This white/red thing fascinates me. I for one can't tell ANY taste diffrence. Nor could more than 15 people I did a blind taste test with.

(I had two non seasoned fillets one white, one red, BBQed at same time and place) Not one person could tell the diffeence. After a lot of testing I began giving my blindfolded subjects a bite of red followed by another bite of red. Most would say something like. "yeah, that first one was definately a white."


Yet, many folks I respect swear there is a big diffrence.

Doc, if you have another fall gathering we can try this again.

I have looked high and low for a detailed analysis of all aspects of white vs red and can't find much. The one set of tests I did find reflected no appreciable diffrence.

Abstract
Sexually mature chinook salmon were classified as red- and white-fleshed, based on the carotenoid levels of muscle and integument. Chinook salmon with high levels of total carotenoids in either muscle or integument were regarded as red-fleshed, regardless of their muscle color. The salmon with low carotenoid levels of muscle and integument were considered white-fleshed. There were no significant differences in muscle compositions of moisture, protein, and lipid. The changes in “a” value, which expresses the red color of the muscle, were parallel with those of the carotenoid levels, as indicated by a coefficient of correlation of 0.95, while no close correlation (r = 0.09) was found between lipid and carotenoid levels of red- and white-fleshed salmon. These results suggested that changes of muscle composition occurring during spawning migration of chinook salmon are related to their physiological state, but not their muscle color type.