The ability to prepare perfectly cooked fish depends on knowing some key details about the best way to handle your fillets before and after you cook them. Making salmon is no exception. As a home chef, you might consider heating methods, such as whether to pan sear, broil, or bake it. You might also think about the best way to season salmon. No matter how you decide to make it, a great fish dinner begins with some proper planning. ​​Alekka Sweeney, a professional chef and instructor, spoke exclusively with Chowhound to share tips on the most important steps needed to prepare a beautiful fillet of salmon.
If you’re cooking your fish in the oven, you’ll first need to determine the ideal temperature for baking salmon. You can bake salmon at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the thickness, but it also works well to bake it at around 300 degrees Fahrenheit using a longer cook time. Once the fish is cooked, the question then becomes, does salmon need to rest after cooking? According to Sweeney, the answer is a resounding yes! “Let the salmon rest uncovered for 5 to 7 minutes after baking to ensure the juices redistribute,” she says. This step will guarantee juicy, evenly heated fish. It won’t be cold inside either, because the salmon continues to cook for a little while after it is removed from the oven.
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More Steps To Consider When Cooking Salmon
Cooked salmon on baking sheet – Tatjana Baibakova/Shutterstock
Alekka Sweeney notes that while it’s important for you to let the salmon rest after cooking, it’s equally as important to make sure you let it rest uncovered, which will prevent the fish from steaming and thus overcooking. If you’d like your salmon to be served medium-rare, wild-caught salmon should cook to an internal temperature of about 120 degrees Fahrenheit, while farmed salmon should cook to about 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Farmed salmon is a fattier fish than wild-caught salmon, so it takes more time to cook.
Just check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer to make sure the salmon is not overdone. Carryover heating for fish is about 5 degrees, so letting salmon rest will bring it up to temperature. Rich fish such as salmon allows for some variability in cook time, so if you’d like to serve it a little firmer, just cook it to 135 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit before pulling it form the oven. Then let it finish cooking with that residual heat during its rest period.
Learning to prepare salmon well can be a process and there are plenty of mistakes to avoid when cooking salmon beyond just nailing the right temperature. But if you make sure to let it rest after baking, perfectly cooked and seasoned salmon is within your reach.
Read the original article on Chowhound.
