Pinks caught in the ocean are the best, as with all salmon. In places along the Pacific Northwest coast, residents may notice a putrid scent emanating from the woods in mid-summer–literally the smell of a good pink year. They surge upstream to spawn in astonishing numbers, actually clogging streams at times and making easy pickings for bears, birds, wolves and humans. The pink, or humpie, salmon averages just several pounds in weight–like a large trout–but teems in ocean waters from Oregon to Alaska in the tens of millions. What this little fish lacks in size it makes up for in sheer abundance. This fillet, to be grilled and served with Alaskan chanterelles, came from a pink salmon, often considered the lousiest tasting of the salmon. Here, we catch, taste and discuss the wild Pacific salmon–from the reddest to the biggest to the best. Some is, of course, farmed–almost always the Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar–but such cage-raised fish are not a part of this discussion. Other times, salmon is sold anonymously or under false marketing names–like “silverbrite” for the ill-named chum salmon. Some restaurant menus will specify the species–especially if the fish is Chinook, also called king.
But within the Pacific salmon genus, Oncorhynchus, there are five main species–and they are all very different. Their bright red meat is so distinct and so delicious that it hardly qualifies merely as seafood but, rather, occupies a princely culinary category of its own. Salmon are also one of the most revered guests in any kitchen.
Far inland, within river basins of the Pacific Northwest, their biomass nourishes the soil, while at sea, nearly every level of predator–from rockfish to halibut to seal to orca–relies at least partially on this abundant source of food. Salmon are one of nature’s miracles, a resource of protein and nitrogen that feeds entire ecosystems, both marine and terrestrial. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Kyle Strickland. Biggest, most succulent and greasiest of the salmon, the Chinook, or king.
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