Salmon steaks


 

Brian Moyse

New member
With a new Baby Q, after preheating on high for 15 mins, I put a reasonably thick skin on Chinook salmon steak on the hotplate for the recommended time but it was still raw in the middle and I like my fish cooked.
I found a way to suit my preference and that is 4 minutes on the skin side, 4 mins on one flat side (rather than the top) and 4 mins on the other side with the top down. Any other recommendations?
There sure is a learning curve with a gas grill.
 
Your description seems like filets not steaks. With a steak the skin (if any) would be all around with flesh in the middle. Sort of like a lollipop
 
What do you call done? Salmon should be pink in the center and flaky. My favorite way is to use a skillet with skinless fillets. Put butter in the skillet and heat on high until the butter starts to turn brown and smoke. Throw the salmon in and heat for 3-4 minutes per side (7-8 min total). Crisp on the outside and moist in the middle.
 
What do you call done? Salmon should be pink in the center and flaky. My favorite way is to use a skillet with skinless fillets. Put butter in the skillet and heat on high until the butter starts to turn brown and smoke. Throw the salmon in and heat for 3-4 minutes per side (7-8 min total). Crisp on the outside and moist in the middle.
Hi JSaus, yes I like it just cooked but not raw. On a charcoal grill I cooked it one side until white halfway thru and then flipped it over and did the other side a little less. This came out perfect and flaked like you say. Will do some experimenting with wrapping the fish in foil with lemon mint and butter. Other fish fillets I do in the fry pan in flour egg and breadcrumbs. Salmon & trout seem to be always smokier from the BBQ.
I have a stainless portable smoker/cooker, one of those that runs on methylated spirits, and a whole trout or salmon fillet smokes and cooks in 8 minutes. I take this when fishing the rivers.
p.s. My new Baby Q gets pretty hot, even with the lid up.
 
There is a video of a michelin star chef talking about cooking fish. For him, a good seared fish is the sign of a food kitchen. It cooks faster, and overshooting the target internal temp ruins it quickly. The margin of error is a lot smaller.

So, in general my first tip is, heat travels at a roughly constant speed through the food. If you are searing on one side only, it will cook through 1inch of meat/fish at the same rate, regardless if you are using medium or high heat. Just the skin will be more or less burned.

This also means all time measurements are depending on the thickness of your fish. In general I advice to cook salmon on somewhere around "medium" heat. This also means, your perfectly cooked fish is cooked at different temperatures depending on its size, if you want to nail the internal temps.

And nailing those internal temps is what the chefs train for. Wild salmon should be taken above 145F internal to kill parasites. But if you have salmon that can be eaten raw, you can take it lower. Around 43c/109F to 45c/113F max The internals become translucent. Its my favorite cooked salmon if fresh. If you cook to FDA, I'd see that you are as low as possible, as evenly as possible. So develop a sear, and move it to a warm, i direct side for a few minutes. Keep carry-over heat in mind. If you cook your salmon to 145 on the grill, it will be easily at 155 until its sitting on a plate.

And yeah... accept failure. I grilled a young whole salmon recently. And it was a disaster. The parts that were cooked were overcooked. Parts that were under-cooked were raw. Too much heat and too little time. Good fish is an art.
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Lot of trial and error going on here. First time I cooked fat pork sausages, they came out perfect - go figure !
The best solution I've found so far is one I read about, cook till half white, flip and cook less time. I have used a teflon sheet with some success.
 
This was why I asked the question of you. Wasn't trying to be a wise guy. But steaks and filets have VERY different cooking styles. Trying to remove the confusion
 

 

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