Not too high, not to low—this is the temperature that's just right.
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Back in my 20s, I thought I knew a lot about cooking. The reality was that I didn’t know much. I was having friends over for an impromptu dinner and needed something I could prepare quickly since I was tight on time. I landed on broiled salmon.
The recipe in question had some kind of mustard topping and bread crumbs and seemed like something I could replicate. After preparing and following what I thought were good directions, the salmon came out dry and covered in unsightly white streaky stuff that no one was excited to see. My friends were champs and ate it, but I knew they wished we had gone out to dinner instead of eating the mess I served them.
A few years later, I decided to attend culinary school. It was there that I truly learned about cooking and why patience was so important. Some foods, we were taught, simply needed more time for preparing and cooking. This was especially true of large cuts of proteins like beef and pork, but also some fish, like salmon. This is why I cook salmon at 300°F.
Why Low and Slow Is Best for Salmon
Salmon fillets can be prepared several ways, but I was taught that “low and slow” was one of the best. Since fish structure is more delicate than beef or chicken (thanks to their differences in muscle size and formation), it needs a gentle cooking approach; and because fish cooks more quickly than meat (due to the aforementioned muscle structure), a lower temperature helps the fish retain moisture.
I learned that the unsightly white stuff on my ill-fated salmon was actually a protein known as albumin. When the fish is raw, the albumin is in a liquid state, but as it cooks and contracts, the albumin is pushed to the surface, where it eventually solidifies. The high heat that I used for broiling the salmon for my friends forced it to cook so quickly that it pushed the albumin to the surface, bringing the fish's moisture with it.
How To Cook Salmon My Way
The solution my chef instructors taught me, especially for leaner, wild salmon, was to cook the salmon at a low temperature, around 300°F, until it reached the desired degree of doneness, which for me is around 130°F, about 25 to 30 minutes, but it depends on the thickness of the cut. The result is an ultra-moist, flaky fish that melts in your mouth when you eat it.
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Tips for Baking Salmon
- Leave the skin on. I prefer to use skin-on salmon because it provides a layer of insulation between the cooking vessel and the flesh of the fish. This helps the fish retain moisture as it cooks.
- Skip the tail. When buying salmon for baking, I’ll always look for a center-cut fillet as opposed to a tail-end fillet. That’s because the tapered end is thinner, causing it to cook more quickly. If all you see are tail-end cuts, then another option is to tuck the tail end under itself before cooking to create a double layer that comes closer to the thickness of the rest of the fish.
- Use a thermometer. You can flake your fish with a fork to tell if it’s done, but if you prefer facts over guessing, then I suggest using a digital thermometer to tell if your fish is done. Insert it in the thickest part of the fish to get the most accurate reading.
