Who works in Italy, what other fish do you smoke and why. But above all what to look for on the label to buy a quality product. Fished or bred? This is not what really matters …
"The things that one generation considers a luxury, the next generation considers them necessities." This quote by Anthony Crosland seems written especially for smoked salmon: as a seasonal product, limited to Christmas and New Year's tables – and only for the wealthiest – today it is consumed like ham, prices drop below € 20 and sales they exploded. The range of choice is very wide, with very different qualities and with products that fulfill really different tastes, beyond the receipt issue.
To do this, we asked Patrizia Cattaneo, Full Professor of Inspection of food of animal origin, former professor of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Milan.
Salmon are different
There are two large groups of salmon: the Salmo salar species, in Italian "salmon" found in the North Atlantic and the species of the genus Oncorhynchus, from the Pacific. Atlantic salmon has been bred on a large scale in Norway since the 1980s and in Chile since the 1990s, plus smaller productions in the UK, North America and New Zealand; its destination is fresh consumption or processing, first of all as smoked salmon. The caught (wild) salmon is highly prized and mainly intended for fresh consumption. The salmon species present in the northern Pacific and related rivers, from California to Alaska, from Japan to Russia, are mainly caught and also intended for processing; the portion raised is much lower. The most frequent salmon of the genus Oncorhynchus on the market are king salmon (Oncorhynchus tschawitscha), silver salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and red salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka). The silver salmon is now bred in Japan and Chile; in New Zealand there are salmonereal farms. About 60% of world salmon production is farmed. The species of salmon used to produce the smoked salmon are therefore different, and it is mandatory to indicate them on the label, with official name and scientific name in Latin, just as it is mandatory to indicate the production method, if the fish is obtained by "caught" fishing (which is equivalent to wild) or farmed.
Understand where it comes from
Salmon can be fished or bred and then processed on site, or transported (fresh or frozen) to the processing area. There are many intermediate processors who work and smoke around the world, in Europe in almost all states, mainly Norway, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Poland, France; these sometimes sell directly, sometimes they sell it to end companies, which package and market only under their own brand. To find out where it is produced, read the identification mark of the establishment recognized at Community level: in the small oval symbol there is a number indicating the establishment and an abbreviation for the nation (NO for Norway, IT for Italy, PL for Poland …). Today it is known that the quality is not only given by the area or the type of fishing, but by the processing along the whole chain – just think of the Norwegian salmon, guaranteed and communicated worldwide by Norge (Norwegian Seafood Council) or some products high quality made in Italy.
Worked fresh
Wild salmon is a leaner product, with an intense flavor, more expensive than the farmed one, but being cold smoked and not cooked, it must be frozen, as required by EU regulations, to kill any parasite. Norwegian bred salmon and some Scots are guaranteed to be free from the origin of the Anisakis parasite and therefore do not require the remediation treatment with freezing, they can be processed fresh. The wording "worked fresh" means this, even if it does not mean that it was not subsequently frozen … If it is written "Never frozen" it means that it has never actually undergone a freezing treatment, and in the case of farmed salmon, it is synonymous with high quality.
Salting
If on the label there is the wording "dry salted" it means that they have used sea salt sprinkled on the surface of the fillets and not salting by immersion or by injection of brine. This is allowed, but it is not the traditional method and affects the overall quality (obviously also on the final price).
Affumicatura
If wood smoking is indicated on the label, it means for the product it was made with a traditional method for exposure to wood smoke, there can also be only the word "smoke". Otherwise the smoke aroma has been conferred by means of "liquid smoke" (by spraying), but in this case the use of "smoke flavoring" should be indicated among the ingredients. The method is much cheaper, lawful and regulated, but it affects the flavor – obviously also on the price.
The expiration date
The conservation of the salmon is given as a whole: drying with loss of humidity, salting in depth, partially by smoking which provides compounds with a preservative effect, vacuum packaging (sometimes also a protective atmosphere) and cold (temperatures below 4 ° C). Smoked salmon must therefore be carefully preserved in the refrigerator and consumed by the expiry date, following the instructions for use once the package has been opened (it lasts a few days, no more).
Italian salmon?
Salmon is as Italian as coffee or chocolate can be: certainly bred (or fished) elsewhere and processed here. There are several Italian brands that market or process salmon.
100% made in Italy fish
If salmon grows only in foreign waters, there are fish that are all raised and processed in Italy. Examples are white sturgeon, fish from which caviar is obtained, and rainbow trout. Caviar producers such as Calvisius and Ars Italica also produce smoked sturgeon and along the Tagliamento river, Friultrota breeds and processes fine smoked trout.
In the gallery, those who produce salmon and other fish made in Italy, from Brescia to Polesine Parmense.
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