BBQ Salmon... foil or direct on the grill?
- Thread starter Josh
- Start date
I love the Costco sockeye! Strait to grill for me, flesh side first about 3 minutes, then flip to skin for 6-9. Also: teriyaki might have been invented for salmon, literally.
Josh,
Costco sockeye are Bristol Bay (BB) catch. This time of year they are frozen from last year's harvest. In a month they will have fresh, never frozen. They are not the best, but they are pretty darn good. (The reason they are not the best is because they come from short run rivers with a very short time between river entry and spawn timing. Therefore, they don't pack on as much fat as early timed Early Stuart Fraser sockeye - which are the best.) Those BB sockeye are small, and the fillets are relatively thin. This affects cooking time.
Next, when you speak of grilling, I assume you mean a charcoal grill, using briquets. If it's a propane grill, you need to take that into account. Here's how the world's best BBQ sockeye salmon is made if you're not cooking directly over an alder wood fire. Fill the charcoal chimney with the right amount of briquets for your grill. I use a Weber Smokey Joe since I'm normally just cooking for two of us. I fill the chimney about half full of briquets. Light it and set your timer for 10 minutes. Now scoop out about 1/3 cup of alder wood chips, the kind used in a Little Chief smoker. Add water to the top of the container, smoosh the chips down into the water, and let it set for a couple minutes. Then drain the water off. Set them aside but near your grill.
After 10 minutes dump the briquets onto your grill and spread them out. I let mine set about another 8 minutes or until the briquets are ash covered. Now scatter the dampened alder chips over the charcoal briquets, and place the grill on the BBQ. You can oil or grease the grill, but I never do because I try to use fat salmon. I use salt on salmon fillets, no other seasoning than the alder wood smoke. I generally use salt lightly, but I use more on salmon. You'll figure out what suits you. Place the fillets flesh side down for 3 to 3 /12 minutes. This is to sear the flesh and seal the lipids in the salmon flesh. My Weber has a cover, so I cover the fish. Turn it skin side down and cook for another 3 to 3 1/2 minutes and you see fat beginning to ooze from between the flakes of flesh. When that happens, the salmon is done, so remove it from the grill to a warm or heated platter. Serve immediately. Any family or guest who doesn't respond instantly, screw 'em; they can eat cold salmon. When it comes to BBQ salmon, everyone waits for the salmon. The salmon waits for no one.
Prepare salmon this way, and everyone will marvel at how good you are at it. Do this (different cooking time) with Columbia Rive spring Chinook, and they will not only marvel, you could get laid by a movie star.
Costco sockeye are Bristol Bay (BB) catch. This time of year they are frozen from last year's harvest. In a month they will have fresh, never frozen. They are not the best, but they are pretty darn good. (The reason they are not the best is because they come from short run rivers with a very short time between river entry and spawn timing. Therefore, they don't pack on as much fat as early timed Early Stuart Fraser sockeye - which are the best.) Those BB sockeye are small, and the fillets are relatively thin. This affects cooking time.
Next, when you speak of grilling, I assume you mean a charcoal grill, using briquets. If it's a propane grill, you need to take that into account. Here's how the world's best BBQ sockeye salmon is made if you're not cooking directly over an alder wood fire. Fill the charcoal chimney with the right amount of briquets for your grill. I use a Weber Smokey Joe since I'm normally just cooking for two of us. I fill the chimney about half full of briquets. Light it and set your timer for 10 minutes. Now scoop out about 1/3 cup of alder wood chips, the kind used in a Little Chief smoker. Add water to the top of the container, smoosh the chips down into the water, and let it set for a couple minutes. Then drain the water off. Set them aside but near your grill.
After 10 minutes dump the briquets onto your grill and spread them out. I let mine set about another 8 minutes or until the briquets are ash covered. Now scatter the dampened alder chips over the charcoal briquets, and place the grill on the BBQ. You can oil or grease the grill, but I never do because I try to use fat salmon. I use salt on salmon fillets, no other seasoning than the alder wood smoke. I generally use salt lightly, but I use more on salmon. You'll figure out what suits you. Place the fillets flesh side down for 3 to 3 /12 minutes. This is to sear the flesh and seal the lipids in the salmon flesh. My Weber has a cover, so I cover the fish. Turn it skin side down and cook for another 3 to 3 1/2 minutes and you see fat beginning to ooze from between the flakes of flesh. When that happens, the salmon is done, so remove it from the grill to a warm or heated platter. Serve immediately. Any family or guest who doesn't respond instantly, screw 'em; they can eat cold salmon. When it comes to BBQ salmon, everyone waits for the salmon. The salmon waits for no one.
