Copper River salmon at CostCo now

[iOnLa]

I used to splurge once a year at Santa Monica Seafood for Copper River salmon, paying something insane like $35-$40 a pound. Can't do that anymore.
Who knew that CostCo carried it for $13.99 a pound....thought it was a typo. Was at Van Nuys branch today and got a beautiful 2-lb. ruby red piece for around $28.
Go catch em while you can.

[jackattack]

Henry's Markets are advertising Copper River Sockeye for $9.99 this week, supposedly "flown in fresh daily".

[L.A. Jay]

I purchase their salmon every year at this time. Great stuff! It is always very fresh.

[Galen]

Picked up a few Value Packs at Vons today. $7.99 a pound. Great deal.

[roundfigure]

Picked up some at the Westlake Village warehouse today for $8.99/lb. They were skin-on filets in prewrapped packages of about 3lb apiece.

[sdv231]

I was there today too ! Bought 2 packs of 2 nice filets each. Cant beat it at $8.99 for fresh CR Sockeye..........cant wait for dinner PoachSalmon served with a white wine mushroom cream sauce .........mmmmmm

[walker]

In SF, CA, Costco has not ordered it. I saw some beautiful slabs of fresh CR Salmon at Andronico .. about $20 Lb. I'll buy some soon.

[lrealml]

Replied to your old post above... didn't see this one...
Call around. They normally only have it one Fri-Sun.
The MTV and RWC Costco have both had Salmon the last 2 weeks. MTV is the best for salmon. They always have a ton on Friday this time of year.

[walker]

Are you talking about the Cooper River Salmon? I just called the SF Costco and they said they don't have it and are not scheduled to get it, as of right now.

[lrealml]

Yes...maybe only the peninsula Costcos have it... weird...

[walker]

I called Costco on El Camino in SSF and they have a small supply; I'm going to try to get some.

[walker]

At last .. I got some and my daughter cooked it in a fish cage on charcoal grill. I'd wanted to try (for the 1st time) cooking it on cedar planks but could not find them anywhere until it was too late to soak them in water for an hour.

Anyway, it was pretty delicious, not fishy. It was a filet piece about 1.75 lbs. The mgr said they had whole fish last week. We also cooked whole little Indian eggplants on the grill -- great combo.

[Will Owen]

Ralphs has CR salmon for $12.99/lb IF you have the Club card. Got a 1 3/4 lb slab night before last for $23, that would've been over $30 sans card. Sliced it across and cooked one half in the copper skillet, in duck fat, and whipped up some fresh lemon butter to pour over and serve; last night the other portion was buttered and baked. Just salad on the side. Both meals superb - gawd, what a fish!

[hobbess]

Out of all the possible sources mentioned, who's got the best, freshest copper river sockeye salmon?

With something as perishable as seafood, I'd rather find the freshest or, at least, the best value instead of trying to chase price especially when there doesn't seem to be that big of a difference in price- a couple of dollars per pound separating the most expensive to the least expensive sockeye this week.

[Jack Flash]

The stuff I've seen at Costco has looked impeccably fresh (of course, you have to be a member to shop there; I don't know if you are). More importantly, they print a "packed on" date on the label, which tells you what you need to know. Whole Foods is also pretty good about telling you when a shipment came in.

[perk]

What I found out Costco is very good. But the best I've seen is Santa Monica Seafood....and, on the other side of town, Fish King.

[Bert]

I just had some of that CR salmon from Ralph's yesterday, and man, it was REALLY good. Ralph's doesn't always have the freshest fish, but this filet I had (half of a 2-pound side) was one of the best pieces of fish i've ever cooked in my life. Salt and pepper, then seared in a pan, finished for about 7 minutes in the oven. So good when we first tasted it that we didn't even bother with lemon or butter. just salted, pan-roasted CR sockeye salmon.

[Will Owen]

Just got a Von's flyer for the week; they've got it at $7.99/lb for the Extreme Value packs, $8.99 for under 2 lbs.

