Salmon

Known as saumon (France), salmone (Italy), salmón (Spain).

Salmon is spawned in fresh water, then spends most of its life in the sea, only returning to fresh water (usually to the river where it was born) to spawn. Scottish or Irish wild salmon is considered by many to be the best in the world; it has a fine, pink flesh with a glossy, steely-blue and silver skin. Fish from Norway and Greenland are also excellent, as are the red-fleshed Canadian and American West Coast salmon: the chinook (king salmon) and the sockeye.

Although farmed salmon can be good all-year round, wild salmon is best in spring and summer. Really fresh salmon contains a creamy substance between the flakes of flesh which sets to a curd when cooked - avoid buying any fish that looks soft, grey, oily or watery. If you are given a salmon straight from the river it is usually better to cook it the day after it was caught, as its flesh will become more succulent.

Whole salmon is best cooked by poaching it in a court-bouillon at the lowest possible simmering point; alternatively, it may be baked in foil. Salmon steaks can be brushed with butter and grilled, then served with hollandaise sauce, beurre blanc or simply melted butter.