Let's do a test first, the following picture, can you tell which salmon is counterfeit?
If you can't tell the difference, the following content is still quite useful to you.
"Salmon, it turned out to be the internet celebrity name given to it by the Chinese people"
"Salmon" is not an official fish classification, but rather a trade name. It belongs to the salmonid family. So where did the name salmon come from?
The first origin is that the Latin word "salmo" means "to rise", because this fish can take off without wings and can fly over waterfalls. The English word "salmon" is also derived from this. The Chinese name "salmon" is derived from Cantonese transliteration. It became the name that everyone in Greater China used to call it later.
So why should salmon practice the ability to leap? Because of the annual spawning period, salmon have to go back from the sea to the river, and they have to leap over many obstacles.
It is not easy to clarify the classification of salmon, because there are many similar and fake members in it. There is an intertwined relationship between science and business, between facts and interests. The following diagram can be briefly summarized:
The classic salmon that exists in our Chinese world is the Atlantic salmon (Norwegian salmon).
"Where did the salmon we ate come from?"
If I ask you, which country is the salmon we eat mainly imported? You will surely say without hesitation: Norway! Wrong! It is only sixth. At present, the largest supplier of salmon (Atlantic salmon) in China is actually the Faroe Islands! Of course, it is close to Norway.
Since 2013, Norway has not been China's main supplier of Atlantic salmon (salmon). In 2015, China imported 14,902 tons of chilled salmon from the Faroe Islands, ranking first, and only 3,537 tons from Norway, ranking sixth. The countries in second to fifth place are Chile, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.
Moreover, the salmon we eat is basically farmed. In 2010, for example, only 0.25 million tonnes of Norwegian salmon were caught wild, while around 1.4 million tonnes were farmed in captivity, which is 500 times more than wild caught!!
In general, Atlantic salmon (mainly produced in Norway, faroe Islands, chile) is of better quality than Pacific salmon (mainly produced in Alaska in the United States and Hokkaido in Japan). Because the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean are cold and the climate is cold from its proximity to the North Pole. Salmon that matures after living in deep water for three years can only withstand the cold of the sea by accumulating a large amount of fish oil. At present, Norwegian salmon are basically "wild captive" and are kept in captivity along the coastline and do not go through the process of "going back to the river".
"A life of awe-inspiring salmon"
Speaking of back in the river. This brings us to the legendary life of salmon growing in a natural environment. Wild salmon go through roughly three stages in their life.
< the first stage> salmon have to live in fresh water for a period of time after turning from eggs to small fry before swimming to the sea. At this stage, it is estimated that more than 40 per cent of salmon fry will be eaten by other predators.
< the second stage> is in the sea, the salmon in the sea, is the most important stage of their life's physical growth, they become large and fat in a short period of time. But in the vast ocean, the safety of salmon is not guaranteed, seals, Greenland sharks, silver cod, and we humans, all regard salmon as a good meal, and about 70% of salmon are eaten at this stage.
< the third stage> live in the ocean for about one to four years, and when those surviving salmon are fully grown and mature, they will begin their final fish journey, returning to their birthplace, returning to the freshwater rivers to aggregate spawning and reproduction.
After arriving at the spawning ground, they did not care to rest for a moment and began to dig pits in pairs to lay eggs and fertilize. In order to get a better and safer spawning ground, there is a fierce competition between fish and fish. Meanwhile, a large number of falcons swoop down to catch salmon during the day and bears and coyotes at night. After spawning and fertilizing, the salmon die of exhaustion, and the river is full of dead salmon. They complete their mission in the final struggle of life, ceding a new round of life to their offspring, ending the journey of death just to breed the next generation.
The life of salmon is amazing! What is particularly touching is the last moment of their lives. They overcome all kinds of difficulties, avoid countless dangers, and in the last moments of life, they fight against the current, migrate to lay eggs, and end their lives.
"Rainbow trout – it's not my fault for using me to impersonate salmon!"
Because salmon is delicious, has high nutritional value and is expensive, counterfeit salmon has begun to appear on the market. Among them, the rainbow trout is more divine and difficult to distinguish.
Salmon trout, originally a wild fish living in North America, was artificially bred to produce the largest and cheapest salmon in the farm, and the main breeding countries are Chile and Norway. Most of these specially developed rainbow trout are land-sealed freshwater species, and the sashimi taste is very close to that of seawater salmon.
Rainbow trout was farmed on a large scale about a decade ago, but marketed poorly. Later, someone came up with an idea to sell rainbow trout as salmon and cut it into sashimi to eat, so the sales improved. But although the image is also false, there are ways to separate the two.
