Transcription
Hey, what's up everybody? It's me, Brian, and today we're talking about salmon. Specifically, what salmon you should buy at the grocery store. There's a lot of options out there. There's sockeye, Chilean, farmed, fresh, frozen. I know you guys got a lot of questions about this, and I've got some answers. So let's get right into it.
So, we got a major problem. We go to the grocery store and we see $20 salmon and $7.99 salmon, and we have no idea what the differentiator is. Before we decide what salmon we need to purchase, we need to ask ourselves three quick questions. Number one is, what's your price range? Number two is, what kind of flavors do you prefer? Do you like something wild or something mild? And then number three is, how environmentally conscious are you?
Another thing you're probably wondering is, why is Brian qualified to talk to me about seafood? And I'm glad you asked. That's a good question. For about a year, I was a seafood specialist in between chef's jobs, and my job was to basically be the expert in the room on all things seafood. And I do want to mention before we get started that this is not a comprehensive list of all salmon available to you in the world. It's just a list of what I think is going to be the most widely available stuff for you to find at the grocery store.
So, the salmon we're going to be looking at today are Chilean farm salmon, Norwegian farm salmon, sockeye wild salmon, coho wild salmon, and pink wild salmon.
So let's get into the first main differentiator here, which is farm salmon versus wild salmon. This is a basic one, but farm salmon are raised in captivity and fed a mostly vegetarian and fish meal diet by humans. And wild salmon are raised in open streams and oceans, and they eat whatever they can find, usually crustaceans, insects, and smaller fish.
So guys, we're going to start with farm salmon first. And before we get into specific origins and varieties, I'm going to talk to some basic facts about farm salmon that we need to know before we talk about it. Number one is that farm salmon is almost always cheaper than wild salmon. And this is just basically because of industry. The products that they feed the fish are cheaper. They get raised in a more systematized way. It's always going to be cheaper than paying a bunch of guys to go out on a boat, filling that boat with gas, and catching the fish in the open ocean.
Number two is consistency. Since we're raising this in a confined environment with pretty specific variables that are being controlled, farm salmon is usually more consistent than wild salmon. Not a hard and fast rule, but you will see, especially in the nicer farm salmons, the fillets are extremely consistent in terms of quality, the way they're butchered, and size.
The third thing I want to get into real quick here is that almost all farm salmon is Atlantic salmon, but not all Atlantic salmon is farmed in the Atlantic. Ah, what? It sounds confusing, I know. But Atlantic salmon is a species of salmon first and foremost. It can be raised in the Atlantic, but in the case of Chilean salmon, the species is Atlantic salmon, but it is farmed in the Pacific Ocean. And this will be a little bit more clear later when we talk about wild salmon and those species. But you do need to know Atlantic salmon is really the main species of fish being farmed in the world. There's some exceptions, some outliers, but 99% of the fish that's being farmed in the world, salmon-wise, is Atlantic salmon.
So, the first thing we're going to talk about, and probably the most widely available salmon, is Chilean Atlantic salmon. This is probably the cheapest and most widely consumed salmon on the consumer market. This is a good entry-level salmon, by the way, a great value, and a good alternative protein for people looking to get away from total red meat domination in their diets. But this fish comes with some caveats. The first one being that it is usually pretty old when it gets to the United States. Chile is super far away, and it comes here on a ship, not a plane. So it usually takes about seven to ten days for it to arrive in the United States, meaning that what's in the grocery store has less shelf life.
The other main downside of this fish, in my opinion, is the aquaculture. Out of all the salmon aquaculture that I'm aware of, this fish is the most crowded. It's fed the lowest quality feed, which is usually agricultural byproducts, and they're also pretty hard on the environment. A densely populated sea pen for fish is really not that different from an agricultural feedlot for cows or pigs. The waste from the salmon can really hurt the local ecosystem, and not to mention bad weather breaks these pens all the time. So farm salmon get released into the wild. These salmon breed with the wild salmon and it lowers biodiversity. But they also infect them with sea lice. Yes, sea lice is a real thing. And here's some pictures. Unfortunately, it's not good. I don't want to get into the details here, but sea lice is basically why a lot of aquaculture uses antibiotics or pesticides, and that is also a huge factor on environmental impact. A lot of food scientists are trying to figure out what to feed salmon, but in the end, it's probably going to be agricultural byproducts, stuff like wheat, soy, corn, and other plant-based proteins. And that usually leads to a lower quality of product. We see that in industrial beef and pork. The type of fat that's in those animals is not super great, really low in terms of omega-3, which is actually one of the main health benefits of salmon. And if you don't got it, then chicken breast of the sea, basically.
