How To Perfectly Cook Salmon Or Any Other Fish

Many folks are afraid of (over) cooking fish. There is a small window between perfectly cooked and over-cooked. The eating quality diminishes rapidly once you get past that ‘point of perfection’.

Fresh Alaskan Silver Salmon

Here’s the good news: you can always check the degree of done-ness by simply separating the flesh with two forks. Unlike in meat cookery, you won’t lose any important juices and end up with a dry product. Be careful, though – the common wisdom of ‘when it flakes easily, it’s done’ may actually cause you to over-cook your fish.

The reason for that is called carry-over heat. Any piece of fish or meat cooked on the stove top or especially in the oven will retain internal heat for a little while after you take it out – and keep on cooking. The secret is to account for that fact and remove your fillet from the heat source just before it’s finished. Cover it loosely with a piece of foil and let the carry-over heat take your wonderful salmon to the state of ‘cooked to perfection’ within 5 minutes, or so. Don’t cover it tightly because the developing steam would squeeze the juices out of your fish and render it dry and tough.

When you check for done-ness, look for a small area in the very center of the fillet still being somewhat glistening and translucent. That’s when you want to take the fish off the heat or out of the oven.

How To Check Salmon For Doneness

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After you’ve done this a couple of times you’ll most likely get a feel for it and lose your fear of cooking fish. And then people will ask you, too: “Oh, my – this is the best salmon I’ve ever had! How’d you do it?”

I suggest to either give them the link to this post, or smile and reply: “I’d be glad to teach you, dear! My fee is $100 per hour.” Or, as I do often, just smile mysteriously and confess: “I got lucky.”

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1. The Best Way To Cook Wild Duck