't terrible; though people who live in Alaska don't often eat them because they have better options.

Sockeye is often canned commercially; I think mostly up in Bristol Bay.

The "junk" Sockeye you are finding in stores are most likely all farmed salmon.

Sockeye do not work well in aquaculture due to their particular diet, and therefore farmed sockeye doesn't really exist in the grocery stores--but unscrupulous retailers may try to infer otherwise.

In some states, retailers legally have to state whether the fish has been dyed (a common practice in fish farming; the flesh of an undyed farmed coho is quite gray). I don't know what the laws are in Missouri where the OP is from--but--look at it this way....wild salmon is very valuable on the market. Even in states with no clear laws about the labeling of farmed salmon, they can't really get away with stating that farmed salmon is wild salmon.

Anything labeled as "Atlantic Salmon" in the grocery stores is farmed. It's a safe bet that anything that isn't labeled as wild salmon is farmed.

That junk in the store should be outlawed or called something else besides sockeye salmon.

I'd be interested in knowing what stores and in how the fish is being labeled. It's possible that it is really sockeye, and just old or not the top grade stuff. But if you think it might be farmed fish being sold as sockeye, would you please DM me and tell me when and where? I can and will cause a bit of trouble for any retailer engaging in this kind of thing.

My personal favorite is kings; though when I do pastas I usually use a mixture of king and sockeye.

[Wrennie]

Yes, but in SE we sure do catch alot of humpies. Have to do something with them. Mine, I smoke and use in winter for salmon chowder, and also for dips, and save a lot of it frozen to pass out on the boat in the summer so people can taste what they're catching.
For baking: sockeye is awesome but alot of people think it's too strong-however really really good fried-and good for pickling---baked coho the day you catch it is good, king is good even after frozen and great for canning.

[Metlakatla]

Pinks are what keep the commercial fishermen in business. And Wrennie is totally right; it makes good chowders and pates. It takes smoke pretty well.