So overall, not a bad option. The salmon does taste good, and it's extremely budget-friendly. But if you're a little cringy about some of that aquaculture stuff and you want something a little bit fresher, there's definitely some better options out there.
And that brings me to our second farm salmon, which is Norwegian salmon. I'm gonna include Scottish salmon in with Norwegian here because for all intents and purposes, they're basically the same product. They eat a lot more Scottish salmon in Europe, and it gets a few more dollars a pound. Both of these products are what I call North Atlantic farm salmon. Chilean would be Southern Atlantic. We are jumping up about two dollars a pound in price here, but we're getting a significant increase in terms of quality of feed to the animals and the consistency of the product. And for the most part, the ecological impact is less intense. They're moving these salmon around a lot more often, and they're letting the areas where the salmon live rest for a while, meaning they're not in production all year round. These Northern Atlantic farm salmons are usually flown to the United States, so that gives us a little bit more shelf life and freshness in the store.
Norwegian salmon's going to be available to you in just about every iteration you could think of. A lot of grocery stores have fresh fillets in the case, frozen portions in the freezer, skinless, boneless, whatever you want. Scottish salmon on the other hand, you're going to see more often in restaurants. And again, it's pretty much the same as Norwegian salmon, but higher-end chefs like to put Scottish salmon on the menu because, like I said, it markets really well. People think that it's special, and it is great salmon, including the Norwegian. They're both great. A little bit more fat than the Chilean, more clean fish flavor, and probably just a little bit more flavorful overall. A great option if you're going with farm salmon, and it's a great value. We're usually talking about $8 a pound, $10 a pound on the high end. That's really not that bad for a high-quality protein, in my opinion.
So here's a quick closing note on farm salmon. Chilean salmon and Norwegian salmon are both going to have an additive in their food called astaxanthin. This is what makes farm salmon that super bright orange color. This is replicating what wild salmon have naturally in their diet, by the way. It's not poisonous. It is an additive, though. And just know that the color of your salmon, the depth of the color, doesn't really denote quality. They just might be adding more to the feed.
So that's farm salmon. I don't know about you guys, but I'm having a blast breaking this down. Let's keep moving. We're going to talk about wild salmon. Took off my apron in between shots there. Hey, bro, where's that apron at? Where's that signature? Where's that signature blue ape? We're in, dude. Okay, let's break down a couple facts about wild salmon here real quick.
Number one is that wild salmon is pretty much unanimously understood as a very healthy food to eat. It's full of DHA and EPA omega-3 fatty acids, which all scientists pretty much unanimously agree is good for the human body.
Number two is that wild salmon is more flavorful than farm salmon. This isn't necessarily a good thing if you like the mild flavor of farm salmon. It's more like dark meat on a turkey or duck breast in comparison to like chicken breast, if I could make a comparison that I think is pretty accurate.
The third thing is sustainability. For the first several hundred years of fishing in human history, they were total savages. They just pulled out whatever they could get out of the water. They invented the gill net and these deep ocean drag nets, and they could just get pretty much whatever. So there's still certain fisheries in the world that aren't really actively managed. In America, for the most part, they put in FIPs, which are Fishery Improvement Projects, stuff like that, to make sure that these are actively managed fisheries so that people in the future have the salmon.
Oh, and one last thing, guys, before we get started on the species here, is that all wild salmon is Pacific salmon. For the most part. For the most part, there's still some wild Atlantic salmon out there, but what we're talking about here today is Pacific salmon. Everything else under that is going to be a subspecies of Pacific salmon. So it's a little bit more clear. The wild salmon come from the Pacific Ocean, and there are a subspecies called Pacific salmon.
Okay, so as far as grocery store options go, there's three main options. Number one is sockeye salmon. The first thing you're going to notice right out of the gate is the super deep color. Sockeye salmon has less fat than Atlantic salmon, but it's super flavorful and full of omega-3s, like I mentioned earlier. If it's not cooked with attention, it can get a little bit dry, I'll be honest. But when it's cooked properly, it's one of the best fish on earth. It's at a moderate price, too. It's usually about $12 to $16 a pound, and it's usually frozen or previously frozen and then thawed. A fresh sockeye salmon fillet is really only going to be available in the summer in the United States, and I recommend trying to find something from Alaska because that fishery is managed pretty sustainably, and we can ensure that the population will be in good shape for a while.
