I first heard about Sitka Salmon Shares when the Alaskan based brand reached out for me to review their product; so full disclosure up front, the company sent me a little sample of their product in the mail to test. I’m so glad they did, I intend to be a paying customer for a long time now!
The idea behind the ‘share’ is much like the idea behind a CSA farm share – where you pay a monthly fee to support a local farm, and in turn receive a weekly veggie share from the season’s crop. The twist here of course is you’re supporting hard working fishermen and you receive a monthly box of quality Alaskan seafood.
There are different sizes and varieties of seafood available from Sitka, all of which change with the season. The seafood ships frozen to your door in vacuum sealed packets and very solid and safe container; in my personal experience, Fedex messed up my delivery and it arrived a few days late, but still perfectly frozen and fine.
A quick note for those worried about frozen seafood – don’t be. Here’s a story I wrote about why everything you’ve heard about frozen fish is wrong; if it’s been frozen correctly of course.
Anyway, Sitka’s packaging is immaculate. The fish is vacuum sealed, then placed in an insulated inner liner along with freezer packs. Be careful opening, this is seriously freezing cold stuff! The whole lot is then packed in a real sturdy cardboard box. I’ve received many boxes since my first 2020 post and every one has arrived in percent condition, with the contents frozen solid.
November 2021 update: Sitka Salmon Shares have released a range of one time purchase options. Check out our full story on their new one time sampler boxes.
Your imagination is the only limit with this quality product. Here are two dishes I love to make with fish, both Thai. Firstly cod in a Thai basil sauce with bell peppers. I love cod in this spicy sauce. You need a meaty fish like mahi mahi, swordfish or cod to stand up to the powerful gravy.
Next, Thai Yellow curry with salmon. Buttery and flaky salmon goes so well with this rich and creamy coconut milk based curry. In the picture below I pan fried the salmon skin down until the skin separated. I then cooked the skin and salmon separately so as to turn the skin into a crisp crackling topping – think the salmon version of pork rinds – it’s fabulous! Also a good addition to this dish are Trader Joe’s Thai flavored cashews; crush them down and serve as a spicy, creamy, crunchy finish.
Looking for even more inspiration? Here are a few more dishes I’ve cooked lately using seafood from Sitka. In order:
- Sable fish with cous cous and chickpeas – recipe
- Cod fried rice – recipe
- Black cod in miso honey sauce with Asian salad and rice – recipe
- Salmon rogan josh with crisp salmon skin, chickpeas and naan – recipe
- Panko crusted fish, chips and mushy peas
You can shop shares on their site here, prices run $99-$129 a month for a selection of seafood. I ran the math on how that price breaks down to my local grocery store with fresh fish and the price is the same per pound if not better.
Frankly the product here is far better than my local grocery store (yours too perhaps). Alaskan seafood is some of the very best in the world. Alaskan seafood is fished 100% sustainably, heck that’s even written into the state’s constitution. There is literally no mass produced farmed fish in Alaska. You can’t go wrong.
I know European nations often get a lot of attention for their love and care for items like cheese, olive oil, meats and so forth – but Alaskan seafood is really in that bracket. Check out the book “Real Food Fake Food” on Amazon by Larry Olsted where he recommends to always seek out Alaskan seafood for exceptional quality.
If you can’t get quality seafood locally – I’d recommend Sitka without hesitation. The product is impeccable and again, unless you have an amazing local source, I’d be willing to wager you can taste the difference of Sitka’s quality. The fact it will keep for months in the freezer, until you’re ready to cook up a storm – what’s not to love?
What other online seafood options are there?
Check out these other seafood companies that have online presences and ship nationally:
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Overall
Is Sitka Salmon Shares any good?
This is a tremendously high quality product. Alaskan seafood is amongst the best in the world and is fished and farmed sustainably. If you don’t have access to good seafood locally, this product ships flash frozen to your door in days – and is worth every penny. In my own case the quality of the Sitka seafood is better than pretty much anything I can get it my own state, and the cost is roughly the same even when accounting for the speedy FedEx delivery.
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!