October 1, 2013 — There’s rarely an article in the mainstream media about farmed fish that benefits the industry. So on the rare occasions where a positive article is published, I take the time to savor it. Last week the Washington Post ran “Farmed vs. wild salmon: Can you taste the difference?,” which was a blind-tasting of both wild and farmed salmon and the latter was the clear winner. This was a large dose of vindication for anyone selling farmed salmon.
The premise of the article was a simple taste-test of salmon by the paper’s writers, a fish buyer and noted D.C.-area chefs Bob Kinkead and Kaz Okochi. The fillets were prepared simply — steamed with a little salt. The top five choices were all farmed salmon, the top two from Costco and Trader Joe’s, both Norwegian salmon. Wild salmon from Washington and Alaska fell toward the bottom of the list.