Wild salmon actually holds up pretty well, perishability-wise. The first one I ever cooked was given to us at around 4 AM from a box that had been under a bar table all night long; we'd been chatting with this old guy who'd been fishing the previous day, and when we had to leave he asked if we liked fish and pulled out the box. "Go ahead, grab ya one," he said. So I did. It sat wrapped in layers of newspaper and towels all day - it wouldn't fit in our fridge, and we had to protect it from our three cats. The previous occupant of our house must have grilled salmon too, because there was a hinged wire grilling basket exactly the right size for a six-to-eight pound salmon. Despite its many hours in merely cool circumstances - this WAS Alaska, and although the sun was up this whole time it was low 60s - the fish was just fine and drop-dead delicious.

[perk]

FYI....Santa Monica Seafood has a great deal on Copper River salmon this week. $15 a pound.
I bought some and grilled it....pretty phenomenal.

[iOnLa]

well you were right that it's not King, which of course explains the price difference. do they have King yet at SMS?
and soniabegonia is right too—saw it at Ralph's Sherman Oaks yesterday for $12.99 a lb.
ah well. next time I'll curb my enthusiasm.

[TonyC]

Price dropped to $9/lb. Thought I was seeing things.

[perk]

They do have king at SMS....but it's $40 a pound. I really like the sockeye this year.....and it's very reasonable.

[Jack Flash]

King salmon at $40/lb? That seems ridiculous; it should be a lot less than the Copper River, which has a much shorter season. J&P West Coast Seafood, which sets up at several area farmers' markets, always has King Salmon in stock, and it's always several dollars a pound less than the Copper River (e.g., $23/lb v. $29/lb).

[perk]

The King I'm talking about is Copper River. They have king and sockeye Copper River.

[walker]

Boo Hoo -- for some reason, SF area does not even have them on order. It's only some parts of S. Cal and Washington State.

WHY? (I asked them to order for us here!)

[lrealml]

I bought some in the SF area the same day you posted this. ... who ever told you this is not telling the truth. Got 2 giant filets a $8.99/lb at the MTV Costco the day you posted this.

[awwwyeah206]

They've freshly jumped out of the ocean into the Marina del Rey Costco. Forgot how many lbs but it was only $15 for the filet I chose. Chopped them in to 5 steaks and pan seared them with salt, pepper, brown sugar, soy sauce, minced ginger, garlic and they came out insanely good! Only 4 minutes each side for medium-well. You could seriously charge $30 for each steak.

Are they still good after frozen? I want to stock up.

[L.A. Jay]

Yes, they freeze very well when vacuum sealed. Had the opportunity of a lifetime to nab Sockeyes out of the Copper River last summer. They were still amazing after a few weeks of being frozen.

[carter]

Medium well?
How about for medium/medium rare?
I find by baking them in a toaster oven at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, they turn out perfect every time. Add a minute or two for an unusually thick center cut portion.

[reality check]

Thanks for the tip. The San Dimas Costco had whole CR salmon for $6.99/lb and filet for $9.99/lb. Guess it was cheaper for them to swim to San Dimas than Santa Monica.

[iOnLa]

this is the real deal—wild. I never buy farm raised/color added/previously frozen fish.
the label says Sockeye. is that the same as Coho (get lost in salmonese and don't have time today to research)?
btw, I love the recipe passed along by Russ Parsons....fill shallow baking dish with half-inch of water and place on lower oven rack. put salmon on baking sheet on middle rack at around 350, or lower, and bake/steam for about 25 minutes. just a little salt and a drizzle of olive oil is all it needs to keep it moist and let the subtle flavor shine.

[raytamsgv]

Sockeye is not the same as Coho. Sockeye is better, and it's also more expensive.

[perk]

oops. i may have misread it. thanks for the clarification. i just remember when i buy the expensive stuff at fish king it is always king. but what costco sells is always good...though not king.

[soniabegonia]

now that I know it's Sockeye, I will actually get some. I do not like Coho at all - I find the flavor & texture far inferior to Sockeye. But I've seen Sockeye for ~$10-12 at Ralphs in season.

