salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the fattest fish most people cook, which is why it forgives a grill and punishes a timer. Atlantic is farmed and mild; sockeye, coho and king are Pacific species and mostly wild. Cook to 125°F in the center — the 145°F printed on the package is well past dry.
In one line
The fat is the whole story — and it changes species to species.
Buy it if
You want fish that survives contact with a hot grill, and you'd rather cook by thermometer than by clock.
Wild or farmed is a species question first. Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is essentially all farmed. The fish sold as sockeye, coho, king and keta are Pacific species, and Alaska has banned finfish farming since 1990 — so Alaskan salmon is wild by law, not by claim.
Fat is what separates them. King is the richest and the most forgiving. Sockeye is the leanest and firmest, with the deepest red flesh. Coho sits between. A sockeye fillet taken to the same temperature as a king will taste drier, because there is less fat holding it together.
Cook it to 125°F and stop. Carryover heat takes it a few degrees further on the plate. The white curd that seeps out is albumin, a protein squeezed out of the muscle by heat — a lot of it means the pan was too hot, not that the fish was bad.
Lox is not smoked. Lox is salt-cured. Nova is cold-smoked below about 90°F, so it stays silky and raw in texture. Hot-smoked salmon is genuinely cooked and flakes apart. All three get sold as "smoked salmon"; only two of them are.
Where it comes from on the animal
| Species | salmon |
|---|---|
| Subprimal | fillet and portion, cut from the side |
What else it’s called
How to cook Salmon
| Best methods | Pan sear Grill Oven roast Smoke Poach Raw |
|---|---|
| Cook to | Pull at 125°F in the center. King and Atlantic hold up longer; lean sockeye and coho go dry within a few degrees. |
If Salmon is sold out
Cooks like
Trout
Trout is a salmonid — sear/roast/smoke it exactly like salmon, just thinner and more delicate.
Common questions
What temperature is salmon done?
125°F in the thickest part, then off the heat. The 145°F the USDA prints is a safety floor, not a target — by then the fat has rendered out and the flesh has gone chalky.
Is wild salmon better than farmed?
Different, not better. Farmed Atlantic is fattier, milder, available year-round and cheaper. Wild Pacific is leaner, more strongly flavored, seasonal, and firmer in the mouth. Buy sockeye if you want salmon that tastes like something; buy Atlantic if you want salmon a kid will eat.
Why is sockeye so much redder than other salmon?
Astaxanthin, a pigment it takes in from a krill-heavy diet. Farmed salmon are given the same compound in their feed, which is why farmed fillets come out orange rather than pale grey. Color tells you about diet, not about quality.
What is the difference between lox, nova and smoked salmon?
Lox is salt-cured and never sees smoke. Nova is cold-smoked, so it stays raw in texture. Hot-smoked salmon is cooked through and flakes. Counters sell all three as smoked salmon.
More seafood
Caviar & Roe
Only sturgeon roe is caviar. Everything else on the ice is roe, and s...
Mussels
Farmed with no feed, no antibiotics, and no fertiliser — and it's the...
Scallops
Wet scallops will not sear. That is the whole shopping decision.
Shrimp
The number on the bag is the only size label that means anything.
Lobster
Claws mean cold water. No claws means it's a different animal.
Crab
It's already cooked. Everything you do to it after is reheating.
Mahi Mahi
Not a dolphin. The name change was the entire point.
Swordfish
Cooks like a steak, from an animal that heats its own brain.