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my local restaurant served me recently some wild salmon (slice) from the grill. It tasted delicious, but was pretty dry.

I'm aware that wild salmon has much less fat. So I'm wondering, is there any preparation or cooking technique for barbecuing wild salmon on the grill to avoid that the fish gets dry?

note: Placing the grill a bit higher, is not an option for a restaurant, where they grill several kind of fish at the same time

P.S.: there is a similar question here, but the answers focus on how to cook farmed salmon

Vickel
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2 Answers2

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The answer to "how do I grill plain wild salmon without it being dry" is both simple and hard: don't overcook it.

Wild salmon fillets are thinner, with less fat, than farmed salmon. As such, They go from "done" to "overcooked" in less than a minute. For a thin tail piece, for example, time on the grill should be only around 3-4 minutes. If you're not sure it's completely done, it's already done.

For this reason, I only order wild salmon at restaurants that are specifically seafood-focused, because I know that more general restaurants will overcook it.

Above is based on my experience as a resident of the US Pacific Northwest with a grill and a subscription to a wild salmon CSA.

FuzzyChef
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Cedar planks.

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https://www.thespruceeats.com/cedar-plank-salmon-4140628

So easy, so delicious and it works great.

  1. Get cedar planks. You can pay big bucks for cedar planks intended for this use. Or you can buy cedar planks intended for use as siding or building cedar closets for very cheap. I have done both.

  2. Soak plank. If you are a planner aheader, soak it over night. Weigh down the planks with a coffee cup of water. If you are a non planner aheader, microwave the plank and glass pan full of water and the coffee cup for a few minutes. You get the same result.

  3. Put salmon on plank on grill. Salmon does not lose juice from below. It stays moist. And great plank flavor.

  4. Discard plank. Usually this uses up the plank because it is all burned on the bottom. But if you grill on charcoal the fish-grease soaked plank makes great kindling for next time!

My psychic powers saw a comment in the future saying planks for use in construction contain poison and persons should buy the $3 each planks. Yes: do not cook on treated lumber. Part of the thing about cedar is that it does not need preservative. I could not determine that there was anything but cedar in any of the cedar. A 20 lb box of planks from the big box hardware store costs the same as a plastic wrapped set of 4 planks from the fancy cooking store. Do what you are comfortable doing.

Willk
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