Wild salmon season is upon us and few fish are as delicious. I like to start with king and as the summer gets hotter move to the coho and sockeye. King is perfect for the spring because it has a wonderful "marbling", layers of delicious fat making it rich and succulent. Once king salmon's short season ends, you still have months of sockeye and coho. Sockeye and coho are much leaner and have a deeper red flesh which lends them to much "fresher" preparations.
A question I hear a lot once salmon season starts is "what temperature do I cook this to?" What ever temperature you like best. I think all of the salmons are excellent raw and cured, so sushi (like the dinner we made the other night-->) and crudo and gravlax are excellent preparations...as long as you trust that your fish is very fresh. Personally, I think that king salmon is best served rare (just barely warmed through, about 125 degrees F), it accentuates its richness. You just want to warm the layers of fat so they melt in your mouth. Now sockeye and coho are different. Because they are so lean, rare doesn't quite do them justice. I like my coho and sockeye medium-rare to medium, but cooked slowly and evenly. I feel you get more flavor from the fish the more it is cooked, but if you cook it too far and too fast you can dry it out. Now if you cook it all the way through in a moist and fatty environment, (say in an olive oil bath) very slowly (in a 200 degree oven) you will have an absolutely fantastic piece of fish. Just as different cuts of meat are better at different temperatures, salmon is too. In the end it is your fish and you are paying top dollar so you should have it which ever way you see fit.
No matter how you decide to enjoy salmon, make sure you take advantage of the short wild season. Farmed salmon is just not the same. It's like craving bacon and then someone brings you turkey bacon instead. Although in this case the bacon (wild salmon) is much, much, much better for you. I love wild salmon, almost as much as I love bacon...
A question I hear a lot once salmon season starts is "what temperature do I cook this to?" What ever temperature you like best. I think all of the salmons are excellent raw and cured, so sushi (like the dinner we made the other night-->) and crudo and gravlax are excellent preparations...as long as you trust that your fish is very fresh. Personally, I think that king salmon is best served rare (just barely warmed through, about 125 degrees F), it accentuates its richness. You just want to warm the layers of fat so they melt in your mouth. Now sockeye and coho are different. Because they are so lean, rare doesn't quite do them justice. I like my coho and sockeye medium-rare to medium, but cooked slowly and evenly. I feel you get more flavor from the fish the more it is cooked, but if you cook it too far and too fast you can dry it out. Now if you cook it all the way through in a moist and fatty environment, (say in an olive oil bath) very slowly (in a 200 degree oven) you will have an absolutely fantastic piece of fish. Just as different cuts of meat are better at different temperatures, salmon is too. In the end it is your fish and you are paying top dollar so you should have it which ever way you see fit.
No matter how you decide to enjoy salmon, make sure you take advantage of the short wild season. Farmed salmon is just not the same. It's like craving bacon and then someone brings you turkey bacon instead. Although in this case the bacon (wild salmon) is much, much, much better for you. I love wild salmon, almost as much as I love bacon...
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