15-minute Blog: Keta Salmon as an inexpensive source of lean protein and Omega-3s

KETA SALMON

The salmon is there in the top R hand corner of the plate.  I couldn't help but devour the skin before taking the picture.

I scored some Keta salmon fillets at the local Ralph's grocery store this morning; they were just $4.99 per pound so purchased a pound.  I seasoned them with a combo of  with Lawry's Seasoned Salt and Tony Cacciatore's salt-free seasoning, and sauteed them in some bacon grease for 5 minutes. They came out excellent!  I ate a quarter of it and saved the rest for later.

WHY SO CHEAP?

I did some research on an Alaskan Outdoors Forum and found that according to many, Keta salmon don't taste as good as the popular Sockeye salmon.  Keta salmon are also called Chum salmon and Dog salmon as the Alaskan natives used to feed the salmon to their sled dogs.
An interesting thing I read was that the Keta salmon flesh tastes fine as long as the fish don't reach fresh water.  One author stated that they wouldn't touch the meat with a 10-foot pole once the fish had reached fresh water.
One thing thread authors agreed with was that the Keta meat tastes fine if prepared fresh while the meat is still relatively orange.  They said that the older the meat, the less orange and 'mushier' it is.

COMPARISON

An article on Livestrong.com compared Keta to Sockeye in terms of nutrition.  They stated that though Keta has less calories (Keta 101 kcal, Sockeye 121 kcal), Sockeye salmon has more Omega-3s and protein per serving.
Keta has 17g of protein per serving while Sockeye has 18g, and Keta has .9g omega-3s while Sockeye has 1.1g.

MY CONCLUSION

I will take the $4.99/lb Keta salmon any day over the $8.99/lb Sockeye salmon as long as it's sold fresh, and the meat's orange and firm.  I'm already taking Omega-3 supplements and eat other sources of protein so that will more than compensate for what the Keta salmon has less of.


Happy Eating,

DAVE