[Bert]

I actually prefer Coho (aka Silver) over Sockeye. nothing matches King, which is the fattiest and largest species, and often costs at least double.

[Jack Flash]

I saw it at Burbank CostCo last Sunday, and in San Dimas on Mothers' Day.

[reality check]

Maybe the salmon will swim eastward soon, went to the Azusa Costco today, and they did not carry CR salmon. Maybe they will get their shipment soon.

[khh1138]

I hope so! I was planning a trip to the Alhambra Costco tomorrow morning...will post if I catch anything.

[luckattack]

I saw it at the Alhambra Costco on Tuesday...next to the normal salmon at the back.

[khh1138]

Yes! Success! We're grilling it today over natural charcoal.

[Peripatetic]

Is the Copper River salmon at Costco farmed or wild?

[goodhealthgourmet]

in past years it's always been wild i assume (hope!) it still is...

[ipsedixit]

Dumb question ...

Is there such a thing as "farmed" Copper River Salmon?

http://politicsoftheplate.com/?p=583

[goodhealthgourmet]

actually it's not a dumb question at all, ipse. some Copper River salmon is bred in hatcheries and then released into the wild.

[ipsedixit]

So are those farmed wild salmon?

[Peripatetic]

I did some research before posting my dumb question (preparing myself to be told it was a dumb question) and the information seemed to be unclear. This page on sustainability mentions "fishery managers":

http://www.copperriversalmon.org/sust... (page 2)

That made me wonder whether even so-called "wild salmon" lived much of its life in a hatchery / fishery before being released into the wild.

[bulavinaka]

Just my .02 but for consumption purposes, I think of farmed salmon as the stuff kept in pens and fed artificially colored feed until they're viable for harvest. For farmed salmon, the flavor is kinda flat with a dirty back palate. If the salmon are being hatched and raised as fry then released into the wild, I'd think the time out to sea and then traveling back home would be considered wild to me.

[westsidegal]

what would your opinion be if the hatched salmon are GMO salmon or are fed GMO ingredients including antibiotics or hormones before they are released into the wild?

[ipsedixit]

what would your opinion be if the hatched salmon are GMO salmon or are fed GMO ingredients including antibiotics or hormones before they are released into the wild?
______________________________

I'd have no problem with that.

[bulavinaka]

My knowledge on gmo salmon is limited to those being products of genetic modification that would enable the salmon to grow/put on weight faster than their unmodified counterparts (wild or farmed) on the same amount of feed within a given time frame.

I have no idea what they would be like if released into the wild, so I couldn't comment on that. If the hatched salmon (gmo or non-gmo) were being fed gmo, antibiotics and hormones, then released, the specimens themselves would probably get a jump from the special treatment, but once they lived out their life cycle in the wild, I'm guessing the non-gmo fish would be the same as any other - probably with just a statistically higher success rate. As for the gmo fish? Again, I have no idea as to what they would be like. Assuming that the gmo fish are just as capable in the wild as their wild counterparts, they'd just be bigger members of the school. My bigger concern in your scenario would be the issue of cross-breeding.

[goodhealthgourmet]

My bigger concern in your scenario would be the issue of cross-breeding.
~~~~~~~~~~
bingo. that's the *number one* concern with GM salmon right now. if they escape and breed with wild salmon, there goes the genome...

[ipsedixit]

If the salmon are being hatched and raised as fry then released into the wild, I'd think the time out to sea and then traveling back home would be considered wild to me.

_______________________________

Yeah, I really think its the level of activity of the fish that is more determinative of whether I will like the taste/texture than what it is fed.

Swimming upstream to spawn does wonders ...

[happybaker]

"Swimming upstream to spawn does wonders ..."

For all of us : )

[perk]

i bought some and grilled it last night. very nice. but it's coho....not king. which is why you were paying $35-40.

[dharmathug]

Correct - King Salmon is 2x better. And I only paid $10 at Costco in CC last week

[goodhealthgourmet]

holy moly! thanks for the heads-up, will swing by Culver City/MDR tomorrow :)