What I think I've noticed about sockeye as quality table fare is the same as with chinook. I thought it was migration distance, since early run Stuart sockeye of the Fraser run are considered the best. Well, the thing about longer migration distances is that there is also a longer time between freshwater entry and spawning. So it goes. Alaskan Copper River sockeye aren't that great in my comparison check, nor are most Bristol Bay sockeye, because these fish begin spawning as soon as they reach their spawning grounds, and there migration distances are not very long.

Some spring chinook don't have very long migration distances, and some do, but they all have a time span measured in months between freshwater entry and spawning. So do certain sockeye, like most Fraser sockeye, and Baker/Lk Washington sockeye have peak freshwater entry in July but do not spawn until October, kind of like summer chinook, which also tend to rate highly as table fare.

That's why I think most Alaskan sockeye are just good, while other sockeye that have greater lipid reserves to tide them over either long migrations and or time between freshwater entry and spawning time, are excellent or outstanding.

What I don't understand as well, at least I think I don't, are certain September coho (CR B-10 and some Gray's Harbor) are fantastically fat drippin' pigs on the grill and eat as good as a salmon can.

Sg

Some of those Grays Harbor coho dont spawn until February...

I have mostly just smoked the sockeye from lake Washington.That's what I have found to be best for them. However fresh is awesome on the BBQ on a nice warm summer night. Good luck,

SZ

Note to eyeFISH: NEVER throw away sockeye without calling me first. Frozen isn't as good, but it ain't bad either....

Culturally, throwing away fish is NOT an option for any self respecting Ornamental.... just ain't done in our neck'o'the'woods.

Might have to fry it to a crisp or disguise it in strong herbs/spices to make it more palatable, but unless it's simply rotten, it's gonna get ate before it gets turned to crab bait.

Yep... gotta torture my palate with the other fillet from that same center cut chunk of sockeye tonight.

Not ornamental but same belief. Have you tried making salmon cakes? There was a recipe in the latest salmon trout steelheader. I thought I might try it. Can't say I have tried it but might be worth a try.

In a pinch, it's not as much a sin to turn those frozen old salmon into crab as it is to toss them out...

-S

but unless it's simply rotten,


Seems a while back you had a post about finding some kind of edible that was hiding in the fridge and proceeded to do your Ornamental duty.

was that the clam episode?

I gotta say my absolute favorite salmon meal is September coho, dead for a couple hours. Not the fillets but the scraps from the boat's limit. The collars, dorsal strip, bellies, and fin meat on a hot ass BBQ are absolutely awesome. Unbelievable that people throw these to the sealions.

My premade fish camp rub (brown sugar, sea salt, rosemary, cayanne) gets put on the fish about the time the fire is built. Fu<k I'm hungry now...

I'll take it one step further, I can't see a reason for any hype about sockeye.

If I never catch another one, I'm okay with that.

Why all of the haters? As a freshwater game fish, fresh sockeye are excellent fighters with similar acrobatics to a summer steelhead. Challenging fish to entice into biting, but a hot pink Teeney nymph slow drifted through a school of holding fish will often produce a deliberate take. Second only to chinook in oil content, versatile - BBQ, baked, canned, poached, pickled, smoked, raw, excellent for gravlax. Firm texture that holds together much better than other salmon in some situations such as soups or stir fry. Sockeye fisheries are among the best managed wild-stock fisheries in the world, dominated by terminal fisheries that avoid mixed stock over-harvest issues, producing high quality and relatively cheap fish that provides a responsible alternative to the consumption of over-exploited fish stocks.

Sockeye, the other red meat.

Well, this thread seems to affirm the same thing most do: diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks. Several dudes that I KNOW can cook a salmon with the best of 'em don't care for sockeye, but I still say they are the most consistently delicious salmon swimming. Of course, I like the other flavors a good deal, too....

