I know the words “cheap” and “fish” are not often used together, especially in a sentence talking about a good idea, but I’m going to attempt.
All week, I’ve been eating smoked salmon. I had a salmon quesadilla, I had some salmon sushi, I even had some salmon and cream cheese on crackers as a lovely afternoon snack. So how my doing this on my typical grocery budget of $25 a week? I bought the trim. Allow me to explain.
The next time you’re in a grocery store, check out your smoked salmon section. You’ll notice that farm raised salmon are cheaper than wild salmon (rumor has it it’s less nutritious) and you’ll notice a few different companies that offer the product. Where I live, prices seem to range from $25-$30 a pound. We don’t often think of smoked salmon this way (as in price per pound) because we buy it in 4-8 ounce packages but that’s what the unit prices there for!
You also see that smoked salmon is that eye level. If you look a little lower or a little higher, you may see a product called smoked salmon trim. Smoked salmon trim is part of the smoked salmon that didn’t quite make the cut but it’s $7 a pound. A little easier to swallow then $30 for me!
You may notice a difference if you’re, say, making a spread on a platter but otherwise it’s still salmon which, last I checked, is a high-quality protein source.
The concept of packaging second rate food products and reselling them at a lower price is not one unique to salmon. As a matter of fact, my friends at Barkwheats often package the dog biscuits that are little crumbly and sell them to stores cheaper than retail.
In selling samples/trim/insert name of grade b product here, the company is losing less money in that it doesn’t have to give away or throw out not so perfect products and consumers like myself and quite afford the real deal can still purchase products from these companies. And in knowing that the trim from Ducktrap is good, I may be more likely to buy their version of the fancy smoked salmon the next time I throw a nice brunch.
Reaching more types of consumers and wasting less? It’s a good idea all around. Yum!
You’re on to my favorite little secret! Trim was on sale last month for $4.99 (!) a bag, so I stocked up and threw some in the freezer. Good stuff and still local 🙂
I haven’t seen the salmon trim that you’re speaking of so I’ll need to look closer at the store, but I eat about a pound or two a week of salmon from the can. It’s one of the quickest and easiest meals of the week and can be prepared in about 45 seconds.
My mother is Korean and one of my favorite meals is spicy salmon with potatoes made into a kind of stew. Basically, you take the salmon out of the can (remove skin and bones if you don’t like them), cut up the potatoes, place them in a pot with about a half cup of water, coat everything with a thick layer of ground red pepper, and heat until potatoes are soft.
The shortened version that I have perfected is: open the can, drop the salmon into a microwave safe dish, coat with ground red pepper, and microwave for 45 seconds (small can of fancy fillet) or 2 minutes (15 ounce can).
I know what I’m having for lunch tomorrow.
Great tip…to be honest, I didn’t even know they had smoked salmon in a can.
I love lox, sounds like a good way to spice it up in a diff recipe.
Great idea Nicole, but I just have to pipe up about sustainability. Wild salmon is more expensive than farmed salmon because it’s harder to find. And farmed salmon is cheaper because it’s cheaper to produce… but awful for the environment. Here’s Jeremy’s post on Atlantic Salmon:
http://basiceating.blogspot.com/2009/01/atlantic-salmon-salmo-salar.html
So it might be worth paying more for the sustainable salmon (it’s very important to me). I don’t know anything about the trim, though, and I think it’s a fantastic idea. Who ever said food had to be perfect 🙂