Cooking salmon!

[Lancsflyman]

Can anyone advise me on how is the best way too prepare salmon before cooking.
When the salmon defrost it smell funny and doesnt taste much better after cooking. When you buy it from the fish mongers it smells better and tastes alot better.
What im i doing wrong ?
Thanks in advance
Paul.

[An Griannach]

Hi Lancsflyman,
Just wondering how you usually cook your fish?
Also, how long do you leave your catch before freezing it?
Generally speaking, the colder you keep your fish after killing it, the better. The ideal situation would be to put the fish on ice as soon as it's killed- however I know that this is generally impratical when it comes to salmon fishing!!

[No. 14 Orchid]

Hi Lancsflyman,
Just wondering how you usually cook your fish?
Also, how long do you leave your catch before freezing it?
Generally speaking, the colder you keep your fish after killing it, the better. The ideal situation would be to put the fish on ice as soon as it's killed- however I know that this is generally impratical when it comes to salmon fishing!!

Keeping it on ice at the moment shouldn't be a problem.

[jeffadog]

Hi

When you freeze the fish, freeze it "in the slime" and don't clean it first. Apart from anything else it is much easier to clean when half defrosted. Wrap it tightly with polythene/cling film and then in more polythene to avoid the freezer burn, which is probably causing the smell. Defrost in the fridge slowly and then cook as usual.

Hope this helps (in my non-fishing life I'm a chef and have always found this works, for any fish. The secret is not to let air get to it.)

JD

[An Griannach]

Good tips JD!

[bluefin]

try not to use a plastic bag to carry or store salmon , they tend to get slimey and smell bad after a few hours , a salmon that has been in the river for a while will start to smell very quickly , wash the skin and try to remove all the slime before freezing then defrost slowly in the fridge on a rack so its not sitting in any run off liquid , or else steak it up and wrap each steak seperately , best of all catch one cook it whole and invite friends over with beer and wine ! then freeze whats left , plastic bag in the boot and a long drive home is a receipe for odours , a breatheable sack and any ice at all will keep a fresh fish fresh for at least a day , hello to all im new to the forum , lots of interesting topics

[Thrasher]

I don't freeze any of my salmon whole or with the guts in. Probably because I don't have a freezer large enough but also because I couldn't eat a whole one in one go either.

I am not in the keep a whole one for Christmas day camp, I like eating it for as long as I can.

Therefore I do a couple of things. First and always I gut the fish and try to do it on the same day, if not it goes in the fridge to be gutted next day asap.
When it is gutted it gets a good rinse under a cold tap to remove as much slime as possible and left in kitchen paer to dry.

I will then do a couple of things. If it is a biggish fish i will cut it into steaks, smaller grilse size fish I have started cutting into three sections. If I steak a fish I will leave the tail end as a joint which I fillet and skin for use once it is defrosted.

I do not descale the fish as i don't eat the skin and so don't do the chefery crisping of it to eat.

I wrap then wrap the fish in three layers of cling film, steaks get wrapped in two's.

When i cook the fish I don't do an waful lot with it. The tail end joints as i have said get filleted skinned and pan fried.

Steaks i either grill or have a small steamer for the microwave and they get steamed that way. the grilse joints get wrpped in foil and done in the oven.

All have a wee bit of seasoning and not much else. Dealt with in this way I have never had any problems. If you have kept it for a wee while in the freezer, get it out and hot smoke it, fabulous.

Bear in mind that salmon are smelly, especially the slime. Try not rinsing your gye net properly and leave it in the car overnight, even in moderate temps and it will have you near barfing chunks in the morning, it, honks!!

Maybe that it where you are going wrong a bit, what do you transport it home in? A hessian bass bag that never gets washed? If so that may be causing the issue, also the tyime it is lying about without being chilled as suggested above.

Maybe try one the way I have suggested above and see how you get on.

[goosander]

Find the best thing to do is to wet a large towel in the river and wrap the fish in this and place in the shade. Keeps fish in good condition even in the summer.

[Souwester]

I don't freeze any of my salmon whole or with the guts in. Probably because I don't have a freezer large enough but also because I couldn't eat a whole one in one go either.


I wrap then wrap the fish in three layers of cling film, steaks get wrapped in two's.

Thrasher it works even better if you can vacuum pack the steaks. You don't get any problems with freezer burn either.

A small kitchen vaccum packer isn't very expensive and they are advertised on the internet. I think that we got ours for around £100, which included some of the heat seal sleeving that you need to make into bags.

Souwester

[Thrasher]

Thrasher it works even better if you can vacuum pack the steaks. You don't get any problems with freezer burn either.

A small kitchen vaccum packer isn't very expensive and they are advertised on the internet. I think that we got ours for around £100, which included some of the heat seal sleeving that you need to make into bags.

Souwester

Must admit I don't have much problem with freezer burn but they are a pain to unwrap.

Will have a wee google about for the vp, had considered one before but never got round to it.