Prepare salmon this way, and everyone will marvel at how good you are at it. Do this (different cooking time) with Columbia Rive spring Chinook, and they will not only marvel, you could get laid by a movie star.
Last edited:
Direct heat or cedar plank, for all salmon, but especially for sockeye, which stands up to heat and smoke better than most salmon. If you use foil, you might as well use the oven (not that there's anything wrong with that), because you're effectively steaming the flesh.
Relative quality of the salmon normally dictates my chosen method. If I've got a really nice, fatty chunk of fish, I go as simple as possible, sort of like how @Salmo_g does it. The less fat content, the more flavor/fat I add. Here's where cedar planks really shine; they make a piece of fish I would generally struggle to choke down (I have realized over the years I don't like salmon unless it's really fatty) palatable.
Relative quality of the salmon normally dictates my chosen method. If I've got a really nice, fatty chunk of fish, I go as simple as possible, sort of like how @Salmo_g does it. The less fat content, the more flavor/fat I add. Here's where cedar planks really shine; they make a piece of fish I would generally struggle to choke down (I have realized over the years I don't like salmon unless it's really fatty) palatable.
Paige
Wishing I was fishing the Sauk
This!
If you're wrapping it it foil you are baking it, plain and simple, and that is not grilling!
Interesting. I thought they were a little early for this year's fish. But the sunny weather this spring has gotten me all mixed up about when things are supposed to happen.
Regardless, it turned out just fine and my family scarfed it down.
(direct grill, salt/pepper/oil rub, skin down for ~6 minutes, skin up for ~2 minutes, in case anyone is interested. And I only have a propane grill at the moment.)
Salmo-G knows fish. By the way, you can buy special tweezers for pulling those pin bones. I just used a clean pair of pliers, back in the day.
I'll add what I was taught, when I lived in a remote coastal village in B.C., which had 90% First Nations folks. They have some experience!
This is the best method I've found:
Put your de-boned fillet on the counter, sprinkle soy sauce over it, then a bit of pepper and a bit of brown or Demerara sugar. Rub all that evenly over the flesh.
Prepare a foil "boat" that fits over TOP of the fillet, with about an inch of room over top of the fish.
Prepare moist alder chips, but even better, use slices of green alder branches. (Back in the day, and especially in remote places, there were no store-bought chips.)
Once the briquets are ready, rub fatty bacon over the grill, to help make it non-stick.
Put the fish on the grill, skin side down.
Put the foil "boat" over the fish.
Do NOT flip the fish. The foil "boat" traps in the heat and smoke, so the fish will cook perfectly without flipping. The foil also helps to keep the fish moist, which is most important with lean fish like sockeye.
Add the alder to the briquets, a bit at a time, continuously as the fish cooks.
After a short while (takes experience, and fillet thickness matters), take a quick peek under the foil once in a while.
When the top surface of the fish has JUST turned from raw transluscence to opaque, the fish is cooked. Get it off the fire now. Overcooking fish is a sacrilege!
Immediately remove the fish, using a couple of flippers.
Using a flipper, cut portions away from the crispy skin, and serve.
Encourage newbies to also eat the crispy skin. It's a nice treat.
Edit: I forgot to say that I go easy on the soy sauce, sugar, and pepper. I don't want to drown out the amazing taste of salmon.
I'll add what I was taught, when I lived in a remote coastal village in B.C., which had 90% First Nations folks. They have some experience!
This is the best method I've found:
Put your de-boned fillet on the counter, sprinkle soy sauce over it, then a bit of pepper and a bit of brown or Demerara sugar. Rub all that evenly over the flesh.
Prepare a foil "boat" that fits over TOP of the fillet, with about an inch of room over top of the fish.
