You might recall last year I featured the fabulous Sitka Salmon Shares; the Alaskan based seafood company that ships right to your door. I immediately fell in love with the pristine quality of the fish, which as I mentioned back then, is in part to The Last Frontier state’s rules and regulations around sustainable fishing. Long story short: farmed fish is defacto illegal in Alaska. Everything from this company is sourced from wild Alaskan fish, using sustainable fishing practices.
The only minor quibble anyone could really have with the service in my mind, was the fact that Sitka offered only a subscription service. That means you’d have to commit to several months of deliveries, if you wanted to test their impeccable wares. Some might find the risk of committing to an unknown service somewhat daunting. Well, cross that concern off the list. For the 2021 holiday season, the company have released a range of one off seafood boxes. That means you test and trial their beautiful fish with non of the risk or worry.
The company was kind enough to send me one of their new sampler boxes for free – the Holiday Seafood Sampler Box – to check things out. Let me start by saying I am lucky enough to receive quite a few product samples from writing for this website – and those that make it onto the website are all quality products I’d buy myself. And indeed in several cases, I’ve become a paying customer myself.
Anyway, the one off boxes from Sitka come in the same robust packaging that means your seafood and shellfish will arrive perfectly frozen. This has been true for every Sitka Salmon Shares box I’ve received to date. There’s an outer box, an inner insulated inch thick sleeve, dry ice and *then* your actual box of fish carefully packed in the center. As always you will want to take some care opening the box, it is VERY cold in there.
The new one time boxes start from $179, with further discounts for those who are existing subscribers to the service. This puts the seafood at around $30-$40 per pound which is a smidge higher than the subscription service; which frankly in my experience works out *cheaper* per pound than my local grocery store. The product is of course orders of magnitude better than most grocery stores in my experience.
The slight increase in price is fair in my mind, after all, you’re making no long term commitment and simply agreeing to receive one box of seafood. And wow, what seafood it is. My sampler came with massive spot shrimp, Prince William Sound sockeye salmon, pacific cod and much more.
The great thing with this product is that it’s blast frozen, locking in the flavor and nutrition. All you need to do is keep it frozen until you’re ready to cook it up – overnight in the refrigerator is the best way to defrost in my experience. Mind you, if you forget I’ve happily used the gentle defrost mode on my microwave with no real issues. Just slowly defrost the fish in stages – keep checking it – so as to be careful to not cook it while defrosting.
If you’re looking to treat yourself, or a loved one, to something special this year – check out Sitka Salmon Shares and their line of products. It really is top quality stuff.
Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you! I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC – Utah’s biggest and oldest online food magazine; I’m also a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for the Salt Lake Tribune. I’ve worked extensively with multiple local publications from Visit Salt Lake to Salt Lake Magazine, not least helped to consult on national TV shows.
I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have covered the Utah dining scene for the better part of fifteen years. I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand. I started Shop Smart to catalogue my adventures in the grocery store and kitchen. Follow along on Instagram too!