The Only Salmon Recipe You'll Ever Need (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to the best salmon? ›

Starting your salmon skin-side down, and cooking it until it is well rendered, lightly browned, and crisp, and then turning the salmon to finish the cooking, will make for a terrific dining experience.

Salmon tastes great when baked, broiled, or tossed on the grill; smoked, poached, or cast into stews; fashioned into fish cakes and burgers, added to salads or whipped up into dips and spreads. This fish does it all.

There's a reason this species is at the top of the list and earned itself the royal moniker: King salmon is considered by many to be the best salmon money can buy. It's rich, high in fat, and big.

I'm talking about brining! Soaking salmon in a simple, quick brine for as little as 10 minutes (up to overnight, if you like planning ahead) is all it takes. To make it happen you need two very basic ingredients: water and salt. Combine 1 tablespoon of salt for every cup of water.

For smaller, crispy, skin-on Salmon; a crispy pan sear is recommended. For bigger fillets, and succulent, skin-off King Salmon; the best method would be cooking in an oven.

A seared fish necessity. Butter + Oil. Butter makes everything better, and the oil is key for helping create the crispy exterior. Make sure to use an oil with a high smoke point like canola, grapeseed, or avocado oil to avoid burning it.

It's important to clean salmon before cooking as doing so can remove surface contaminants and bacteria. Pathogens may be present in fish, causing foodborne illnesses you can easily avoid through cleaning. Washing your salmon also eliminates impurities like sand and dirt, creating a clean canvas for cooking.

Eating milk, curd or other dairy products with fish may trigger digestive discomfort, bloating, stomach ache and even lead to skin infections and allergies. The combination of dairy and fish can disturb the digestive flow due to their high protein content and compounds that can impact digestion.

Eating large amounts of salmon and other fish could expose you to cancer-causing chemicals, or carcinogens. Fish get these chemicals by swimming in polluted water. Although both wild and farmed salmon carry this risk, the benefit-risk ratio for wild salmon is significantly greater. Nervous system damage.

Should you soak salmon in milk? ›

Apparently, the proteins present in milk can bind to the fatty acids that have been exposed to air and give salmon its fishy odor or taste and mitigate them to be more neutral. (Fishiness is caused by the oxidation of fatty acids.)

Brining salmon, or any other fish, simply means preparing the fish with salt. Many recipes use herbs and spices as well, but they all share salt as a base. Brining a fillet of fish allows salto to soak into the flesh, infusing flavors deep inside while also keeping the fillet tender and juicy as it cooks.

How to Control Salmon's Fishiness with a Milk Bath. You can also lessen salmon's strong flavor by soaking it in a milk bath for 20 minutes and then draining it and patting it dry before cooking. The casein in milk binds to the TMA, and when drained away, it takes the culprit that causes fishy odor with it.

Salmon eggs are the top choice for bait, although sand shrimp are very popular for chinook salmon. Some anglers like to fish both at the same time. Marabou jigs (Photo 10) can be used instead of bait and can be especially effective on pink salmon, or other salmon when the water is very low and clear.