Prepare moist alder chips, but even better, use slices of green alder branches. (Back in the day, and especially in remote places, there were no store-bought chips.)
Once the briquets are ready, rub fatty bacon over the grill, to help make it non-stick.
Put the fish on the grill, skin side down.
Put the foil "boat" over the fish.
Do NOT flip the fish. The foil "boat" traps in the heat and smoke, so the fish will cook perfectly without flipping. The foil also helps to keep the fish moist, which is most important with lean fish like sockeye.
Add the alder to the briquets, a bit at a time, continuously as the fish cooks.
After a short while (takes experience, and fillet thickness matters), take a quick peek under the foil once in a while.
When the top surface of the fish has JUST turned from raw transluscence to opaque, the fish is cooked. Get it off the fire now. Overcooking fish is a sacrilege!
Immediately remove the fish, using a couple of flippers.
Using a flipper, cut portions away from the crispy skin, and serve.
Encourage newbies to also eat the crispy skin. It's a nice treat.
Edit: I forgot to say that I go easy on the soy sauce, sugar, and pepper. I don't want to drown out the amazing taste of salmon.
Last edited:
RCF
Life of the Party
Correct. Why sear/remove the fat where there is such great flavor?
Like to skin it and then blacken it in a hot cast iron with butter.
Coarse salt and brown sugar dry brine, rinse, pat dry, and a quick sear on the traeger skin side down on high heat with alder pellets. Works well on upriver no so brights and summer run steelhead too.
Direct on the grill. Coat both sides with olive oil and season the meat side. Cook meat size down for 4 to 6 minutes (or more if a thick filet) and then flip to skin side down to finish for the same amount of time on the other side. Olive oil keeps it from sticking. Do it that way all the time and it turns out great!
Last edited:
Forgot to mention: Meat side down is pretty crucial. Start with that for a couple minutes then flip over for the rest. Doesn't take long unless you got a chonky piece of chinook. If you overcook it, I will ban you.
I'm a skin down directly on the grill guy.
Most critical part of any preparation starts well before the piece of fish ever sees the grill. For my grill I'm fussy about the species, stock and state of maturity that I select for my table. Further all my salmon are immediately bled and cleaned within minutes of being caught and immediately placed on ice. If I am using a piece of salmon from my freeze it will be from my very best quality salmon that has been treated as above and quickly frozen. Once frozen I take the individual packages of fish, unwrap and double glaze them by dipping in sugar water and vacuum sealed.
Such fish typically require only the simplest "recipe" to produce wonderful plate. With all the above I admit I'm the worst of the "fish snobs".
Curt
Most critical part of any preparation starts well before the piece of fish ever sees the grill. For my grill I'm fussy about the species, stock and state of maturity that I select for my table. Further all my salmon are immediately bled and cleaned within minutes of being caught and immediately placed on ice. If I am using a piece of salmon from my freeze it will be from my very best quality salmon that has been treated as above and quickly frozen. Once frozen I take the individual packages of fish, unwrap and double glaze them by dipping in sugar water and vacuum sealed.
Such fish typically require only the simplest "recipe" to produce wonderful plate. With all the above I admit I'm the worst of the "fish snobs".
Curt
I have to say it:
I love my chosen home of the PNW, but c’mon y’all, get with the freaking program. BBQ salmon? No! We are (mostly) talking about grilling salmon with high, direct heat.
BBQ is low and slow and indirect heat cooking. Think brisket and pork shoulder.
blog.thermoworks.com
Does nobody else like to peel their salmon skin from the filet as soon as it’s off the grill and then quickly grill the skin up crisp? I do.Yum.
I love my chosen home of the PNW, but c’mon y’all, get with the freaking program. BBQ salmon? No! We are (mostly) talking about grilling salmon with high, direct heat.
BBQ is low and slow and indirect heat cooking. Think brisket and pork shoulder.
The Difference Between Grilling and BBQ
There is a real difference between grilling and BBQ, and you need to know it. Use the right tools and get the right results.
blog.thermoworks.com
Does nobody else like to peel their salmon skin from the filet as soon as it’s off the grill and then quickly grill the skin up crisp? I do.Yum.
