Salmon
Salmon is the perfect grilling fish. It maintains its texture while grilling and is delicious with a variety of herbs and spices.
Salmon is in abundant supply in fresh, frozen and canned varieties. This is making salmon a hearty and easy to prepare dish on many family menus. Whether netted off the coast of Alaska or raised in a sheltered cove in northern Maine, salmon will be at its finest on your table if you take care in buying, storing and cooking it.
The following tips are from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute:
- Look for solidly frozen packages stored below the chill line in the freezer case of your grocery store.
- Do not buy salmon with freezer burns or icy white discoloration.
- Until you are ready to use it, keep salmon firmly frozen, wrapped in moisture-proof paper or in an airtight container. For best quality, store at 0-degrees or lower for up to four months.
- To thaw, place the wrapped package in the refrigerator overnight on a plate or a shallow pan to catch the drips. Allow eight to ten hours to thaw completely.
- You need not remove the soft edible bones in canned salmon. They are a rich source of calcium for folks of all ages, including children who have dairy product allergies.
- Red sockeye is the premier canned salmon. Deep red with a firm texture, it is a great choice for salads or entrees where color is key to a pretty presentation.
- Milder, softer-textured pink salmon is perfect for pasta, soups, sandwiches and casseroles. Most abundant, pink salmon is less costly than red.
DO Eat Salmon -- But NOT This Kind!
Fresh salmon is high in Omega 3s, but smoking salmon reduces the amount by about 75 percent. In fact, eating pickled or smoked foods several times a week has been linked to an increased risk of developing certain cancers. RECOMMENDATION: While an occasional smoked or pickled snack shouldn't harm your health, it's best not to eat them regularly.
Fishing for a Bargain
While eating salmon is the best way to get your omega-3 fatty acids, it can be pricey, especially wild varieties (8-dollars a pound and up, depending on season and where you live). Farmed fish is often less expensive but may contain environmental contaminants like PCBs. Most salmon used for canning is the safer wild type and canned salmon isn't horribly expensive, either.
Warning: Don't Eat Farmed Fish!
In 2007, according to the environmental group Oceana Chile who obtained the statistics from the Chilean government, Chile, then the largest supplier of farmed salmon to the U.S., used more than 385,000 kilograms of antibiotics in its salmon farms. At least four of those antibiotics are not included on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Approved Drugs list. Suggestion is to stay away from farmed fish. Instead, buy the wild Alaskan salmon currently in season. It is sustainably fished and tastes so much better than the farmed. Or simply stick with wild fish.
