I Tested 4 Salmon Types, Only One Wins

What's up, dude? The world of salmon can be pretty confusing, so today we're tasting four different types of salmon side-by-side to see how they really compare. Now let's go! The four fish we're gonna work with today are as follows. First up is Atlantic salmon. This is farm-raised salmon, and almost all Atlantic salmon sold in grocery stores today is farmed, because wild Atlantic salmon populations are endangered at this point and not commercially harvested. And you know, in my personal experience, the benefit of just regular old farmed Atlantic salmon is A, it's cheap, and B, it's really high in fat, so it's hard to mess up. You really can't overcook it. Well, you can, but it's still gonna be okay. You can kind of think of it like chicken thighs, right? There's just more fat in there, therefore it's hard to overcook, whereas something like chicken breast is easy to overcook, and that would compare to something like wild salmon, which is really lean. Next up, we have Western raw salmon. Western raw salmon is also farmed, but it's a premium Scottish Atlantic salmon raised in sea locks in the Western Ross region of Scotland. And what makes Western raw salmon special is it's raised with slower growth methods and really more careful feeding, which gives it a firmer flesh and richer flavor than just your basic farmed Atlantic salmon. The third on our list today is wild sockeye salmon, which have a deep red color from their natural diet of krill and plankton. The flesh is generally much, much leaner than farmed salmon, and it's firmer with a more pronounced salmon flavor than something like your basic Atlantic salmon. So wild salmon is definitely the healthiest one on the list, but it's got a huge downside because of the lack of fat within the meat. It's incredibly easy to overcook. And our fourth and final salmon is king salmon Chinook salmon. Chinook, Chinook, Chinook, I don't know. And king salmon is a wild Pacific species prized for its size and its richness. It's got the highest fat content of all Pacific salmon species. The flavor is rich and buttery and often considered one of the most luxurious salmon choices. In my personal experience, it tastes amazing whether you have it raw or cooked. And because of the high fat content, it really is just divine. It melts in your mouth. The downside is it's like literally the most expensive salmon you can buy. Now, as far as what you're gonna pay at the grocery store when it comes to these four types of salmon, first off with the Atlantic here, it can be anywhere from $8 to $15 a pound, but you're definitely gonna see it towards that $8, $10 region mostly, making it by far the cheapest salmon on the list. And that is why it's so popular. Next with the wild salmon here, it can be anywhere from $15 to $25 a pound. It really depends where you get it. And the Scottish Western raw salmon is very similar to the wild and you'll find it anywhere from $15 to $25 a pound as well. And finally, the king salmon, which is anywhere from $20 to $30 a pound. But honestly, I just got that one at Central Market here in Austin, Texas, and it was $39.99 per pound, but Central Market is just ludicrous, right? So there's a big range with that as well. Now, in order to give these four different salmons a proper taste test, I'm gonna cook them all the exact same way, which is my patented pan-fried salmon technique, and it's one to remember. Now, before moving on, one thing I've learned over time is that comfort at home matters. And it doesn't matter if I'm cooking, working, or just walking around the house, the type of footwear and socks I wear makes a big difference. And that's why I'm really happy to partner with today's sponsor, Bombas, a brand known for making incredibly comfortable everyday basics. 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We're just gonna score this skin a little bit, right down the middle, and then a little bit again right there, and then straight through right there, which is gonna give us these little four strips of bacon we can pull off once it's done cooking. And I think I first shared this technique back in like 2021 or maybe even 2020. I was banging on and on about bacon of the sea because when salmon skin is done right, it's actually incredible. It is the bacon of the sea. And sometime later I saw Gordon Ramsay banging on about bacon of the sea. Let it be known, it was here first. Proud moment of my career though, having Gordon Ramsay steal your... That's top, that's great. And now I'm just taking some nice flaky sea salt here, and I'm just gonna season this up all the way around, just like so. Now we can get to pan frying. And whenever you're cooking salmon, the heat is very important. You wanna keep it on medium low. Just add a little bit of neutral oil, then lay in your salmon. Make sure it goes away from you as you lay it down so you don't splash any oil on yourself. And then with your spatula, just put some slight pressure on the salmon. Not enough to damage the flesh, but it just helps that skin get a really good contact to the pan. And whenever you're cooking salmon in a pan or any other type of fish for that matter, you can simply just look at the side. And when it's cooked about one third of the way up, you know it's ready for a flip. Which for this piece of salmon and for most regular sized pieces of salmon will take about three minutes. And another pro tip I got for you, look at your spatula and you'll see that it's curved a certain way. Flip it upside down so when you go to scrape out that skin, it just releases so much easier. Then just flip it over and you're ready to go for the next step. Which is to reduce the heat all the way down to low and then add about a tablespoon of butter and we're gonna begin basting for about two minutes. Just make sure you wait till that butter is nice and hot and foamy and bubbly before you start basting. And that's it my friends. Now just remove that from the pan and let it rest for a few minutes. And that's how easy it is to make incredible pan fried salmon. And I follow the exact same process for all four pieces of salmon we'll be trying today. It is time now to finally give them a taste. All right, I got Marcus here to taste all this salmon with me. So we have