The second variety of wild salmon that I see in a lot of grocery stores is coho salmon. This is another variety of Pacific wild salmon. It's also known as silver salmon. This has the second highest fat content of wild salmons, by the way. The chinook salmon or the king salmon is kind of the king because of his high fat content, but I'm not talking about king salmon here today because it's not usually in grocery stores. It's usually about $25 a pound, and that's too pricey for your weeknight teriyaki salmon that all of us love. The flesh here has a nice deep orange color, and it's a little bit firmer than a sockeye salmon, and like I mentioned, the fat content is pretty high for a wild fish. Oh, the skin also crisps up super good. This is also moderately priced, anywhere from $12 to $16, usually in the freezer section in portions. So I highly recommend coho if you can find it because it is a great option from the Pacific.
The last wild salmon on this list is pink salmon, and this is kind of a wild card. It's kind of the stepchild on this list. A lot of chefs and fishermen don't like it. It has a pretty low fat content, and it doesn't necessarily taste a lot like salmon. It actually eats and tastes a lot more like trout, which in my opinion is a good thing. I love that it's a smaller fish. It has really light pink flesh, and the flake is going to be a lot similar to a small fish, not like these giant flakes that you're going to see on the farm salmon, like a five-pound fillet of Norwegian salmon. The flakes are like a half inch thick. I think that's another reason why a lot of chefs and fishermen think it's of lower quality. So it's pretty different from what you're going to see at the restaurant, but it's a very affordable fish. I got this stuff at Aldi for $4.99, and like I said, it does have great flavor, and I've turned this into some pretty fun stuff. I made a video early on in this channel about smoked salmon, and I used this all the $4.99 stuff, and it was super delicious. I loved it. It tasted great. I loved it.
The main thing to contend with here is quality. The first thing is that there's usually an additive to stuff like this called sodium tripolyphosphate, which isn't a huge deal. It's there to protect frozen seafood. It's on almost all shrimp that we eat, but some people don't like that. They want 100% salmon on the label, and I understand that. I've been there. But we eat a lot of this fish at home. It's super cheap. It goes great on salad. If you're not putting it on a plate to present it in a restaurant for $25, pink salmon, in my opinion, is worth a look.
So when it comes to salmon, there's a lot of good options out there, more than ever. It kind of just depends on what your values are, how much you want to spend, and what kind of fish flavor you're looking for. In our house, we usually trend towards wild sockeye salmon or Norwegian salmon because, in my opinion, they're probably the best bang for buck in terms of flavor. And you guys know me, I'm an omega-3s guy, so sockeye salmon is a pretty good option.
So what type of salmon do you guys like? What's on rotation in your house? Let me know down in the comments down below. I'm actually pretty interested because Lauren and I eat a lot of salmon. It's a go-to staple on our weeknight meals.
Okay, so before we get out of here, I just want to touch on frozen salmon real quick. I really could do a whole video on frozen seafood, and I probably will touch on it in the future. But for this video, I just want to say I endorse frozen salmon most of the time. It's going to be fresher than fresh salmon, meaning that it's frozen at the source right after it's killed. So it basically is going into the freezer with only a few hours of degradation on it. Where fresh, like I said, coming from Chile, could be seven to ten days. If it's coming from Europe in Norway, it could be five to six days when it gets to the United States. So if you want to get really, really crisp skin, like super crisp skin, restaurant style, you are going to need probably to use fresh. And I'm not against fresh salmon. I really like it. I use it a lot at home, but it's not really that necessary. The price difference between the two is kind of negligible. If you can get a frozen portion for relatively the same price as a fresh fillet, the fresh portion is going to be a little bit more easy for you to deal with at home. You can pull it out of the freezer as you need, and the quality is there.
Okay, I'll let you go. Let's get back. So I hope you guys enjoyed this deep dive on salmon from a dude who really likes salmon. If you like this content, please hit subscribe. Thank you for sticking around, and we'll see you next time.
[Music]
[Music]
Simple time.