Sock Eye Salmon (grilled, healthy, tuna, european)

[lubby]

I made this for my husband last night and he said he likes the Atlantic salmon better. How about you which do you prefer? I am on the east coast so I can only get these 2 types of salmon on Long Island NY. . He has had Arctic Char which I believe to related to salmon.

[evening sun]

I really only buy Pacific Salmon, as it is not farmed. All Atlantic salmon, I believe is farmed. So I avoid it, except sometimes I will buy Atlantic smoked salmon, as then I only eat a tiny amount, a little goes a long way. The Atlantic salmon is often cheaper than the Pacific salmon, but I still buy Pacific, becasue it is wild caught.

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by lubby

I made this for my husband last night and he said he likes the Atlantic salmon better. How about you which do you prefer? I am on the east coast so I can only get these 2 types of salmon on Long Island NY. . He has had Arctic Char which I believe to related to salmon.

People like what they like. Growing up on the Pacific Coast, I'd never choose Atlantic salmon...they are pen raised and I have major doubts about the environmental costs of pen raised fish; risks to wild fish from disease, the pollution from the pens, and genetic hybridizing. Cramped pen living and artificial feed doesn't do much for the texture or flavor IMHO. Sockeye would be my preference if those were the choices. Taxonomically, the arctic char is in the same family (Salmonidae) as salmon and the true freshwater trouts. Dolly Varden is also a char.

[NJ Brazen_3133]

I also like the farm raised Atlantic salmon better than the wild caught Pacific salmon. Wild Pacific Salmon is I guess the seafood equivalent of gamey.

[vision33r]

Sockeye tastes better raw or medium rare. It is usually made into lox. The flavor is more potent because it is wild and not as subtle as farm or atlantic salmon.

If you ever come across King Salmon that is the ultimate.

[Dogboa]

Since I don't eat cooked salmon, I only buy it as Nova or Lox, except when we make Gravlax which I prefer to use Pacific wild caught Steel head trout. Vodka makes a great part of the cure.

[jean_ji]

I went to a seminar and one of the speakers was a PHD running a sustainable food project. Growing purslane from the fish poo and raising fish was her field of interest. The objective is feeding more people in the world, not taste.

She mentioned farm salmon has a higher fat content than wild salmon. Her observations are many Americans prefer the milder flavor and texture of farm raised salmon, whereas Europeans are more likely to prefer the taste of wild caught salmon.

I like wild caught sock-eye salmon better than farm raised. Not only does it taste better to me, but the texture is firmer and not mushy like farm-raised. Farm-raised needs added color to mimic wild caught and that’s an added reason to not eat it.

[Charlie&Rose]

I prefer alantic salmon.....sock eye, has a very strong taste.

[ABQConvict]

I am from a Norwegian family and had salmon growing up, poached, grilled, fried, "buried", smoked, in soups, etc. several times a month my whole life. The taste and quality of salmon is really important to me and I have in recent years gone ahead and researched the various species, ecology, aquaculture, and its use in cuisines from my own traditions around the world (particularly Japan). It is my comfort protein of choice.

So going ahead, understand that's my bias. I am a little too into it. :-)

Also, my "rankings" below are based purely on my subjective taste and not an indictment of others' preferences.

Having eaten most commercially available species of salmon, I would consider Atlantic salmon and King salmon (aka Chinook) to be very similar to one another, relative to the other salmon species, in terms of flavor, fattiness, and texture.

In practice, while I have eaten a fair amount of King, mainly while on the West Coast and in Alaska as it is rarely available where I live, and occasionally buying Sockeye when it is on sale, I eat mostly Atlantic and I just as happy as can be about that except for some ever diminishing reservations concerning the farm issue.

Tremendous improvements have been made, not only in the past decade, but just in just the last few years regarding the ecological impact and sustainability of farmed Atlantic salmon. I don't feel nearly as bad about buying it as I used to, though I choose ones farmed in the Atlantic because I fear the risk of invasiveness if Atlantic salmon escape Chilean enclosures into the Pacific. It is important when choosing a farmed salmon to know where it comes from and what kind of practices are being used. Some countries are better than others at instituting and overseeing best practices.

