BBQ Salmon Stuck, Why?

"Ken" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Everyone,

I had some fresh wild salmon and decided to barbeque it. I
used a fish grilling basket, the kind with the two pieces
that fit together to hold the fish. When the fish was
done, it was thoroughly stuck to the basket. I sprayed it
with non-stick stuff before grilling.

Any solutions to this problem? Is it just going to happen?
Should I have brushed the thing down with oil to prevent
sticking? Help.

By the way, the fish was great.

TIA,

Ken

Skin on or skin off? I would think that you would have
needed to brush the fish with the olive oil, but
that's just me.

kili
--
"Beer, the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." - - Homer
Simpson

In article <[email hidden]>,

(Ken) said:

Everyone,

I had some fresh wild salmon and decided to barbeque it. I
used a fish grilling basket, the kind with the two pieces
that fit together to hold the fish. When the fish was
done, it was thoroughly stuck to the basket. I sprayed it
with non-stick stuff before grilling.

Any solutions to this problem? Is it just going to happen?
Should I have brushed the thing down with oil to prevent
sticking? Help.

Check out the current issue of Cook's Illustrated. There is
an article about grilling salmon. One of the things that
they discuss is how you can avoid sticking. Executive
summary: grilling baskets and non-stick sprays don't work as
well as just using an oil-soaked paper towel to swab the
grill. My own experience bears this out.

--
Julian Vrieslander

In rec.food.cooking said:

I had some fresh wild salmon and decided to barbeque it. I
used a fish grilling basket, the kind with the two pieces
that fit together to hold the fish. When the fish was
done, it was thoroughly stuck to the basket. I sprayed it
with non-stick stuff before grilling.

Quoted message said:

Any solutions to this problem? Is it just going to happen?
Should I have brushed the thing down with oil to prevent
sticking? Help.

It will stick no matter what you do if you use a cold basket
and cold fish. You need to plop the fish down on a HOT grill
to sear it.

--
...I'm an air-conditioned gypsy...

- The Who

Julian Vrieslander said:

In article
<[email hidden]>,

(Ken) said:

Everyone,

I had some fresh wild salmon and decided to barbeque it. I
used a fish grilling basket, the kind with the two pieces
that fit together to hold the fish. When the fish was
done, it was thoroughly stuck to the basket. I sprayed it
with non-stick stuff before grilling.

Any solutions to this problem? Is it just going to happen?
Should I have brushed the thing down with oil to prevent
sticking? Help.

Check out the current issue of Cook's Illustrated. There
is an article about grilling salmon. One of the things
that they discuss is how you can avoid sticking. Executive
summary: grilling baskets and non-stick sprays don't work
as well as just using an oil-soaked paper towel to swab
the grill. My own experience bears this out.

Having never used a fish basket, I have never had my salmon,
or other firm fish, stick to the grill. Two things to
remember: always oil the grill; two, never put the fish on
the grill until it is hot.

As an aside, the best way to grill the salmon is to lightly
rub on olive oil all over. Place the fish skin side down,
until almost cooked. Turn over to the flesh side, for just a
minute or two.

BTW, the NYT is following up on my mention of Yukon River
Kings: nytimes.com23SALM.htmlOpen ↗.

June 23, 2004 Wild Flavor of the Yukon, Now in the Lower 48
By TIMOTHY EGAN

FAIRBANKS, Alaska SCOURING the upper face of Alaska, the
Yukon River flows nearly 2,000 miles before it braids and
breaks to the Bering Sea. Its name evokes Jack London, a
sweet whiskey and a legendary run of king salmon. Of the
three, the salmon is perhaps the least known, but that is
about to change.

Starting this month, Yukon River kings made their way into
American markets in the lower 48 states for the first time
in a generation. They arrived with a reputation, spread by
travelers who know the Last Frontier State well, as perhaps
the best-tasting salmon in the world, rich in oil content,
as fat as a football, netted at the mouth of the river by
native Yup'ik Eskimo fishers who have lived off this run for
thousands of years.

"There is good wild salmon and not-so-good wild salmon,"
said Harry Yoshimura, whose family has sold salmon at Mutual
Fish in Seattle[best seafood store in Seattle] for more than
50 years. "This is easily one of the best."

