I'm very excited... just got back from an impromptu trip to my local Costco where I was actually after some cheap pork shoulder (which I found). Happened to wander by the salmon cooler, and would you believe for the first time ever that I have seen, they had it stocked full of Fresh Wild Alaskan Sockeye salmon...right next to the usual Scottish Atlantic farmed stuff. Never frozen either according to the label. It's such an attractive red colour, the farmed Atlantic stuff looks positively anemic next to it!
Anyway, bought 4 fillets, but now I'm in a pickle as I'm heading out of town for the weekend. I want to keep it as fresh as possible (who knows when it was caught!?) but I'm not that keen on freezing it unless I have to. But... guess I'm going to have to, as I don't think I'll be able to get it smoked this week.
Kummok... and special recommendations for Sockeye? Skin on/off... etc etc....
Nice score! Here's a couple of thoughts i have...
If you aren't going to smoke it for a full week, i would probably vac-pac it and freeze it. It really doesn't hurt it to freeze for a while - i just put a batch of sockeye in the smoker that i caught last July and it turned out fine.
Skin on, skin off - i prefer skin off and cut into "two-bite" size pieces - that's just me. I will probably keep some this year with the skin on and smoke the entire fillet. The smaller pieces have more surface area for the bring and smoke flavor; the full fillets have a great presentation if you're having a party or something like that.
Good luck and enjoy a little taste of Alaska!
seriously - in the time you needed to post this you coulda grilled and eaten it! There's more coming!
Quotelocal Costco
Envious of you ExpatCanadian, our nearest Costco is in Liverpool which is a plane or ferry ride away!! :D Let us know how it turned out?