pink salmon

[brewnque]

a local seafood mkt has a great deal on pink salmon....was just wondering if these are a good salmon to smoke........i havent smoked any fish yet so any help here would be great

[Kummok]

Buy it and smoke it, brew, you won't be disappointed! See other "salmon" threads for discussions on the differences in Pacific salmon, but they are ALL better than farmed. You'll find that Pinks ("Humpies" locally) are drier than Silver, Red, and King, but very flavorful when smoked.....

[Habanero Smoker]

These days pink salmon may not be Pacific salmon. I have been finding a lot of "pink" salmon that is farmed raised. Farm raised salmon is fed a dye to produce it's color, and there are different shades of dye that a salmon farm can use, one of those dyes produces a pink color. Often large buyers, like Sam's Club, will request a certain shade, and the farm will supply salmon in that color.

[asa]

Hab -
That's one of the more depressing things I've heard today!

[Habanero Smoker]

I posted the article some time ago, and it was based on a 60 Minutes investigation. I haven't been able to locate it again.

[Oldman]

Hab -
That's one of the more depressing things I've heard today!

Ya but it is a fact that you can take to the bank. Read em' and weep...

http://www.lauflaw.com/library/salmon-to-dye-for.cfm

This one is about toxins in farm raised salmon... scary chit to say the least.
http://www.breastcancer.org/research_farm_raised_salmon.html

Just do a Google on "Farm raised salmon is fed a dye".

Olds

[Habanero Smoker]

Thanks for the links and search phrase. This is the first I've seen these articles. Now I'm depress :)

I guess like everything else "Moderation, Moderation and more Moderation!" :'(

[iceman]

I'll stick with the salmon Kummok and I get out of the ocean. ;) Thanks for the info guys.

[asa]

Thanks Olds for the links. Because of the "guidelines including the requirement for all fish to be labeled as wild-caught or farm-raised and by country of origin," we now seem to (at least locally) be able to differentiate between farm-raised and wild-caught. I've given up on the farm-raised for the past several years. I was worried that some farm-raised might be labeled as Pacific wild-caught, with that darker pink color most of them have. So I hope we're not being fooled on a regular basis, at least at the seafood counter.