Winner: Wild Salmon, hands down.
after waiting and waiting and waiting, it was time to do the official tasting. grab a gin and tonic. well if i am doing this, do it right. what do you judge smoked fish on. found this 1993 article in The Independent. criteria: colour, smell, salty, sweet, texture.need notebook. fish cut and plated. out to the patio. method: judge independently, avoid comparing during tasting.
Wild Pacific Sockeye Smoked Salmon vs Atlantic Farmed Smoked Salmon: The Test
Colour: Wild – rich red to coral. Farmed – light pink to light beige-y pink.
Smell: forgot to smell. will not get back to you on that.
Salty/Sweet: Wild – nice mix with fish flavour. Farmed – tastes salty and touch of sweet. not fishy. they took the cure and smoke differently.
Texture: Wild – solid, flaky, meaty, moist. Farmed – moist flakes, soft in mouth.
really, both tasted great. what doesn’t coming off the Big Green Egg. the farmed pacific salmon is quite neutral in comparison to the wild. really if blindfolded, might not even guess it was salmon. the wild pacific sockeye is bolder. more texture. a treat to look at. it is almost as though with the farmed you taste smoke, salt and sweet before fish. with the wild you taste a fish enhanced by smoke, salt and sweet.
before i sat down to write this, i went back to the fridge and cut myself a chunk of each. just to be sure. yep, the wild salmon had way more character… hmm it is sort of buttery.
its simple. i would choose wild salmon for my patio any day of the week. the farmed salmon can go inside and sit on the chesterfield with the bland folks.
but of course it doesn’t stop there. what else comes into play, i thought as i looked at my empty plate.
criteria: price, nutrition level, contaminant levels, diet, other stuff.
price at local fish shop: Wild – 39.66/kg. Farmed 23.64/kg. wild better be good for that price.
nutrition level: supposedly Wild is higher in Omgea 3s, leaner and such. don’t feel like looking up sources.
contaminant levels: Wild – low mercury. Farmed – low mercury. higher than wild salmon in organochrine contaminants (PCBs, DDTs, and other scary 3 letter things). look at the research if you are a skeptic.
this is not to say wild are immune. the wild sockeye salmon i have just smoked is a bad scene. with the Cohen Commission complete, more attention will be given to this wild fish (don’t get me on food and politics). article on research on fish farms and the decline of wild sockeye in one of our national papers a few months back. must pay attention.
diet: Wild – the things salmon is supposed to eat. Farmed – fishmeal and such
other stuff – a favourite place to check out the fish i eat is Oceanwise with the vancouver aquarium. they have profiles for 9 different salmon! here is what they say about what i just smoked:
Atlantic Salmon (Farmed) – not recommended to consume
Sockeye Salmon (Wild) – recommended to consume
hmm. off to nibble at some smoked salmon. it will only be wild from now on.
Sear To Perfection 
Looks amazing and I completely agree! Wild is leaner and has so much more flavour. I’m writing a similar post about Alberta Beef Vs. Koby Beef to be posted later this week.
Being a prairie girl, I cannot wait to read. I am tempted to dig into our beef from around here and do a grass vs grain fed beef faceoff before bbq season is over.
I agree! Wild just tastes better in every way than farmed. I stopped buying farmed a couple years ago. Being in the prairies too, I know how hard it can be to get good fresh salmon, but if it’s not wild, I wont buy it.
glad to hear. its like there this bad myth online that farmed smokes better that needs to be busted! people keep telling me about the great deal at costco for salmon. just can’t do it. i’m going to try to get some sort of white fish from up north to smoke soon.
I’ve got wild salmon from Costco occasionally, and the wild was good, but they don’t have it very often and I refuse to buy the farmed. I usually hit the local fish markets.