What is it about salmon?  I can hate it or love it.  I’ve found that the quality varies greatly, and that, to be good, I need to get better salmon.  To me, this means to look for 2 things:

1. Wild-caught salmon
2. Scottish salmon

First, Atlantic farmed salmon is listed by the Audobon Society to be avoided, while wild-caught is ‘green’, meaning safe to eat.  Second, the flavor is so much better.  Scottish salmon has taken some quality hits, mainly in smoked salmon, but the fresh, good quality Scottish salmon is organically raised and very high quality, on par in flavor with the wild-caught salmon.

I also think that salmon takes well to outdoor cooking better than about any other fish.

I made some cedar-planked Scottish salmon last year for some friends, one of which didn’t like fish.  He loved the salmon though, and I told him how to make it.  He got farm raised salmon, though, and didn’t like the results. 

Farm raised salmon is evil!  Ok, I said it!  The flavor isn’t as good, it’s often got additives to boost the color, and it’s got bad levels of bad stuff in it!  One thing about farm raised salmon is that it’s inexpensive.  This sounds like a good thing, but what ends up happening is that good commercial fisheries have a market in which it’s difficult to make a profit.  They do things the right way, trying to be good stewards of the fish population, and they often barely make it.  I’d rather pay more for salmon and limit the amount but get the quality I want than to pay dirt cheap prices for evil fish!  Yeah, I know, the fish aren’t evil… but the methods to harvest are not good.

So to how I think salmon is so versatile:

If you can cold smoke salmon, then you get the well-known smoked salmon you can buy at most groceries, but with much better quality.  Alder wood is a good choice for this type of smoking, and cold-smoking definitions differ, but keeping the smoke under 100 degrees allows the smoke to cure the salmon as opposed to cooking it.

Along with cold smoking, salmon takes well to hot smoking.  I made some last weekend with a 2 lb chunk of fresh wild-caught salmon with black pepper, grey salt, muscovado sugar and ground chipotle pepper.  I smoked it at a higher temp (300 degrees F), until it reached about 125.  It was tender with a sweet, spicy sugar glaze… Excellent stuff!

Grilling also works well for cooking salmon.  It seems to just soak up that grill taste, and the flesh is firm enough to hold up to a good heat.  Grilled salmon on a bed of mesclun salad, some kalamata olives, fresh parmesan reggiano and reduced balsamic vinegar is just about as good as it gets for fish from the grill.  (Ok, I love Chilean sea bass, too)