I've had the good fortune to have enjoyed fish from lots of diffefrnt places and the Yukon king is pretty hard to beat. those fish have a pretty long trek to the spawning grounds. Just to the south, the Kuskokwim, another super long river has (in my experience) sub-par kings. The best king I ever ate came out of Grays Harbour. Different fish, different diet, different life cycle, Who knows? I got burned out on Sockeye as a kid, but I'd bet those upper Snake river Sockeye were pretty darned good.

Kings, kings, kings....

Best ones on the planet arguably hail from the big river to the south.

CR summers
CR upriver springs
CR fall upriver brights

I rate springers second because they're typically so small that the belly slabs aren't as thick as I like for my favorite recipes. Plus they're a lot of work to catch in unpredictable seasons. And did I mention they tend to be dinks.

Summers eat every bit as good but have bigger size on their side, and they run when the weather is a bit more pleasant. So they nudge ahead in my rating scale.

That's not to say URB's are third rate garbage. Again, they grow big.... they are caught at the height of the best weather the PNW has to offer.... given their abundance, they are MUCH easier to catch... AND they taste GREAT!

Make a trip to the Umpqua River if you want to catch Springers the size of Fall Chinook! They are about the nicest Springers you can get. Unfortunatly they are not any easier to catch!

That's true Chad! The only thing that makes it easier is the size of the river, and the likely holding water basically points itself out. Big arse spring kings! And they are dumber in tidewater! Rig a chovie, with a thin-twin... You can tell its been a while since I've fished successfully down there... When thin twins were all the rage! Ha!

Reds. Cook em long = cook em wrong.

I don't mind the sox at at all when they go straight from the river to the grill. Cook em fast/hot for best results as the fillets tend to dry out quickly. In my opinion, darn near all salmon, white fish, hell even bait for that matter is lackluster once it has been frozen. Freezing is a necessary evil though and as such, chinook is about the only salmon I am interested in eating post freeze these days. The rest gets smoked then refrigerated.

Fresh is best--- frozen better than no fish

After all these years, I still haven't figured out all the culinary hype around reds. I think it all boils down to eye candy.... beautiful deep royal red meat. With that kind of eye appeal, it's gotta be the best, right?

Not for me.


I'm with Doc on this one. I have had reds as fresh as you can get from many river systems. It's all good, but not even close to a fresh or well cared for frozen chinook. I think folks get hung up on the bright red flesh.


To me it's all about fat content.

CORBY KUMMEROCT 1 2006, 12:00 PM ET



Salmon is valued by its fat content, which always corresponds with richness in the mouth (though not invariably with best flavor). Here are the five major Pacific salmon varieties, listed in order of richness:

King (chinook). The lushest fresh salmon, king is the highest in fat and usually the most expensive, prized for its silken, melting texture, which is almost like smoked salmon.

Sockeye (red). With a deep, natural color, sockeye is lower in fat but still high overall, allowing the flavor to better come through. Many salmon lovers, including me, consider this the best salmon-eating experience.

Coho (silver). A comer, according to Bill Webber and Thea Thomas, independent Cordovan fishermen. It’s already prized by sport fishermen for its fight, and soon, the Cordovans hope, by diners for its mild but distinctive flavor. The most widely available autumn fresh salmon.

Pink (humpback). So delicate and pale that Thomas compares it to sole—which she does not mean as a compliment. She recalls a tasting for food writers at which many rated pink the highest. “How could they?” she asks. The likely answer: “A lot of these people had never had salmon in their life.”

Chum (dog). Like pink, chum is fished in high numbers and is lower in fat than other varieties; when it spawns in intertidal waters, it doesn’t need to build up energy to swim upstream. Its roe, however, is the most valued of the five varieties, because of its size and flavor. After being strained and separated, the eggs make particularly good ikura— the fat, bright-orange pearls familiar in sushi rolls.

I hate them because other runs are put in peril because they are a bycatch of the sockeye fishery. (2rd run ditch fish, kenai kings, etc)

I actually don't hate them, I hate the mismanagement that comes with them. I wish the cook inlet kings would flourish and the reds would crash to be honest.