Types Of Salmon In The Northwest

[Human Bean]

In another thread, mamster happened to mention 'king' salmon. I didn't immediately remember which one this is; there are too many names for the actual species. Depending on whether you're a fisherman, which market you happen to go to, or even local custom, you might see several different names. Also, the much-hyped Copper River salmon actually consists of two different species, Chinook and Sockeye; both are excellent, but the local supermarket sometimes doesn't specify which Copper River salmon they have. (IMHO, sockeye is better, but they're close).

Thanks to the Kent school district, I have a chart magnetically attached to my refrigerator for ready access at all times to sort out which salmon is which. The chart is here.

A text version:

King = chinook (I'm used to chinook rather than king, local customs may very)

Sockeye = red = blueback (never hear blueback before)

Chum = keta = silver brite (never heard silver brite before)

Silver = coho (I've usually heard coho, very rarely silver)

Pink (no aliases given; usually found in (ewww) cans?)

Atlantic (farmed in the PNW, not as good as any wild native species)

Edited November 24, 2002 by Human Bean (log)

[Blue Heron]

Good list w/ descriptions. Thanks HB.

A few more, or salmon wannabe's?

Kokanee - lake version of Sockeye

Cutthroat Trout - aren't these almost like salmon?

Steelhead - trout or salmon, or salmon-trout? It looks and tastes like salmon.

Any others?

[Human Bean]

A few more, or salmon wannabe's?

Kokanee - lake version of Sockeye

Cutthroat Trout - aren't these almost like salmon?

Steelhead - trout or salmon, or salmon-trout?  It looks and tastes like salmon.

Excellent, thanks, BH.

I can add that Steelhead are actually a trout that thinks it's a salmon (ie, anadromous, look it up ) and are almost always found commercially as farmed, rather than wild. Farmed anything aren't as good as wild, but any salmon-esque fish is better than most any other kind.

[mamster]

King salmon is Oncorhynchus tshawytscha. Hope that clears everything up! Also, there are a bunch of non-salmon anadromous fishes, including some sturgeon, shad, striped bass, and that sort of thing.

There's only one catadromous fish in the U.S.: eels, if you consider that a fish.

[Human Bean]

King salmon is Oncorhynchus tshawytscha.  Hope that clears everything up!  Also, there are a bunch of non-salmon anadromous fishes, including some sturgeon, shad, striped bass, and that sort of thing.

There's only one catadromous fish in the U.S.:  eels, if you consider that a fish.

Ah, a true bio-geek! Thanks - I knew anadromous; never heard catadromous before; I'm merely a computer-geek.

And by all definitions I've heard, an eel is a fish; it just doesn't look like one.

Bowing to your bio-knowledge...

Edited November 24, 2002 by Human Bean (log)

[tighe]

A text version:

King = chinook (I'm used to chinook rather than king, local customs may very)

Sockeye = red = blueback (never hear blueback before)

Chum = keta = silver brite (never heard silver brite before)

Silver = coho (I've usually heard coho, very rarely silver)

Pink (no aliases given; usually found in (ewww) cans?)

Atlantic (farmed in the PNW, not as good as any wild native species)

Pink salmon are also sometimes called 'humpy' salmon and chum salmon called 'dog' salmon. Don't know the origins of these aliases, but since neither are really worth eating (except maybe smoked) it probably doesn't matter.

[Human Bean]

Pink salmon are also sometimes called 'humpy' salmon and chum salmon called 'dog' salmon.

Hmm, never heard of those before, as such. Are you saying that pink salmon = chum salmon? I've heard of chum salmon, but had no idea what it was. I've never seen 'pink salmon' or 'chum salmon' for sale at the local markets.

Why does this need to be so complicated? Hopefully, this thread will sort it out for the ages.

[tighe]

No, chum salmon (aka dog salmon) and pink salmon (aka humpy salmon or humpies) aren't the same. I occasionally see pink salmon in the market. Neither are very good for cooking fresh and primarily go into canned salmon. Some smoke houses will have smoked pink salmon, which can be good too.

[mikeczyz]

i grew up in alaska fishing for salmon, so this thread really interests me. we used to never call them coho's, it was always silver. same with chinook vs. king. always called them king salmon. i still remember the best fish i've ever had was a silver we caught, my mom fileted it, squeezed a bit of lemon, a little butter, salt and pepper, put it over the campfire in a aluminum foil pouch and we were eating it 10 minutes later. amazing how tasty REALLY fresh fish can be....

mike

[sealman]

There isn't really any comparision to farmed and fresh Steelhead as far as how they taste. About 5 years ago I used to fish for Steelhead on the Kasilof River in south central Alaska before Figh & Game closed it to Steelhaed fishing. Since then I have bought several (supposed) Steellhead from a grocer and was definately NOT impressed with the taste/quality compared to what I actually caught!

I can still fish for them though I can't keep them anymore. Oh well I guess thats progress??

Edited November 24, 2002 by sealman (log)

[Blue Heron]

Speaking of Wild Steelhead ... The best piece of fish I ever recall tasting in my life was a fresh piece of wild steelhead that my brother's friend had just caught. I prepared it by basting it with butter flavored with garlic & herbs, S & P, and broiled it. The memory of that wild steelhead flavor has never left me. I would choose it over Copper River Salmon, too.

[Human Bean]

Now that you (sealman and BH) mention it, I recall my local fishmonger saying that wild Steelhead is NOT available commercially. Too few fish?

[Blue Heron]

In another thread, mamster happened to mention 'king' salmon. I didn't immediately remember which one this is; there are too many names for the actual species. Depending on whether you're a fisherman, which market you happen to go to, or even local custom, you might see several different names. Also, the much-hyped Copper River salmon actually consists of two different species, Chinook and Sockeye; both are excellent, but the local supermarket sometimes doesn't specify which Copper River salmon they have. (IMHO, sockeye is better, but they're close).

