Gas Grilled Salmon

[Chris in Louisiana]

Dome thermometer was at 425F, meat side down for 4 minutes to get a sear, flipped to skin side down to finish.

I do something similar with North Atlantic farmed. Season and put on gas grill, preheated on medium, meat side down. Close the lid and let cook about 5 minutes, then start checking with tongs until rocking it side to side will let the meat release. Then turn it over to skin side down and cook until it hits the temp you want. I usually pull at about 125. The tongs usually do the trick, but I have a big spatula handy just in case.

The meat side down thing sounded crazy when I read about it, but it works great.

I like to serve it with a sauce of mayo/Greek yogurt with lemon juice, olive oil, capers, and cracked black pepper.

Wife hates salmon at restaurants, but she will eat this. She loves sous vide salmon enough to request it, but that's a different topic.

 

[LMichaels]

Nothing wrong with meat side down. I do it for a change now and then. Trick is to make the grates REALLY CLEAN, and then wipe them down with oil BEFORE you put the fish on but after their good and hot

 

[BryanO]

I typically start flesh side down, then finish skin side down to crisp the skin. Like Larry said, clean grates and a little oil make a huge difference.

 

[Julian Vrieslander]

We are in the Seattle area, and we have salmon swimming through the river in our backyard. But we prefer to catch them at our local market. Our favorite is Sockeye, especially during the Alaska Copper River run. Atlantic salmon is for cat food. Our favorite prep is from Paley's Place, a great little restaurant in Portland, OR. You can find the recipe in Paley's cookbook, or in this video. The fish is grilled on a cedar plank, but it does not end up tasting like furniture. I think this is because, if done right, the plank is ignited, and the fish cooks fairly quickly. There is a hint of smoke, but most of the flavor comes from the fish, the citrus (orange zest), and the aromatics (basil, onion, garlic). I've made this recipe many times for parties and visitors, and it never fails to get rave reviews.

 

[Bruce]

I would be down at the river bank catching my dinner. That would make it taste a lot better.

 

[LMichaels]

I would be down at the river bank catching my dinner. That would make it taste a lot better.

Yep me too. Used to love when my late friend and I would rent a charter with a bunch of friends and go out on Lake Michigan for Coho, Steelhead and Brown Trout. I have a photo of one my oldest daughter caught I think she was about 12 or so. The fish was fighting so hard and I was filming. Her feet were coming off the floor so my friend's wife had to hold her around the waist so we didn't lose her to Davy Jone's Locker. I thought her skinny little arms would break but she was determined she was bringing that fish in. In the photo of it you can barely see her behind the fish.

 

[Julian Vrieslander]

The salmon in our river (the Sammamish) are Kokanees, a variety that spend their entire lives in fresh water. Unfortunately, their numbers have been dwindling in recent years. Maybe due to environmental changes, pollution from human activities, etc. In any case, they are safe from me - I'm terrible at fishing. Those that do swim by are more likely to be caught by our neighborhood eagles. See, for example, photo #16 on this page. Photo #12 shows an eagle with another catch. If you look closely, you'll see that it's a duck. When eagles catch a bird, they often take it to ground and pluck off the feathers before flying it back to the nest.

From our deck, it would be far easier to shoot ducks than catch salmon. But that's probably illegal in our area (too many nearby residences). Has anyone here cooked mallards? Someone told me that the meat tastes fishy and very "gamey". Funny how that works: I like wild salmon, and don't like farm-raised salmon. But I do like farm-raised duck.

 

[Bruce]

I have eaten a lot of duck...many mallards. They are one of the better ducks but, yah, they can be gamey tasting and some people don't care for that. There are a million recipes for cooking them and many try really hard to mask that gamey taste but what they usually wind up doing is basically pouring honey on a turd. If you don't like the wild taste, buy a chicken the advice I would give most people.

That being said, I haven't had one in a long time and all the ones I did prior were in the oven. What I liked best was simply cooking them in a pyrex dish with a lot of butter in it.