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I don't know, but nothing beats fresh smoked salmon from Pike's Market. I once bought a bunch, to take home on the plane for my family in Vegas....and it never made it. I did not tell them. I just kept breaking off a "little piece". That particular salmon was cured with brown sugar. Melt in mouth...it was "smoked salmon candy".
Wild Sockeye salmon have a bright orange/red flesh and make a beautiful smoked product. Most Alaskan's, however, prefer King and Coho for the rich flavor although the flesh is a paler pink. Occasionally a treasured white King will bite, the oiliest, richest and best smoked salmon of all.
Of course if you're looking at farmed salmon, that's all red die #3
Of course if you're looking at farmed salmon, that's all red die #3
Not true. That's an urban myth. Different species of salmon are naturally different colors, and what they eat affects the color more. Farmed salmon are NOT dyed.
Lox is not a breed of fish, it's a method of preparation that does not cook the salmon.
First the raw fish is cut into convenient sized pieces that are heavily dry salted (salt sugar mix), typically for 12 hours or more. This draws water out of the flesh and makes it denser. The goal is to make the fish very easy to slice extremely thin.
Then the fish is brined in a heavy salt solution for 12 - 24 hours.
Then the fish is freshened in running water for maybe an a hour and a half to remove most of the salt.
The fish is dried and repeatedly coated with a sugar based solution until it forms a skin over the meat, that helps keep it moist. Each smoker has their own recipe. After 4 or 5 hours of this the fish is placed in a cool smoker... never over 85 F... for a half hour to an hour.
In other words, it is a very lightly cold smoked salt-cured fish, which a skilled cutter can slice thin enough that you can read a newspaper through it.
Ironically, when you order "bagel with cream cheese and lox" at most restaurants, you don't get real lox. Instead you typically get smoked salmon, a different product. It's less labor intensive to produce, and consequently less expensive in general. It's typically a salt cure, followed by a long smoke (a day or two) in a smoker under 99 F.
While farm raised salmon isn't dyed per se, their feed is - this is a quote from the cited link above:
In salmon aquaculture, the industry endeavors to mimic the diet that salmon would normally get in the wild, so it supplements salmon feed with a synthetic replacement. It's called astaxanthin, and chemically, it's identical to the pigment that salmon get in the wild. Biologically, it's processed and absorbed by wild and farmed fish in exactly the same manner, though some species retain more color than others.
Here's another link describing the industry's practice of enhancing color of farm raised salmon.
There is also hot smoked and cold smoked salmon. The hot smoked looks more like a cooked fish. Firmer and flakier. The cold smoked looks more like raw.
While farm raised salmon isn't dyed per se, their feed is - this is a quote from the cited link above:
In salmon aquaculture, the industry endeavors to mimic the diet that salmon would normally get in the wild, so it supplements salmon feed with a synthetic replacement. It's called astaxanthin, and chemically, it's identical to the pigment that salmon get in the wild. Biologically, it's processed and absorbed by wild and farmed fish in exactly the same manner, though some species retain more color than others.
No, that isn't the same as dying. It's just duplicating what wild fish eat. If wild salmon didn't get that ingredient in their food supply, they would not be pink either.
No, that isn't the same as dying. It's just duplicating what wild fish eat. If wild salmon didn't get that ingredient in their food supply, they would not be pink either.
You do understand the difference between synthetic and natural, right? Try a synthetic fiber against your skin in a Georgia summer afternoon, and then try a natural fiber garment.
Wild salmon don't get synthetic replacements in their diet - only the farm raised ones do. And the reason? Because the diet of wild salmon consists of natural ingredients, not feed pellets. The farm raised salmon, were it not for the Pantone scale synthetic additives, would be a delectable grey color.
That's not what I would qualify as 'duplicating' - I wouldn't even call it a 'reasonable facsimile'. Lets not sugar coat farm raised salmon - pun definitely intended.
You do understand the difference between synthetic and natural, right? Try a synthetic fiber against your skin in a Georgia summer afternoon, and then try a natural fiber garment.
It's not a valid metaphor. A chemical is a chemical, and reactions involving that chemical are the same no matter how it was produced, or from what source it came.
I have no problem with people making whatever choice they wish to make for themselves. If you don't like farmed salmon, don't buy it. But there is nothing wrong with it.
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