An understatement, Thomas.
Considering the source, I'm not all that surprised at the results. Most of the people in the world who have been exposed to salmon, including the WA Post panelists, have mainly been exposed to real crap salmon. The other fish most such people have experience with is very mild white fleshed fish, and that is likely the best fish they have ever eaten. It kind of stands to reason that they will prefer salmon that is carefully processed and cooked in a way that closely matches the best fish they are already familiar with. That's what makes the mild tasting farmed Atlantic salmon so popular in the U.S. and Europe.
Since all 10 samples were "lightly salted," that gave the Costco farmed Atlantic salmon the obvious edge with its salt solution packaging. I'm alleging that because I'm not a heavy salt user on my food. But I salt my salmon fillets more than any other food I eat. Salt enhances sweetness. I think that the extra salt I put on my salmon extracts a sweeter flavor from the lipids in the salmon flesh. I've never done the chemistry work, but I'm pretty sure that's what's going on.
Other notes, I have no idea who Scott Drewno is, but if he's as good as the writer alleges, he should have called out the organizers of the experiment for their fish sample selection. And steaming salmon? I can see how consistency among preparations is critically significant, but for fvck's sake, what a travesty of fish cooking that is! Renown Seattle restaurateur Tom Douglas did a similar salmon tasting episode on his kitchen radio show. It was almost embarrassing to know that I could have brought a better product to his show. Taste is personal. And personal taste comes with experience. If a person's experience with salmon is mostly or entirely bad salmon, then I'm not surprised that they prefer the mild, tepid, flavor of lightly salted steamed farmed Atlantic salmon. They probably like Costco box wine equally as well as the good stuff costing $20 - $40 a bottle too.
6 out of the 10 samples were farmed Atlantic salmon. It's unfortunate that no wild Atlantic salmon were included among the samples. The king salmon from Willapa Bay are mostly Tule Chinook (altho some Columbia URB dip ins occur there), and Tules are quite possibly the worst excuse for Chinook salmon flesh in existence. And BTW, there are no commercially trolled salmon from Willapa Bay, so I'm guessing it's an ocean troll fish of unknown origin landed at Willapa Bay. The AK caught coho, both troll and Costco (gill netted) are pretty good fish, but have a strong salmon flavor that is lacking in the farmed Atlantic samples. Therefore the panelists, who clearly prefer fish with little flavor, placed those samples near the bottom. And another BTW, those AK coho are not even close to the lower Columbia River coho that Evan referenced. Species, stock, and harvest location all contribute huge differences to salmon quality and flavor. Even the abhorred Columbia River Tule Chinook is very good table fare when harvested in the ocean prior to sexual maturity.
And lastly, I guess I'm glad that so many people are unacquainted with really good salmon. The good stuff is scarce enough already. I would just as soon not have to compete with those louts for the good stuff.
and I think I stopped eating salmon for about 10yrs due to that crap
