What is Ora King salmon?
Ora King salmon has been bred into existence for the sole purpose of being … delicious. The geniuses at Ora King salmon farm in New Zealand have been running a “comprehensive breeding program for over 25 years” to perfect this fish.
It is has been an incredibly thorough process, and they lay this out extensively on their website. It’s a fun website to play around with – lots of cool graphics!
“New Zealand King Salmon’s classical breeding programme has produced nine generations of King Salmon, creating over 100 distinct salmon families, chosen so that only the finest examples — with the most appealing taste, texture, colour and size — are carried forward to the next generation.”
Discovering new fish
One of the major joys of making sushi has been discovering new ingredients. It has been a gateway to trying new experiences and getting to flavourtown. Nothing beats finding new types of fresh delicious fish. And in terms of fish, nothing is better than the king… that is Ora King salmon.
The process of breeding Ora King
- Breeding – They are bred in some of the verifiably clearest fresh wasters in the world from the Te Waikoropupū Springs
- Hatching – The fertilised eggs are hatched in constantly flowing and tested fresh water
- Farming– The smolt (baby salmon, great word) are then taken within their first year to mature in fast flowing sea waters, thus emulating the lifecycle of wild King salmon.
- Grading – The most important step. The highest quality salmon are hand-selected by a master grader and branded as Ōra King.
What makes this so good?
Simply everything. The colour is insane and the fish looks almost artificially coloured, but in a good way. The texture has a fatty, buttery softness that melts in your mouth. The flavour is amazing – so clean and fresh.
Ōra King is the wagyu of salmon and it deserves to be treated as such. “The naturally high oil content in Ōra King salmon can be seen in the striking marbled fat lines within the bright orange flesh, instantly drawing comparison to wagyu.”
The lifecycle of the fish is completely traceable, through all those previous steps, by using the tag that it comes with. I really want to take the plunge and buy a whole side of salmon … It is pricey though, but understandably so.
Here is a side by side comparison of a piece of Atlantic and Ora King salmon. Both fish were delicious although that buttery creamy texture of Ora King is hands down my favourite. You can see more fat lines in the Ora King which gives it that buttery consistency.
Where can I get Ora King and how much does it cost?
Ora King is more expensive than Atlantic salmon, however it is absolutely worth every penny and is still less expensive than eating out. It is also significantly higher quality than what you will typically be served at your local sushi restaurant.
I am fortunate in that my fish shop (La Mer in Montreal) carries this fish (90$CAD / kg), but I highly recommend you talk to your local shop and see if they can import it. When I lived in Melbourne, I used to buy it from Aptus at South Melbourne Markets and really recommend these guys too. You will probably have a better chance with wholesalers but it’s definitely worth having a chat with your local store.
If you can get your hands on this fish, indulge yourself! You can use it to make some supreme quality sushi, nigiri, uramaki, any kind of roll. Add a brush of homemade nikiri sauce to really elevate it – see my recipe here. Honestly, just slicing it up and serving it as sashimi is great. Eat the whole thing raw and enjoy!
How to get more out of this fish?
The next fun step with this fish is perfecting the curing process to get even more umami flavour out of the fish… which is a work in progress. I generally salt my fish for 10-20 minutes before washing it, patting it dry and slicing it up. You can see my whole curing process here.