Atlantic Salmon

Atlantic Salmon Flavor Profile

Atlantic Salmon Flavor Scale

Flavor
Oil
Texture

Atlantic Salmon have a milder flavor than wild salmon. The flesh ranges from pink to orange depending upon the amount of pigment added to their feed. The flesh has a medium-firm texture with large flakes and a medium fat content.

Typical Cooking Methods

There are thousands of excellent recipes for fresh grilled fish like salmon, from simply grilled with lemon, to sauteed with a compound herb-garlic butter, to flame-broiled with bbq sauce. The options are endless and only limited by your imagination.

Sushi Health Code Notes for Salmon

These are notes from the Washington State Health Code, the health codes in your region may be different.
Wild salmon for sushi should be frozen following these guidelines to kill any potential parasitic larvae:

• frozen and stored at -20° F (-4° C) for a minimum of 7 days (168 hours), or
• frozen at or below -31° F (-35° C) until solid and then stored at that temp for a minimum of 15 hours, or
• frozen at or below -31° F (-35° C) until solid then stored at -20° F (-4° C) for a minimum of 24 hours

Aquacultered salmon for sushi can be served fresh (never frozen) under the following circumstances:

• they are raised in open-water net-pens, or
• are raised in laned-based systems such as ponds or tanks
• and are fed a formulated feed (such as pellets) which contains no live parasites
• (I don’t quite understand these distinctions for aquacultured fish as it seems to allow virtually all aquacultured fish! Very minimal standards. Apparently the parasite issue is much more prevalent among wild fish.)

Proper documentation for sushi products

• If freezing the fish in-house, documentation must show the temperatures and time held at each temperature for all product
• If frozen product is purchased from a vendor then supporting documentation from the vendor is required stating temperatures and time held at each temperature for all product
• Fresh aquacultured fish must have supporting documentation from the vendor stating the fish was cultivated according to the standards stated above.
• All documentaion must be kept for 90 days

Alternate Names

Eastern Salmon, Norwegian Salmon, Scottish Salmon, Farmed Salmon.

Description (Salmo salar)

Atlantic Salmon have silver skin with black cross like spots primarily above the lateral line, as well as one or several large black spots on their gill cover. They have no spots of the tail. In comparison to wild salmon, Atlantic Salmon are most similar in appearance to Coho Salmon. They are commercially available from 4 – 18 lbs. A key difference between Atlantic Salmon and other Salmon is that they are iteroparous, meaning they do not die after spawning, but can return to the sea.
Follow the link for a video on how to identify species of salmon.

Range & Habitat

Commercial Atlantic Salmon are virtually all farm raised. They are raised in floating pens and acquire the name of the country they are raised in: Scottish Salmon, Chilean Salmon, Norwegian Salmon, etc. Aquacultured Atlantic Salmon was first practiced in Norway in the 1960’s but didn’t really hit the commercial seafood scene until the early 1980’s. Since then salmon aquaculture programs have grown rapidly and now it is a very successful industry in many countries. Read more about salmon aquaculture.

Typical Wholesale Products

Whole Dressed, H&G, Fillets, Steaks

Atlantic Salmon Availability

Fresh seafood availability chart: green areas show peak availability, light green show limited availability. Frozen available all year long.

Atlantic Salmon Butchering Yield Percentage

Atlantic Salmon Sustainability Info

Name	Alternate Names	Catch Method	Catch Region	Seafood Watch	Ocean Wise	Sea Choice	Mercury Concerns
Atlantic Salmon	Eastern Salmon, Norwegian Salmon, Scottish Salmon, Farmed Salmon	Farmed – Recirculating System	Worldwide				Low
		Farmed – Net Pens
Atlantic Salmon, Verlasso		Farmed	Chile
Roe	Ikura	Wild	Alaska		n/a	n/a
		Farmed	Worldwide	n/a	n/a		Low
Disclaimer: The sustainability info above is accurate to the best of our knowledge. However, each program randomly updates their information without our knowledge. We therefore recommend that you verify the current accuracy of this information.
= Best Choice/Recommended = Good Alternative = Avoid/Not Recommended							Updated January 2015

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2 Comments

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Casey

4 years ago

Love this article! I’ve sent it to many customers who do not have experience eating or preparing salmon. I’ve been working in the seafood industry for 7 years now and worked in the marine science field previously (I’m a total fish nerd). I’d love to chat with you about a few differences with farmed vs. wild salmon – possibly help out with some information to add to your article. Thank you again for a providing a great resource to send to my customers!

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David Buchanan

Author

Reply to  Casey

4 years ago

Glad you found the info useful! And I’m always open to learning more. I’d be interested in seeing what info you could add about the differences between farmed vs. wild salmon. You can contact me david@ chefs-resources .com

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