【海外の反応】鮭缶「骨も皮も背骨も全部入り」←なんでツナ缶と違うの？商業漁師が真相を語る

My grandfather worked in a fish processing plant. The reason is primarily technological and economic, not because producers are too lazy to clean the fish. Salmon bones become soft and edible, and salmon is also canned in chunks, as the skin and bones affect the flavor. It's no coincidence that this is the traditional method of canning.

Salmon vertebrae from the can is certainly a delicacy. For the record, sardine bones also turn to mush in the tin. It’s extra nutrients. Get em all in.

It is mostly because canned salmon is processed in a way where the bones soften into something edible instead of staying like normal bones. The skin and bones also add flavor and calcium, so older-style salmon cans kept them in. Tuna is usually sold more like clean chunks of meat because the fish is huge and gets broken down differently before canning.

What kind of canned salmon are you all getting? I usually get Trident (or Kirkland) brand, salmon in water, and I don't ever remember seeing bones or skin. Or they're there but maybe turned to mush and I didn't realize it?

My dr suggested that I start eating the canned salmon because the bones in there are calsium rich and will help to improve my bone density.

Currently 116 comments, so I am adding this disclaimer that I am not reading through them and this post is most likely just a repeat of info already posted.

Canned tuna is most often albacore tuna. The spine of albacore does not properly break down under pressure processing, so it needs to be removed. Their skin is much tougher and thicker than a salmon and reletively inedible, so including it in canned cuts would be like including an actual hoof or horn in a can of roast beef. Tuna does not have pin bones, so separating it into the 4 distinct loins is a relatively easy process, making canning of the meat only slightly more complex than cut and stuff methods used for salmon.

Salmon are gutted, finned, headed, then cut and stuffed into containers to be pressure processed. The pinbones and spine break down during processing (adding minerals to the product), allowing them to be safely consumed albeit with caution as there are always exceptions to how well they soften. The skin also adds to the finished product (flavor, collagen, fats, minerals, etc.). This makes the cut and stuff method of canning perfect for this type of fish.

Unless otherwise noted, the species of salmon used in canning is Pink Salmon aka "Humpies" (as well as a few other choice names like "Snot Rockets" due to the heavy slime coat on the skin). These fish generally do not exceed 8lbs and are an average of 20-25 inches which makes them ideal for canning. Other wild species grow larger than this (Sockeye/Reds, Coho/Silver, Keta/Chum, Chinook/King respectively), making them more commercially viable as whole or cuts. Atlantic Salmon fall between Coho and King in size but are raised for whole or cut sale and not canning purposes.

Ohmgosh. These are all such bad answers. Commercial fisherman here. The reason is this- tuna skin is thick as hell and inedible, every tuna has to be skinned and deveined before being eaten. Salmon skin is thin and delicious, it doesn’t even need to be de scaled. It crisps up really nice in the pan and if you do it right can get bbq’d reallll nice. There is plenty of sockeye that still gets canned and it comes in different grades from cross cuts steaks to skin-on fillets to skinless boneless. Even tho it looks gross it makes the meat more succulent from all the fat under the skin. I’ve had canned chum salmon which goes under the name Keta, it’s probably the best value and doesn’t taste much different that sockeye

The skin and bones is the best bit.