With the demand for salmon increasing dramatically, even wild fisheries in the Pacific are starting to see serious pressure and are not without environmental cost as overfishing and spawning habitat loss has a broad impact on the marine ecosystem. So that is something to consider as well, though thankfully efforts are being made to restore spawning streams and manage the catch.


As for other species of salmon, Sockeye is a distant third for me. It does have very good flavor, but I don't like the texture as much. It is less fatty and has more delicate, almost chewy, thin flakes. For best results, I like to poach/steam Sockeye in a parchment pouch with a lot of butter. Overall, I prefer the richer, softer meat of the King and Atlantic. The exception is when making salmon salad, I find that the toothier, firmer texture of Sockeye, and its more eye catching color, make it the best choice.

Pink Salmon doesn't appeal to me much at all. It has all the less preferred qualities of Sockeye and a poor flavor to boot. Unfortunately this is the type of wild caught I tend to find at a reasonable price. I ate it for a while when I was on a "wild caught only" kick in the 90s, but I would rather have Sockeye, Atlantic, or King at any price over Pink.

Keta is the worst I have had. Almost inedible. It is best for feeding the dogs. I once bought a few pounds of it and ultimately had to force myself to not waste it.

Coho, I have only had a couple of times and I don't feel I can fairly rate it.

Originally Posted by jean_ji

Her observations are many Americans prefer the milder flavor and texture of farm raised salmon, whereas Europeans are more likely to prefer the taste of wild caught salmon.

This is an interesting takeaway. While Europeans eat far more wild seafood in general than farmed, salmon is a notable exception to that rule.

In fact, Europeans eat far more farmed salmon than Americans who have readier access to wild salmon fisheries and markets in the north Pacific region. Wild caught salmon is imported to Europe, but it is even more of a premium, and often highly taxed due to import duties.

According to the EU Fish Market 2019 report[1], wild caught salmon makes up 0.05%[2] of the salmon consumed in Europe.

[1]https://www.eumofa.eu/documents/2017...rket_2019.pdf/

[2]EUMOFA, based on Eurostat (online data codes: fish_aq2a, fish_ca_main and DS-016890) and FAO data.

Originally Posted by jean_ji

I like wild caught sock-eye salmon better than farm raised. Not only does it taste better to me, but the texture is firmer and not mushy like farm-raised. Farm-raised needs added color to mimic wild caught and that’s an added reason to not eat it.

Your preferred salmon, the Sockeye, is especially noted for its thin epaxial muscles (the "flakes" of the fish), low intermuscular fat and overall fat content, and a very firm texture, all qualities attributeable to the species, not its wild caught status.

The "mushy" quality of the flesh of farmed Atlantic salmon is not a result of being farm raised, it is a product of the thickness of the epaxial muscles, the fat content, and the distribution of the fat.

While farm raised Atlantic salmon are higher in polyunsaturated fat and lower in monounsaturated fat than wild caught King salmon, the overall fat content and distribution within the tissues is roughly the same between the farmed and wild caught species, about 13gm of fat per 100gm[3] resulting in a similar texture and mouthfeel. In fact, King salmon and farm raised Atlantic salmon can be hard to tell apart on the fork. And while farmed fish do tend to have slightly thicker epaxials, the difference within a given species, farmed to wild, is negligible.

[3]https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list?qlookup=15236


An interesting, but far from scientific, blind taste test was conducted by Seattle area seafood chefs back in 2013. Of the 10 fish tested, the top 5 were farmed Atlantic Salmon. So while that may come down to tastes, it is still telling that Atlantic salmon is not merely the preference of the mundane palate.

All in all, I think that being an educated consumer is important, tastes notwithstanding. Whether you choose farmed or wild or some combination, it is probably most environmentally responsible to understand the source of your food and the potential impact of its harvest. Since demand for seafood in general, and salmon in particular, has become greater than ever with an ever growing world population, how much seafood we eat, and diversifying the species we eat so as not to overburden certain ecosystems, is probably the most responsible approach in order to maintain a healthy marine habitat while providing an important food source.

[elnina]

Farmed salmon is too fatty and too contaminated to me, I prefer sock eye for the dense texture and "fishy" flavor. Also for all the nutritious content.
I would buy King Salmon any time when availale in the stores.