two different opinions and we're gonna start with the Atlantic salmon. Now first off Marcus, check this out. So you can just rip off that little bacon strip right there. There's your bacon of the sea. Let me get the other one. Nice crunch on that. I mean, if anything is bacon of the sea, it's straight up that. That's like, I don't know, I love crispy salmon skin. Some people are grossed out by it, but you scale it, you do it right, delicious. And it's texture to salmon. It's way too good to not make. Now let's get a look here inside of our Atlantic salmon. I actually overcooked this one a little bit. I let it sit on a little too long, but actually still feels pretty tender. If you get the belly section, obviously that's gonna be more tender. Of course you can do a little squeeze of lemon on here if you want, whatever. It's delicious. It's good. It's actually really good. Tell you what, cheapest salmon and it's everything I want and need in a piece of salmon. Marcus and I were joking before this video, like what if we like the cheap farmed Atlantic salmon the most? And I don't know, because that's super tender and it just has the right amount of fishy flavor to me. It's like not overly fishy or underly fishy, just like perfect little piece of salmon. Has its identity. It's very luscious, fatty. It's good, right? It's perfect. Yeah. Tatiana, bacon of the sea for you right there. She's real. It's not a fake hand. Next up, we've got our wild salmon. And let's see how we did with this one. Let's get into the flesh of this wild salmon. I tried to really cook it to only about 120 so it wouldn't get crazy overcooked. Seemed pretty flaky. All right, let's give it a shot. Here we go, wild salmon. Wow. Flavor is actually pretty different. Just a little bit cleaner to me, but the downside is there's no fat in there so it's a lot drier in your mouth. Just noticeably leaner. Smaller piece of fish. It's not bad. It just doesn't have that rich, fatty, you know, melt in your mouth thing that, you know, that's why people love salmon. And it's unfortunate. Still tastes good. Tastes good though. Tastes good. Next up, we got our Scottish salmon here. There you go. Crispier. Stayed crispy longer. Although I will say when cooking the Western raw salmon, it was really sticky. It was so hard to release that from the pan without damaging the skin. Whereas the other three just came right up. So I don't know why, but there you go. Now let's flake into this thing. Again, tried to pull that at like 120. You can see it's still looking really nice and tender. I can just flake a little bit of that off. Yeah, it's coming apart nice and easy. All right, Marcus, here we go. Get some of that belly right there, dude. So I think that's going to be, that's going to be money. Whoa. Like pudding. Holy smokes. Dang, dude. I mean, there are levels to this. So you try the Atlantic and you're like, you know what, that's good. Like, can it get much better? It can, man. That not only tastes better to me, but it's so melt in your mouth tender, this one. Like the fat content, it's just delicate and just buttery and flaky and delicious. We did cook this one a little bit less than the Atlantic, but it is crazy. The lusciousness in this, it's just twice as luscious. Kind of want to try the Atlantic again after trying that. Dang, the Atlantic tastes pretty darn good, actually. Trying to figure out which one I actually prefer, to be honest with you. I definitely prefer the cook on the Scottish, but they're both great. Yeah, honestly, they both taste good. It's just the Scottish one is just falling apart, melt in your mouth. I do notice that the Scottish skin tastes way more fishy than the Atlantic, but still great. And finally, last but not least, we have our King Salmon here. Wow, that, man, this thing feels crispy as hell. The finer things. Let's try this bacon of the sea on the King. Oh. Oh! That's crazy how long that stayed. That's like fresh off the oven crispy still. And the crunch on that reminds me of like Peking duck skin when it's done really well. It's like glass-like, like super crunchy, delicious. Not fishy at all, just straight crispy. Tastes meaty to me almost, like beefy. I don't know how it maintained it. That is wild. Been off by far the longest. Now let's flake into this thing a little bit. Oh, dude, Marcus, I can just tell, just pushing into this. Look, look, you guys, I am just barely pushing this, barely, look how it's just like literally melting apart. All right, here we go, King. Whoa! It's different. Man, when you try the other three and then you try that King, what the hell? That is crazy. Man, if the last one was pudding, this one is like sauce. I'll be honest, I prefer it to be slightly firmer than the belly that I just had because it was straight up legitimately fish pudding. Yeah, like, I mean, this, it just melts in your mouth, you know, but like, I think for most people, they might even prefer the Atlantic cooked more just because it's like what they're used to. I could see a lot of people trying that, cooked like that really nicely, like how a restaurant would do it. And then, I don't know, for some reason, not liking it just because it's so different. But I mean, it's incredible in my eyes. It's good. I would honestly play with how it felt in your mouth at different temperatures just because it's so soft. It's like the softest fish I've ever had. So for me, with all of them, I'm a cheap dude. So the Atlantic is great and at a great price. I'd probably go for that. And then if I ever wanted to splurge, go for the more expensive one. Yeah, I mean, Atlantic salmon, you know, it is good. If you look into that world though, there is a lot of just like horrible things going on when it comes to raising, you know, farmed salmon. It can get pretty gross. So if you eat a lot of that, maybe don't look that stuff up. For me, the king salmon is like something you should eat raw. I mean, it's delicious and incredible like this, but it's such a fine quality of fish. Like it belongs in sushi, the way I look at it. Wester Ross is also really good. Ascuna Bay is another one that I really love. And that's it, my friends. I hope this helps you understand salmon a little better. So next time you go to the store, you know what to buy. Make it.