Thanks to the Kent school district, I have a chart magnetically attached to my refrigerator for ready access at all times to sort out which salmon is which. The chart is here.

A text version:

King = chinook (I'm used to chinook rather than king, local customs may very)

Sockeye = red = blueback (never hear blueback before)

Chum = keta = silver brite (never heard silver brite before)

Silver = coho (I've usually heard coho, very rarely silver)

Pink (no aliases given; usually found in (ewww) cans?)

Atlantic (farmed in the PNW, not as good as any wild native species)

HB... did you by chance ever live in British Columbia? When I lived up there I remember salmon being referred to by the the First Nation names of Chinook and Coho more than King and Silver, and I noticed that you mentioned you also were more familiar with the names Chinook & Coho. It could be a regional thing, or maybe just a change in names over time. Can anyone from BC confirm?

[Human Bean]

HB... did you by chance ever live in British Columbia?

I spent a summer there once, at a lake (no salmon), but other than that, no, not really.

Dunno why I'm more familiar with those names; probably just something associated with the wilderness that is Portland, as opposed to you city slickers in the Emerald City (I always thought the Emerald City was in Oz; either I'm mistaken, or else please say hello to Dorothy and 'her little dog too' for me. ) Also, please pet one of those Ozzy kangaroos for me (how's THAT for hopelessly mixed metaphors??) And while you're at it, please tell Ozzy not to swear so much on his TV show; those bleeps are annoying (the metaphors are in the blender on 'liquefy' now, it's hopeless).

Edited November 25, 2002 by Human Bean (log)

[sealman]

Well here in Alaska we go by their nicknames king, reds, silvers, dog (chum) and humpys (pink). It actually took me a while after moving here to figure out what people were talking about.

Edited November 26, 2002 by sealman (log)

[Jim Dixon]

I grew up fishing for silvers and chinooks in southern Oregon. The commercial fisherman also called one of those splitters, but I can't remember which.

Wild steelhead can't be fished commercially, which is why they aren't sold in the markets. The tribes are allowed to sell them sometimes, so you can occasionally buy them out of pickups in the Columbia Gorge.

Steelhead used to be considered the same species as rainbow trout, but sometime in the last decade they were designated a separate species.

Sockeye, the salmon with the most fat, is still my favorite.

Jim

[Priscilla]

Jim, sometimes there is something labeled wild steelhead in markets here in Southern California, whose flavor and texture and behavior when cooked seemed just too good to have been farmed.

Could it have been large rainbow trout I was buying? Or is it more likely to have been not-wild steelhead labeled incorrectly?

[Blue Heron]

Sockeye, the salmon with the most fat, is still my favorite.

I think King salmon have the most fat, and that's why they are my favorite.

[Human Bean]

I think I'm used to certain salmon names because they're the names the media uses (presumably also the names the scientists and Agriculture people use). Salmon are in the news many days of the week 'round here, and there have been stories in the past couple days about various groups suing to get Chinook (not 'king') salmon off the endangered species list.

I hear many more media reports about salmon than I hang around fishmongers or fishermen, so I hear the 'proper' (?) names (chinook, coho) more often than the nicknames (king, silver) I guess, so BH is probably right about the names being culture-specific to some extent.

[Human Bean]

Jim, sometimes there is something labeled wild steelhead in markets here in Southern California, whose flavor and texture and behavior when cooked seemed just too good to have been farmed.

Just guessing here:

Could it have been large rainbow trout I was buying?

Probably not, especially if the flesh was orange/pink; steelhead meat gets it's color because they eat what the salmon eat (AFAIK).

 Or is it more likely to have been not-wild steelhead labeled incorrectly?

This seems more likely, but I don't know if things are different in SoCal. Maybe they came from 'the tribes,' it's a long way to SoCal though. I doubt that I could tell farmed from wild if they weren't side-by-side for a direct comparison; I love salmon/steelhead, but don't eat it often enough to have a good sense-memory for the differences. Actually, I've never had wild steelhead, due to it's relative unavailability.

--

Factoid (confirmations or denials welcome): Wild salmon and steelhead have orange/pink flesh due to their diet (shrimp?); farmed fish have color (canthaxanthan or other carotenoid - mamster?) added to their feed to give them their color; without the added color, they'd look just like any other fish.

[thelastsupper]

Priscilla, Steelhead flesh is reddish pink, like salmon. Was the fish that you bought the color of salmon? If not, it was probably rainbow trout (which seems to me a very strange thing to pass off as steelhead).

[thelastsupper]

Uh, what HB said.

[Priscilla]

Yes, pink flesh. Darker in color than what is sometimes sold as salmon trout. Seemed not to be farmed--good texture, good color, good flavor, and the skin crisped up beautifully--in my experience farmed salmon fails on all these counts.

In researching steelhead online at the time, I ran across the rainbow trout information that Jim Dixon mentions up there, how only recently the two fish were designated separate species.

The only pink-fleshed trout I have eaten has been called salmon or sea trout...maybe sea trout is another name for steelhead?

I appreciate all this information.

[thelastsupper]

Yes, I think salmon trout and steelhead can be used interchangeably (as was mentioned earlier on this thread). Although salmon trout just sounds unpleasant.

[Jim Dixon]

Blue Heron,

You're right about fat content...according tothis site a 3 0z serving of chinook (and who's only going to eat 3 oz?) has 11.5 grams of fat, while the same serving of sockeye has 9 (it's the second hghest. But sockeye does have the highest level of omega 3 fatty acids.

As to the wild steelhead in S. Cal....not sure. Most fishing regs are set by States, so maybe it's okay down there. I just know that here steelhead aren't fished commercially.

Jim