Salmon vs Trout

We got together for dad's birthday today and when I walked in kitchen where my sister, who is the most amazing cook, was getting the fish ready.  Both looked to me as if they were salmon, but she told me one was actually steelhead trout.  She assured me that the trout tasted like salmon but not as fishy, but I wasn't quite ready to buy it.  As we sat down to her marvelous plank-grilled fish, I decided to try the trout, and sure enough, I couldn't tell the difference.


Curious, I came back to the hotel and looked up steelhead trout:

and pacific salmon:

According to the Fisheries Service at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center:

The steelhead is a rainbow trout that migrates to sea as a juvenile and returns to fresh water as an adult to spawn. Unlike the Pacific salmon, the steelhead trout does not always die following spawning and may spawn more than once and return to the sea after each spawning.

Go figure - I like trout! (at least the ones that taste like salmon)