I don’t eat a ton of seafood. There, I said it. I love pretty much every type of seafood I have ever eaten though. Wild salmon (not farmed) is one of my favorites but I also love shrimp, clams, oysters, crab, lobster, mussels, halibut, cod, snapper, perch… you name it I like it. But at most I usually only have seafood once a month. I need to change that though.
One problem is most of the seafood I can find in my grocery store is pretty underwhelming. I am not a fan of farm raised salmon at all and definitely prefer wild salmon but most of the salmon I regularly see in the butcher’s case is farm raised. Farm raised salmon tastes bland and flavorless compared to a good piece of wild caught salmon and that is the case with most farm raised fish. There are a few exceptions but for the most part wild caught seafood will be superior to farm raised. But it can be hard to find depending on where you live, what time of year it is, and what kind of seafood retailers are in your area.
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Wild Alaskan Company Review
Last week I may have found a great solution to my problem: Wild Alaskan Company. Wild Alaskan Company works with a variety of suppliers who provide them with sustainable, wild seafood. They currently have sockeye and coho salmon as well as some white fish like halibut and cod. From time to time they will have other offerings as well but their bread and butter is salmon.
I received my first box of salmon from Wild Alaskan Company (save $15 on your first order with code 15OFF) last week. They provided me with a box of salmon to review but I will be signing up for more when I eat my way through this first box. Again, all their seafood is wild caught and never farmed. It generally comes from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, is processed and packaged in the US, and then shipped to one of their fulfillment centers (they have 5 of them around the country in California, Oklahoma, Florida, Wisconsin, and New Jersey). Once you order it is shipped to you. My order was placed Monday and it arrived Wednesday in a Green Cell foam container with dry ice that most places are using now for cold shipping.
Even the packaging fits with their mission of sustainability and responsibility. The foam dissolves in water, can be put in your compost pile, and in a pinch it will even make a good fire starter for your charcoal grill. I am sure a styrofoam shipping container would be cheaper but even seemingly small details like this make me feel better about supporting a business like this.
My box contained 8 pieces of sockeye salmon and 4 pieces of coho salmon. Sockeye salmon is generally a bit darker than coho and has a bit higher fat content. Coho is a bit “meatier” textured and is a bit firmer than sockeye. Sockeye has a bit richer, deeper flavor than coho but that isn’t to say the coho is bland by any means.
The pieces of salmon from Wild Alaskan Company are right about 6 ozs each which is a great size for a normal meal. If you are really hungry you can always eat two (or more) of them. I weighed all the pieces and they were all within a few grams of each other. Everything was frozen rock hard and well sealed.
Grilled Wild Alaskan Company Salmon
But now the important stuff… How does it taste?
I thawed out 5 pieces of salmon for us for dinner. 3 pieces of sockeye and 2 coho. The charcoal grill is the perfect cooking apparatus for salmon, especially since our oven has been broken for a month.
I lit up a chimney full of hardwood lump charcoal (I prefer Fogo Premium Lump) and dumped it in my Weber Kettle after it was fully lit. A chimney full of lump in my Weber Kettle will get the grill temp right around 400 degrees give or take. Different charcoal and different grills will heat differently so figure out what works best for you.
I gave the wild salmon filets a light brush with oil and then hit them with some kosher salt and black pepper. And I love lemons with most seafood so I sliced up a lemon and put a couple slices on each piece.
Some of the edges of the filets are a bit thin so I put those towards the outside of the grill where it is a bit cooler and put the fattest parts of the filets directly over the hot middle of the grill. Put the fish skin-side down which will help protect the meat from the direct heat.
I cooked the salmon for about 6 minutes with the skin side down. If you go much less than that the skin will stick to the grill and turn into a mess. At about 6 minutes though the skin will usually easily release from the grill and allow you to flip the fish if you want.
Temperature-wise I like my salmon around 125 degrees. The USDA says you should cook salmon to 145 degrees but that is way, way too hot. Some people like salmon all the way down to 110 degrees but I think 125 gives the best balance of moisture and texture.
Measuring the temperature of thin pieces of fish like this can be tough with most thermometers but I really like the Thermoworks Thermopop for tasks like this. The Thermopop measures temps right at the tip of the thermometer so you can effectively measure your salmon by sticking the thermometer in 1/4 or 1/2 inch. And they are only $34 each.
When the temps got to about 115 degrees (took about 6 minutes) I took the lemons off and flipped the fish for just a couple minutes to give the top of the fish a bit of color. The fish came off the grill and I put the lemon slices on the grill for about 20 seconds per side to give them a bit of color and enhance the flavors.
This wild caught salmon from Wild Alaskan Company was some of the best salmon I have ever had. The filets were rich and flavorful with a great texture. I think I slightly preferred the firmer texture of the coho (on the right in the picture above) but happily ate both. My young kids and wife both loved it too. I am really looking forward to cooking some more in a few days.
If you are on a diet salmon is pretty much the perfect food. Keto, gluten free, whole30, paleo, Weight Watchers… you name it, salmon fits the bill. It is loaded with good protein and good fat and since it is wild caught you don’t have to worry about questionable farming practices or what the fish is eating.
OK, OK… What does it cost?
Of course cost is an important factor when it comes to food. We all have budgets we need to stick to and limited resources. High quality meat of all sorts is expensive and seafood is no exception.
Wild Alaskan Company offers two different plans on their subscription box. You can get 12 portions (6 ozs each) for $131.88 which works out to $10.99 per piece or you can bump it up to 24 pieces for $239.76 ($9.99 per piece) and get free shipping. Don’t forget to use code 15OFF to save $15 on your first subscription as well. If you want some other types of fish like cod or halibut you can sign up for one of those plans too.
Depending on the size of your family you will probably be looking at a $40 or $50 dinner which isn’t cheap. The quality of this salmon was better than almost any salmon I have ever had at a restaurant though. A piece of fish of this quality will easily run you $15-20 at a decent restaurant. So if you compare it to some mac and cheese or a frozen pizza, yeah, it is pretty expensive. But if you compare it to what you would spend at a restaurant for a comparable meal it will probably be much cheaper. And you don’t have to load the kids up in the car, deal with crowds, hire a baby sitter, find parking, and the other hassles that come along with a trip to a restaurant.
If you are a seafood lover and appreciate a quality piece of fish I would definitely give Wild Alaskan Company a try. Order a box and give them a shot. You can cancel or change your subscription at any time. But once you taste this wild caught salmon you definitely won’t want to give it up.
