yellow mayo: December 2011

I am always trying to figure out how I can feed my family wholesome, nutritionally-rich foods with economy. I do not think cheap food is something to go after, no matter how strapped we are. Educating ourselves is the best reality.

Brand any fish ''sustainable,'' and you risk making it so popular that it is fished to the point of depletion. A truly sustainable fish has to be not only abundant but also carefully managed to prevent overfishing. That's partly why the lean, delicious, ruby-fleshed sockeye salmon of Bristol Bay, Alaska, is the fish you can eat with the least amount of guilt. It's one of the largest remaining wild salmon populations left, and it's so strictly tended that more salmon often swim upriver

-- particularly between June and September -- thanfishermen know what to do with. In the lower 48, river-blocking dams and human pollution have reduced once-comparable salmon runs to less than a tenth of their former size. Harvesting Alaskan salmon is also inherently low-impact: nothing like sea-floor-destroying trawlers (to catch cod)or 40-mile, sea-turtle- ensnaring long lines (to catch swordfish) are used.The most compellingreason to eat Bristol Bay salmon, however, is that buying it may help save it. The fish faces an existential threat in the form of Pebble Mine, a proposed copper-and-gold mine -- potentially the continent's largest -- that would sit at two of the bay's major headwaters and, according to David Chambers, a mining expert, add tons of toxic waste to the ecosystem. Mining promises a more lucrative economic future for the region: the 100- year value of the pebble deposit is estimated to be between $100 billion and $300 billion, compared with as much as $30 billion for a century's worth of Bristol Bay salmon. As magnificent as those silvery 5- to 15-pound salmon appear and taste, the salmon- processing infrastructure is geared more toward tonnage than high-end restaurant portions. Most Bristol Bay sockeye end up in cans or as frozen fillets in supermarkets. They can sell for just pennies on the pound, wholesale. Half of the harvest is exported.

Higher American demand for Bristol Bay salmon could raise its profile and spur opposition to Pebble Mine, but supporting the fish isn't necessarily easy. Local processors don't really have a Bristol Bay brand yet. But because two-thirds to three-fourths of Alaska's sockeye comes from Bristol Bay, choosing that salmon species is one way to consume fish from the right place. And if you buy canned salmon, check the embossing. Cans from Bristol Bay's oldest producer are stamped with the number 35.--Paul Greenberg

Ever since I read this in the NYTimes magazine back in October, I have been buying canned salmon, and making a salmon loaf with mustard sauce, courtesy of my most-loved cookbook, Lost Recipes, by the magnificent Marion Cunningham.

Still looking for the 35 code on a can of wild salmon though.