15 Mistakes You're Making With Salmon

It is impossible to discuss mistakes made with salmon without first touching on the age-old dispute: farmed salmon or fresh? To be clear, farmed fish and fresh fish are not made the same, and each has qualities that will lend to certain dishes, lifestyle preferences, and so on. While farmed salmon could be higher in some contaminants and heavy metals, wild-caught salmon isn't without its own list of ingredients that aren't all that good for people, bears, or other salmon-loving foodies either.

So, the biggest mistake you can make with salmon (at least when it comes to choosing it) is deciding on farmed or fresh for any reason other than your own personal preferences, limitations, and the desired outcome of the dish you are making. It's important to know what kind of salmon you're planning to snack on, but not so important to adhere to what others tell you is right or wrong with your own preferences. Just make sure to check for added dyes and restrict salmon (and seafood) consumption to a few times a week, which should keep farmed of fresh contaminants at healthy levels.

Not all salmon is created equal(lly fatty), especially considering how many types of salmon there are out there. Really though, there are a ton of different kinds of salmon, though most people never learn the difference even between Atlantic Salmon and Pacific Salmon. And even then, Pacific Salmon is a category that is actually comprised of Chinook, Chum, Soho, Pink, and Sockeye Salmon. This begs the question: which salmon is the best salmon?

Well, the best salmon is usually the salmon you have on hand and available. But knowing the properties of the kind of salmon in your skillet means more power in adding, taking away, or otherwise rendering the best fat and flavor from that fishy fillet. King, for instance, is considered the best and most desirable kind of salmon for its texture and taste, while Chum is considered by many to be drier and less flavorsome. In light of this knowledge, it's easy to infer that King Salmon is best served plainly so that the quality of the meat may shine through. Alternatively, Chum Salmon makes an excellent addition to meals with stronger flavors to carry the less high-quality cut. And remember, even in a single fish, the range of fat can vary drastically since the flesh near the tail tends to be tougher and leaner than collar, cheek, and belly meat (due to its more frequent use/exertion).

Salmon skin — you either love it or you hate it. And though the preferences per plate of salmon skin can vary greatly, it's important to remember that you can always not eat the salmon skin if it's there, but you can never eat it if it's absent. In more simple terms, unless you're baking the salmon into a fish pie, deep frying it, or otherwise purposefully leaning the skin off for a very good culinary reason, then it is most likely a good call to sear off that outer layer of salmon and serve it crispy with the skin side up (just in case someone wants a healthy, delicious, crispy, and hopefully salty snack with their salmon).

When you remove the skin of the salmon entirely, it is a huge mistake, wasting one of the most flavorful, nutrient-dense, and overall desirable cuts of fish. And even if you don't want to eat the skin, it's a great protective later during the cooking process — one that imbues the salmon with extra flavor and fat and keeps the heat from drying out the meaty layer underneath.

Salmon is a lot like steak, meaning that almost everybody overcooks it and turns an otherwise tender cut of meat into a dry and tasteless piece of protein. It seems almost as though every time a piece of salmon is cooked, you see that unmistakable whitish-gray matter collecting on its exterior, which means the fish is officially overcooked. See, that telltale visual indicator of white collecting on the outside seams of the salmon means that the fish fat has been cooked out and is now bursting from the sides of the fillet, leaving the fish still cooking in the pan decidedly dry.

To avoid this mistake, simply apply regular meat measures to your fish, like removing the salmon from the pan before it is entirely done and letting it rest on the side while you prepare the rest of the meal. This ensures the salmon has a chance to rest and finish cooking without overcooking. The end result? A piece of poisson so melt-in-your-mouth tender that you'll second guess any salmon you've cooked before. After all, finding the right internal temperature is critical when it comes to palatable salmon.

There's nothing more dissatisfying than receiving a steaming hot plate of fish, only to see the entire dish is comprised of the same exact texture — soft rice, soft vegetables, and soft fish, all without a crunch, munch, or crisp in sight. With fish skin, a satisfying snap is essential, and not getting that crispy skin is perhaps the most common mistake people make when cooking salmon. After all, there are so many ways you can accidentally ruin crispy salmon skin along the way: removing the skin, not cooking it skin side down to start, covering the pan after you've seared the salmon skin, serving the salmon skin side down, or even pouring a sauce over the skin when it's on the plate (thus ruining an otherwise perfectly crunchy fish skin experience). 

All that goes to show, is if you're going to bother to cook salmon, make the salmon skin extra crispy by simply heating a pan to a rip-roaring temperature, putting some high-temperature cooking oil in the pan, and letting it get to shimmering heat. Then, put the salmon skin side down in the pan, press it down, and cook it until a fork can't drag across that skin without a satisfying "I'm crispy" sound accompanying it.

With salmon, one of the biggest mistakes people make is when they automatically assume it is an ingredient that is only useful for dinnertime meals with the occasional and ever-so-indulgent salmon luncheon as a treat. But alongside the standard salmon dinner fare, this famously delicious fish also makes an amazing breakfast, brunch, and lunch food (as can be seen in and across many cultures).

Lox bagels piled high with salmon, cream cheese, capers, tomatoes, and red onions are an excellent use of salmon for breakfast. One can also cook salmon-centric savory oats or eggs Benedict with smoked salmon for classic salmon breakfast and brunch staples. For lunch, salmon is equally versatile and has a place in burgers, sandwiches, salads, and more. Frankly, there is no rule that dictates when and how salmon may be consumed. And, probably more out of habit than anything else, many dismiss salmon's breakfast, lunch, and brunch qualities whilst completely ignoring how amazing it is to sit down to a salmon breakfast. Just give it a try — you won't regret it.

There is no salmon mistake worse than the all-too-familiar faux pas of thinking that any old salmon bought at any old place can but sliced raw and served over rice — yikes. There is a very good reason that premium sushi-grade salmon is sold with that specific categorization slapped on the label, and it certainly is not one of those inexplicable grabs one sometimes suspects local grocers and fishmongers to do to get an extra dollar or two per pound of product. 

No, the reason for whether or not raw fish is labeled as "sushi grade" is because sushi grade fish (salmon included) is mandated by law to be flash frozen before it can be sold for consumption, at least in the United States. After defrosting the fish the right way, few (if any) can tell the difference between frozen and "fresh." And luckily, there are many places to buy sushi-grade salmon, and there are also many alternatives to raw fish. And you can always make baked salmon sushi to completely guarantee your salmon is free of parasites, food poisoning, and all the other potential raw fish risks.x

Canned fish is, in general, vastly underrated in terms of the quality of the fish compared to the quantity of money spent on said fish — from sardines to octopus to all the tuna in between, the success of the canned fish industry goes to show that there is absolutely nothing wrong with picking up a can of salmon every now and again. 

But won't you taste the difference between fresh-cooked salmon fillets and that stuff that's been in a can for who knows how long? Well, it honestly depends. For instance, yes, you would certainly notice the difference between canned and fresh salmon if it were served where you would typically expect to see a steak, fillet, or otherwise whole piece of fish. But the best way to use canned fish is in dishes such as salmon cakes, risotto, salad,  onigiri, and any other form of preparation in which the fish is flaked and well flavored, there is a low chance that you (or anyone else) will be able to tell the flavor of freshly caught fish from that of canned and stored salmon.