Compare salmon sockeye salmon — which is tastier and healthier

The salmon fam­i­ly is dis­tin­guished by use­ful com­mer­cial vari­eties of fish, which are val­ued all over the world due to their excep­tion­al taste and nutri­tion­al qual­i­ties. Some of the vari­eties of salmon quite often fall on the din­ner table, oth­ers are rare. Today we will talk about equal­ly valu­able, but, nev­er­the­less, dif­fer­ent vari­eties of fish — chum salmon and sock­eye salmon. What is bet­ter and what is the dif­fer­ence? Our experts know the answer.

Features of salmon representatives

Chum salmon is con­sid­ered one of the most com­mon com­mer­cial fish of the salmon fam­i­ly in the world. Under nat­ur­al con­di­tions, there are two vari­eties of chum salmon: sum­mer and autumn. The first species is an inhab­i­tant of the north­ern part of the plan­et, the sec­ond is found exclu­sive­ly in the south. Autumn chum salmon dif­fers from sum­mer chum salmon not only in name, but also in size: it is much larg­er. It also dif­fers in taste.

Chum salmon have an excel­lent mem­o­ry of their birth­place and return there to spawn. This is a rather large fish, reach­ing in some cas­es a weight of 15 kg and 1 meter in length. It has a dull, even sil­ver col­or. Dur­ing the spawn­ing peri­od, her body grad­u­al­ly dark­ens, pink­ish stripes appear on it, and her teeth increase in size.

Chum salmon is a very nutri­tious fish, con­tain­ing in its com­po­si­tion a sig­nif­i­cant amount of vit­a­min E, C, B vit­a­mins, as well as micro and macro ele­ments such as phos­pho­rus, chlo­rine, flu­o­rine, potas­si­um, iron, etc. It is a valu­able source of pro­tein (per 100 g fish con­tains about 19 g of pro­tein).

ON A NOTE. Chum salmon is con­sid­ered a dietary fish, it has ten­der tasty meat. Since its fat con­tent is low, we rec­om­mend using spar­ing heat treat­ment meth­ods in the process of its prepa­ra­tion: instead of fry­ing, bake, stew, add to soups. Also, this type of salmon is per­fect for aspic, salt­ing, smok­ing, as a spicy ingre­di­ent in sal­ads.

Sock­eye salmon is anoth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the salmon fam­i­ly. True, it dif­fers from chum salmon in much small­er sizes and not so impres­sive weight: on aver­age, the fish reach­es 30–40 cm in length and weighs 3 kg. The body of the sock­eye salmon has a sil­very col­or, an oblong shape, a round­ed head with­out a pro­nounced jaw.

The sock­eye salmon is dis­tin­guished by an unusu­al fea­ture: when spawn­ing, its body abrupt­ly changes its col­or to bright red, the head becomes green­ish, the jaw strong­ly stretch­es for­ward, becom­ing like a toothy beak, and the scales begin to shine. All these speak of irre­versible process­es lead­ing to death.

Regard­ing nutri­tion­al prop­er­ties, then sock­eye salmon is not infe­ri­or in this chum salmon, and in some aspects even sur­pass­es it. So, for exam­ple, it con­tains more pro­tein — about 20 g per 100 prod­uct, a sig­nif­i­cant amount of phos­phor­ic acid and flu­o­rine. Sock­eye salmon meat is an excel­lent antiox­i­dant. By the way, this fish, unlike chum salmon, is very fat­ty and is per­fect for smok­ing, prepar­ing cold appe­tiz­ers, salt.

Similar Features

Undoubt­ed­ly, both species of salmon under con­sid­er­a­tion are very valu­able com­mer­cial fish with approx­i­mate­ly iden­ti­cal habi­tats and diets. Both chum salmon and sock­eye salmon can live in both salt and fresh water. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, after spawn­ing in the lat­ter, they die.

Both salmon species under con­sid­er­a­tion are a valu­able source of unsat­u­rat­ed fat­ty acids and lecithin, a pow­er­ful weapon in the fight against ath­er­o­scle­ro­sis. With reg­u­lar use of chum salmon or sock­eye salmon, the like­li­hood of a stroke, myocar­dial infarc­tion is reduced to a min­i­mum, bones are strength­ened, and the diges­tive tract improves.

Comparative characteristics

Under nat­ur­al con­di­tions (mean­ing the process of fish­ing), an expe­ri­enced fish­er­man will be able to dis­tin­guish chum salmon from sock­eye salmon with­out any prob­lems, pri­mar­i­ly due to dif­fer­ences in appear­ance. But when buy­ing fish in a store, it is quite dif­fi­cult to dis­tin­guish one from the oth­er, espe­cial­ly when it comes to the frozen ver­sion.

But when cut­ting the car­cass, it imme­di­ate­ly becomes clear who is who. Keta has rather pale meat, which is not typ­i­cal for red fish. Sock­eye salmon sur­pris­es with a bright red col­or, more like beef. The taste of the con­sid­ered vari­eties of fish is sig­nif­i­cant­ly dif­fer­ent. Due to the high fat con­tent, sock­eye salmon has a rich­er and at the same time del­i­cate taste.

Caviar is also not the same. Chum salmon can “boast” of select­ed large eggs, dense, orange in col­or with light red patch­es. The taste of salmon caviar is del­i­cate, with a creamy tint. But sock­eye caviar is not par­tic­u­lar­ly com­mon on sale, which is asso­ci­at­ed not so much with its unpre­sentable appear­ance, but with a spe­cif­ic taste: bit­ter, with a pro­nounced fishy after­taste.

What is better to choose?

Both species of red fish under con­sid­er­a­tion are dis­tin­guished by a sig­nif­i­cant amount of valu­able sub­stances, so it would not be entire­ly cor­rect to choose one accord­ing to this cri­te­ri­on. Both chum salmon and sock­eye salmon have a unique effect on the body, strength­en­ing bones, improv­ing the func­tion­ing of organs, blood com­po­si­tion, etc.

But as far as taste is con­cerned, every­thing is not so clear-cut here. Many say that sock­eye salmon has an incred­i­ble, incom­pa­ra­ble taste, vague­ly rem­i­nis­cent of beef.