Cooking Salmon

There have been a number of taste tests comparing Farmed to Wild Salmon.

Surprisingly Farm salmon has held it’s own in several of them.  I my personal experience, the harvest method, handling post harvest and species make the most different. When I had the opportunity to have fresh caught troll silvers and freshly harvested farmed silver salmon I was not able to choose between them based on taste.

June 22, 2000

At blind taste test conducted  at The luncheon at Restaurant Nora coincided with SeaWeb’s release of a national poll  on concerns surrounding fish farms by conservation groups, diners evaluated the flavor, texture, mouth feel and color of wild salmon and farmed salmon, which were prepared the same way. Out of a possible 640 points, wild salmon received 487; farmed salmon scored 338.

Deseret Morning News Published: June 16, 2004

In a blind taste-test conducted in the Desert Morning News test kitchen,

• six of the 12 tasters preferred the farmed salmon
• three preferred the wild salmon
• three had no preference.

Although eight tasters noticed that the wild salmon had a brighter color, the majority thought the farmed fish had a stronger, more salmon-y flavor and a firmer texture.

For the test, 1 pound each of fresh farmed Atlantic salmon ($6.99 per pound) and fresh wild Alaska king salmon ($12.99 per pound) were oven-broiled. The farmed salmon came from a local grocery store. The wild salmon came from a specialty fish market, with the purveyor cutting it from the fish carcass at the time of purchase. Aside from a little margarine to keep the fish from sticking, nothing was added to taint the flavor. 

25/07/2004 09:22:26

Farmed fish comes out on top in taste test

The verdict is in. In a blind taste test at the annual convention of the American Culinary Federation meeting, 89 chefs and others associated with the culinary industry sampled farmed and wild sockeye salmon, side by side, prepared the same way.

Sixty-six said they preferred the taste of the farmed while only 23 preferred the taste of the wild sockeye. The American Culinary Federation is the largest and most prestigious organization of professional chefs within the U.S.

“These results are not so unusual,” says Alex Trent, the executive director of Salmon of the Americas, the organization representing salmon farmers in Canada, Chile and the United States.

“Other blind taste tests usually show a majority of consumers prefer the taste of farmed salmon, so this taste test among culinary professionals simply further supports the fact that farmed salmon has a taste advantage over wild.”

The taste test was conducted using fresh Atlantic salmon and fresh wild sockeye. Fillets were steamed. No seasonings were added. Each tester was asked to circle words that best described the sample. Testers could not see the samples.

 “There is a preconceived notion that if it costs more, as is the case with wild salmon, then it must taste better,” Trent explains. “That is an elitist attitude which equates price to good taste. We probably all fall prey to this attitude when purchasing consumer goods, but it just isn¹t necessarily true when it comes to food and especially farmed salmon.”

Many chefs described the taste of the farmed as rich, buttery and mild-flavoured, and were impressed with flavor as well as texture.

Taste Test Newport Ore

In a blind taste test of 120 people at a seafood festival in Newport, Ore., tasters preferred the locally harvested wild salmon to farmed Chinook and Norwegian salmon. Diners described the wild salmon’s flavor as delicate and fresh, whereas the farmed types were thought to be oily or gamey. "The differences really surprised me," says Gil Sylvia, Oregon State University agriculture and resource economics associate professor, who conducted the experiment. "There’s no way to absolutely explain it," says the researcher, but he expects that those tested were more accustomed to eating the leaner, wild fish.

One taste test I have not been able to find a result for is this one,

Wednesday, May 30 – Sunday June 3, 2007
The University of Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia

Website (http://brainfood.uvic.ca/)

Fresh or frozen, farmed or wild, Pacific or Atlantic — nearly every British Columbian has an opinion and is sure they know the difference.

Now a leading salmon scientist will try to settle the debate about salmon species and quality with a taste test at an international food conference at the University of Victoria.

Gourmets and food scientists from across the United States and Canada will join members of the Victoria public for a blind testing of frozen-at-sea wild B.C. salmon versus fresh Atlantic salmon farmed in B.C. waters.

Anyone with the answer?  Get a link on my homepage. Post the answer in comments and I will copy the comment to my home page.