Ok Veeky Forums, I've been learning to cook little by little but I just cant comprehend salmon...

Well thanks everyone for the advice, im going to try some of the oven stuff next time, but lets see how things turn out this time for now

And the results. Im going to assume that yhe sections breaking away like that is what the flaking easily means

...

seriouseats com/2016/08/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-salmon.html

yes im a kenji shill

Depends on your pan, also try slightly lower heat and padding the salmon with a paper towel before seasoning to help the sear and heat travel. If anything just finish in oven, salmon is worth it.

Thats a useful guide but Im surprised it stops at 130, I thought you were supposed to get it to 145.

It is simply impossible to cook a piece of meat with such a varying degree of thickness to perfection, at least with normal means like in a skillet or in the oven. You need to sous vide the fish, then reverse sear it. That is the only way.

So looking at the guides yall posted im feeling that i overcooked my salmon even though the thermometer didnt reach 145 so I was wondering does the side not being cooked cool off fast or something
I guess the uneven cuts can be an issue like
Mentioned, but I dont really understand how it looks so done but reads a low tempurature

>I dont really understand how it looks so done but reads a low tempurature
You dont need high temperature to denaturize raw protein. It starts upward of 45°C or so. Meat is cooked in a hot sizzzling pan to put on a nice brown crust, and to heat it up all the way through in an acceptable amount of time. Sous vide, you gotta leave it in three hours.

So just because its reached the consistency and texture it may not have reached the right tempurature for getting rid of anything dangerous then right?

Flip it to cook on the sides in addition to just skin side and the opposite. Keeps the surfaces from burning and lets you bring the center to the temp you want. Also turn the heat down

Ill try this next time i get salmon. How long should I do this for or should I look for it to look like something

Salt/season the salmon immediately before putting it in the pan, cook it about half the time per side that you have been. It will still be slightly undercooked, but put a lid over the pan at this point and remove from the heat and let the steam finish it off.
Sorry, these are overcooked a little. It's almost impossible to not overcook this fish in the pan. You're relying too much on thermometers and instructions, but not paying attention to the fish. Is it slightly underdone? Good, it's done. Worst thing that can happen if you undercook it is you have to put it back on for 30-60 seconds.

>overcooked andits still not the right temp
Im going to take your advice, it just blows my mind is all. Am I just worrying too much about getting sick from it?
Also does the lid need to ne a perfect fit? Im gonna try finding one

Get the skin crispy then finish in the oven you twat

"Medium high" is not an exact measure, dipshit. Turn the heat down and cook it longer.

Just poach it, it's the best way

>all that adventurous seasoning
White boi detected

Im new to this and heard salmon doesnt need much seasoning.

Nah, if you have a large pan, a lid from a smaller pots works. It doesn't have to keep steam pressure or anything, you're just finishing it off at the end with wet heat so it doesn't dry out and you have a wider window of time to decide how done you like it. Hell you could use a bowl or a pice of foil to tent it. Yes, you're worrying too much, and it's taking away from your enjoyment of how done you like your salmon. People rarely get sick from raw salmon. You're not gonna get sick from 120-130º F salmon. Some people steam or poach their salmon to make it harder to overcook, but you get the nice tasting crust in a skillet.

It doesn't. Salmon has a great, rich, oily flavor. The two worst things you can do to it, imo are to overcook it so it's dry and firm like canned tuna, and put too much shit on it so you cant taste the nice fishiness.

Gotcha, i got paranoid when I was first cooking and a friend who visited kept freaking out saying "you're going to get parasites" constantly when I tried to enjoy it so ive been struggling to get it hotter inside.

Afaik salmon and fish you buy is generally flash frozen, which kills off the parasites

Interesting, is that something I could check with the store or is that something that happens before it even gets to the store?

How do you fuck something this simple up.
Just heat the pan up(low heat) and slap the fish on it skin side down, wait till it's done(you can tell by the color and how the oil starts seeping thru), then flip it once to quickly sear the other side.
You don't need to put anything on the pan, the fish is greasy enough on it's own.

>>all that adventurous seasoning
>White boi detected

the wind was blowing from my mexican neighbor's direction so I was afraid it would be overseasoned

All wild salmon in the US is frozen, which kills parasites. Farmed salmon usually doesn't have parasites. Roughly 10 incidents of parasite infections from raw salmon are reported every year in the US. Sure, ask them. The odds are worse than winning a lottery though.

>All wild salmon in the US is frozen,

Unless you can souce this statement, I call unadulterated bs. When I buy flown in fresh sockeye by the case during the height of the commercial season it comes packed with blue ice in a styrofoam cooler but it is not frozen. Furthermore the texture and color is entirely different from previously frozen wildcaught you see in supermarket display cases.

tl;dr pure bullshit

Ok, cool. Don't use it for sushi then. I clicked around and read a few articles. I'm not a fishmonger. Try being a little more civil. I'm tired of people acting like assholes by default.

This user got it right. Pan-sear the salmon, let it finish in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Works every time.

