White Meat Salmon

(Picture: white meat salmon cooked two ways, 1) in a teryaki marinade and 2) with extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper)

A short while back when Timber and I went to Santa Barbara we ran across white meat king/chinook salmon in the fish market. Since it is pretty rare (I had only seen it once before) we decided to get it. We cooked it the other day and it was pretty good. It tastes very similar to regular king salmon and seemed to be a little more fatty, but it is hard to draw generalizations from just one filet. But I did a little research into white meat king salmon and here is what I found:

1. Only 5 % of the king salmon population has white meat instead of reddish/pinkish meat because they have an inability to process the pigments in their food (shrimp, krill, and crab).
2. They are known as "ivory kings".
3. The majority if "ivory kings" are found in southeast Alaska and British Columbia.

I also learned that the price of "ivory kings" is going up because some people say that it tastes better than regular king salmon. From what I had I think it is comparable and not worth the extra cost if you only factor in the taste. I think the real reason the price is higher than normal king salmon is that it is a novelty and people want to try something new. I certainly did, and was willing to pay the price for it. So if you run across white meat king salmon in a fish market I say go ahead and try it and then decide for yourself if you think it is better than regular king salmon. For me, I'll stick with the regular (king, silver, and sockeye) salmon. Farmed salmon need not apply...