There are many fake salmon on the market. Among them, the rainbow trout is more divine and difficult to distinguish. Here are a few tricks for you to tell the difference between salmon and rainbow trout:
❶ Look at the head
Norwegian salmon are cultured in the artificial deep sea, the body length needs to reach more than 1 meter to export, the weight is generally more than 12 pounds; while the largest rainbow trout is about 40 cm, the weight is generally about 8 kg.
❷ Look at the appearance
Rainbow trout has a clear red line on the side of the body, while Norwegian salmon does not.
❸ Look at the color
The flesh is orange-red in color, and the flesh of rainbow trout is biased towards dark red.
Salmon is pink after cooking, and rainbow trout is darker in color.
❹ See price
The market price of salmon per kilogram is more than 100 yuan, while the price of rainbow trout ranges from 30 to 40.
Because it is really difficult to identify the counterfeit salmon with rainbow trout. Especially in the absence of a true-false contrast. The easiest way to not be deceived is to help the regular big brand stores!
"I naively thought that Japanese people love salmon the most."
Usually everyone eats salmon in Japanese sushi restaurants, and there will be a misunderstanding that salmon is the most produced in Japan, thinking that Japanese people love salmon the most. In fact, salmon is far less popular in Japan than in China.
It turned out that Japanese high-end sushi restaurants did not buy salmon because it was not traditional enough and "naturally beautiful", leaving too little room for professionals to play. Most Japanese people hold the concept that "fresh seafood from the waters around Japan is a high-quality product", and especially prefer white fish with a mild taste. Although it is not popular with high-end Japanese food restaurants, it is quite popular in general restaurants because of the price of salmon.
The philosophy of Japanese cuisine: With minimal processing, we restore the original deliciousness of the "ingredients" in nature. No fancy craftsmanship, no complicated seasoning, the need for perfect and fresh ingredients, showing their own taste is the best. It's always been the hardest thing to go from complicated to simple.
Having said that, here are a few of the most rare fish species in Japan, but more famous in Japan.
❶ Bonito: Our usual wooden fish flowers are made of bonito. But the gorgeous turn of bonito is not limited to the wooden fish flower, it is even known as the source of the taste of Japanese food.
❷ Tuna: Also known as tuna, tuna. Among them, the bluefin tuna (black tuna) is recognized as the best quality tuna species. Tuna has always been one of the most beloved seafood dishes in Japan, especially tuna sashimi. In 2013, a giant tuna was auctioned at the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, Japan, which was eventually purchased by a sushi restaurant for 155 million yen . This translates to about RMB 2,100 for each piece of sushi containing a slice of fish. Can you get your mouth shut?
❸ Yellow-banded trevally: The best species of trificinalis fish, the color of the fish is as transparent and slightly red as mutton fat jade, and the fat content is just right. It has always been regarded as a super high-grade fish species in Japanese food.
❹ Golden Seabream: Golden Seabream is usually only available at high-end Japanese food stores.
❺ Japanese squarehead fish: also known as sweet seabream, horsehead fish, in Japan belongs to the high-level fish species, Yamaguchi Prefecture is a famous production area of squarehead fish.
❻ Scaly pipe fish: very indulgent in appearance, long and flattened, posteriorly circumferential cylindrical, mouth is tubular, tail fin is extended into filamentary, the longest can grow to 1.5 meters more than 5 kg, the general length of strange fish are very tasty. The best of sashimi. It is a high-grade sashimi species in Japan.
"Such a seductive color turns out..."
Let's go back to today's protagonist, salmon.
Salmon meat has a seductive red and white color that makes you drool because the foods that wild salmon often eat (plankton, shrimp and small shellfish) contain a red carotenoid, mainly astaxanthin.
Flamingos' feathers are so pink, but also because the food they often eat contains astaxanthin, which is super magical.
However, the salmon we can eat now is basically farmed salmon. These salmon can't eat the food that makes it red, and the meat is white. But！ How to sell white salmon? Therefore, farmed salmon will add artificial astaxanthin to make the meat red. That's right, we eat dyed fish.
But how red is it? Some surveys have found that the more popular everyone likes (psychologically it feels closer to the wild, but it is just to lie to yourself, tears). So in order to facilitate everyone to control the "product", the so-called "experts" have developed a set of salmon standardized color card "SalmoFan".
It is said that colors below the color number 23 can not sell for a price, I just want to ask where there is a white salmon that can sell me cheaply... It's all a routine anyway.