Broiling is the best and easiest way to cook fish.

>Try being a little more civil

Lol, how long have you been here? I ridiculed the information, I didn't personally insult you which could be construed as uncivil I guess, but even that's fairly standard here.

If your salmon is white then you might have a problem...

You could try a reverse sear. Roast it in the oven until it's cooked right then pan fry the skin side in a hot pan until it's just right.

Yeah Im overcooking it right? Im going to try what a lot of anons here have suggested to see what else I can come up with next time. Still it wasnt dry on the inside at least

nah. not most fish. especially sushi grade. when i worked in a restaurant i was instructed to sear the tuna to rare. just put color on the outside for the bruschetta.
i like mine cooked to 130ish in the oven with lemon and a little dill.

Make sure your thermometer is still good and make sure you leave it in long enough to get the read accurately. After about 130 degrees it will take a minute to slowly climb up to the accurate reading.

Also, start with skin side up with the flame just over medium by a touch... then wait for it to turn opaque about half way through which should slightly brown the first side you are cooking. Flip it over and let it sit for a few minutes on medium, then turn it up another hair. If the skin burns it's no problem so you can let it finish cooking by using the skin side down at the end in stead of at the beginning. This should solve your problem.

Otherwise just bake it for 15-20 minutes at about 400-425 degrees. and then broil for a couple minutes at the end.

source: pescatarian

Didnt realize it would keep climbing that long, generally took it out when it was the slow crawl.

Either way thanks for everyone's advice. It will probably be a couple days before I get a chance to get more but im already excited.

This might be worth a read seriouseats.com/2017/05/how-to-prepare-raw-fish-at-home-sushi-sashimi-food-safety.html

The tl;dr seems to be that it's generally fine either way but properly frozen is safer (the one at home isn't cold enough).

>Am I just worrying too much about getting sick from it?
Yes. Any bacteria are going to be on the outside. If you heat the outside in a pan of bubbling oil, all the bacteria will be brutally fried to death. Then you can devour their corpses with impunity.

I literally just had salmon about twenty minutes ago. I took a humongous thick slab of the stuff from Costco, heated a quarter-inch of oil in a frying pan, threw the fish in, dodged flying oil for a few minutes, flipped the slab over, let go for a few more minutes, then turned the heat off and let it stop throwing oil in every direction. I fucking hate the way the oil pops and flings itself everyfuckingwhere, but oh well, it gets the job done.

It was still a little raw in the center when I took it off, but by the time it had cooled to the point that it could be eaten, the center part had cooked from the residual heat.

Not that it matters. People eat raw salmon all the time. It's called sushi, sashimi, chirashi, and other weird Japanese moonwords.

Its an FDA guideline not really a hard and fast rule. The guideline is applied to fish intended to be consumed raw. Super markets see tons of previously frozen fish and I think about 70% of US seafood falls into that fresh/frozen bucket.
I'm sure im not telling you anything you dont already know but farmed salmon and a lot of tuna is dyed. I have heard rumors that some wild caught is also enhanced but I hope thats bullshit.
huffingtonpost.com/entry/frozen-fish-sushi_us_58da678be4b018c4606b76a6

You need to cut it deeply on the skin side like scoring pork but much deeper. Then you put your seasoning and some salt into those crevices, then you cook skin side until most of the fish is cooked and do the other side quickly. That way you get a nice crust from the salt, the heat also rises into the centre of the fish and it will also rest flat in the pan because of the cuts you have made.

Really rub some salt and pepper on it. Put a generous amount of butter in the pan in a medium low heat. (Room temperature butter is best.) SLAP that bitch on that pan skin UP, then get a spoon and drench the salmon and let it sit for 3-5 minutes.

Continue?

>getting rid of anything dangerous
but you can eat raw fish

Bacteria in normal food rarely makes you sick, its the stuff they shit out that does, and that is unaffected by cooking.

That being said most of the guidelines in the US are there to ensure that young children, people with HIV, and the elderly can eat something and have no risk at all.

Not really an issue for fish the only pathogens fish have are bacteria that make it go back which you will smell and taste before you ingest them and parasites which you will see as it cooks usually works. That's why fish can be eaten raw without the additional salt or acids that are used for other raw meats (beef tartar has to have capers because the brine keeps it safer as well as flavor).

Typically what I do for salmon is sear it on high heat skin side down and as soon as it's crispy looking (45-60 seconds) I flip it over and baste it in butter for about 4 minutes or so then I let it rest off the heat for another 3 minutes it is usually med rare which is how I like my salmon for you add like 4 more minutes on medium heat back on the skin side after you baste it it should be where you want it but if it's under it probably won't get you sick so try it you may like it better.

Stop trying to pan fry salmon and just bake it. Toss with some olive oil, dill, and lemon juice, put on aluminum foil, and bake. Fucking simple and the easiest fish you'll ever make.

>Any bacteria are going to be on the outside
The tapeworms and other parasites are on the inside. It shouldn't be a problem with farmed fish but I don't think bacteria is ever a problem with properly handled fish.