Seattlest: Copper Is Still Gold

rd

Fri, 25 May 2007 11:23:51 -0800

Copper River is nothing but a brand name and an excuse to inflate prices. People saying Copper River salmon tastes different from any other Wild Alaskan Salmon are just as clueless as the the people who think white king tastes different from red king. It's all in your mind... The real deciding factor in how your fish tastes is how it was treated coming out of the water. If you want to be sure you are getting a quality product, buy directly from the fishermen. You'll pay about half the price and you can be sure the fish was cleaned immediately and treated with care. (Also, fish has to be either cooked OR frozen in order to kill the bugs. So all sushi must be frozen and everything else can just be cooked. And to avoid overcooking you should remove it from the heat when it is still a little pink inside. The meat will keep cooking for a couple minutes after you pull it off the grill/out of the oven.)

John Wulff

Thu, 24 May 2007 10:30:35 -0800

It is my understanding that all salmon, to be safe to consume, has at least been (briefly) frozen to kill Diphyllobothrium. (Taichi at Chiso originally told me this.)

vc

Thu, 24 May 2007 10:26:16 -0800

I don't know that "till it flakes" is the right level of done-ness. That sounds overcooked to me.

Jon Rowley

Thu, 24 May 2007 09:59:55 -0800

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your kind words but also for getting a discussion going about salmon cookery. I cringe whenever a waiter tells me "We serve our salmon medium rare". No skill required to serve a salmon half raw. When salmon comes to the table with translucence just leaving the fish, yet still juicy and succulent, that is the mark of a master. Wayne ludvigsen when he was at Ray's was THE master. He could have forty orders of salmon on the grill and each would arrive at their respective tables perfectly cooked.