Salmon and Salmon Trout

It seems only a few years ago that salmon ranked with lobster as one of the fish ’treats’ for special occasions. Now, as a result of being farmed very successfully on a large scale, it is becoming cheaper than many other fish and is available, of consistently good quality, all year round.

Between February and August wild salmon is sometimes available; its flesh is a much paler pink, delicate and succulent, and should be cooked very simply to make the most of its flavour and texture.

Salmon trout is a family of several species of brown trout which, like salmon, leave their rivers for the open sea and develop pink flesh – though not as orangy pink as salmon – as a result of the crustaceans they eat. Salmon trout is one of my favourite fish, even more smooth fleshed and moist than salmon, paler pink and less oily. Salmon trout is smaller than salmon with a more rounded stomach and stubbier tail.