I don’t tend to eat much fish, but in the supermarket earlier I saw some smoked salmon which didn’t need cooking, and some salmon fillets which did. They looked the same really - both ‘raw’. I decided to buy some of the fillet. It was nice, but a very different flavour from when I’ve tried smoked salmon in the past. The cooked fillet was quite chicken-y with a slight earthy/fishy taste, whereas smoked salmon has a very strong fish flavour.
Why do they taste so different? And why is smoked salmon safe to eat without cooking when other smoked fish do need cooking?
Cold smoked salmon which you’re referring to is not cooked, it’s cured and smoked at temperatures lower than cooking. There’s also hot smoked salmon which is still done at low temps but high enough to cook it so it kills bacteria but it does have a more cooked texture. The curing and smoking process of smoked salmon doesn’t really kill much bacteria, it mainly inhibits it by creating a hostile environment for bad bacteria and allows good bacteria to take hold. So the reason smoked salmon doesn’t have a cooked texture is because it isn’t really cooked.