Mt Cook Alpine Salmon

Region

MacKenzie basin, South Island, New Zealand

Profile

The Farm is located in a man-made hydro canal which takes the glacial melts from the Tasman Glacier running between two alpine lakes, Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki.

At 600m above sea level, Mt. Cook Alpine Salmon is the world’s highest salmon farm, as the Chinook ( or King) species of salmon demands prisitine conditions to survive exclusively in fresh water, the farm is testimony to the environment and conditions.

The salmon grow in optimal unstressed conditions with plenty of space, fast flowing currents to swim against and as little human intervention as possible. The salmon at the Mt Cook farm are hand fed a specially designed diet, fed to age, water temperature and season, to mimic how the fish would grow in the wild. This unique husbandry has been designed for taste and texture of the finished fish, not for maximum weight gain or low cost production, models which predominate salmon farming, worldwide.

The salmon are harvested using traditional Iki Jimi techniques, killing the fish quickly and humanely.

Culinary Aspects

Harvested between a weight range of 3kgs – 3.5kgs, the optimal time for sushi. Mt Cook “Saikou” Alpine Salmon has the lowest intramuscular fat of any Salmon on the market and twice the amout of Omega3 fatty acids. The fish has a sweet, subtle flavour with a firm, muscular texture.

With a pure and clean salmon flavour with no fishy, fatty after taste , the Mt Cook Alpine Salmon is Sashimi grade and can be used for a range of other culinary preparations.