Matters of taste are always debatable, but by one objective
measure — the amount of oil that gives the fish its richness
and much of its flavor — Yukon River kings would seem to be
unmatched. According to tests done by marketers at a lab in
Oregon, the fish have nearly twice as much oil as Copper
River salmon, the wild Alaskan fish considered by some to be
the gold standard.

To salmon connoisseurs, Copper River has been over-hyped
anyway, and is only at its best during the first week of the
run, usually in late May. Yukon kings are poised to become
the salmon of the moment. But because about 50,000 pounds
will be available through mid-July, the price should stay
below that of the less-abundant Copper River kings,
according to wholesalers.

The high oil content means that the fish is
exceptionally moist, with a distinct flavor. It is also
high in Omega-3 fatty acids, which nutritionists say are
healthy for the heart.

It is one of the more far-flung foods to find its way into a
main street market's ice display. The Yukon River starts in
Canada and touches the edge of the Arctic Circle before
lumbering southwest to a vast, roadless delta. The river
mouth is frozen from about late October till May. The length
of the river, and its chill, are largely responsible for the
salmon's richness.

The fish build up the insulating layer of body fat and oils
near the end of their lives in order to make the nearly 2,000-
mile journey upriver in 60 days. By contrast, Copper River
salmon swim about 300 miles to spawn. Yukon kings are fished
by natives just as they arrive at the river mouth to begin
their swim to spawning grounds.

"When they hit the river, they are really fat," said Deborah
Vo, a native Yup'ik with the Yukon River Delta Fisheries
Association, which harvests the fish. The natives hang the
fish to dry and smoke them with alder or driftwood.

"We brine them, store it for the winter, and the taste never
gets old,"
Ms. Vo said. "This is probably the only fish my daughter
will eat."

In the six Yup'ik villages scattered around the Yukon,
natives smoke and store Yukon kings for subsistence. Most of
their remaining catch used to go to Japan. There, Yukon
kings are often dried and then flaked onto special dishes,
or given as a gift. As less expensive farmed fish have
flooded the market, the Japanese have become less willing to
pay premium prices. As a result, this year, the Yup'ik
decided to try to sell the fresh fish to mainland American
markets, where they have not been seen for 30 years.

Small amounts of Yukon king salmon have always made their
way into a handful of stores in Seattle, which considers
itself the salmon capital of the world.

"You've got some old-timers who rave about it," Mr.
Yoshimura said. "And people in the seafood industry have
always known about Yukon kings. But it's a secret to
everyone else."

The question is whether American consumers, who have become
increasingly savvy about taste and texture of the different
species of wild salmon, will respond. Farmed salmon make up
more than half of the overall salmon market, but wild salmon
have started to make inroads after reports of possible
health and environmental problems with the farmed variety.

Alaska has the world's most bounteous wild salmon runs, from
the Copper River sockeyes of late May to the bright, fleshy
cohos, or silvers, of September. But the fish are caught
only during select openings, and fishermen have long had
trouble getting them to markets thousands of miles away.

Yukon kings are caught by natives using nets and small
skiffs. The fish are flown in prop planes from a dirt
landing strip to Anchorage, and then by jet to Seattle and
Chicago, kept packed in ice during the ride. Kwik'pak
Fisheries, which is selling the Yukon kings, says the fish
can show up on menus in major American cities within three
days of leaving the Yukon delta.

Grocery chains like Whole Foods, with stores nationwide, and
Metropolitan Market, in Seattle, have become prime retail
showcases for wild Alaskan salmon. For the next three weeks,
the Yukon kings will be in select stores and restaurants
throughout the United States, including Esca and the Oyster
Bar in Grand Central Terminal in New York, and the Oceanaire
Seafood Room in Washington, D.C. It will be sold for $19.95
a pound at Wegmans stores in New Jersey and in the Lehigh
Valley in Pennsylvania.

Wild salmon are endangered in some rivers along the West
Coast, but the runs are healthy in Alaska.

The Alaska runs have been trying to brand themselves,
following the success of Copper River, which is sold in
Seattle with all the hype of the Beaujolais nouveau.

Of the five species of Pacific salmon, kings are the largest
and most prized. Pacific coast natives called them chinook
or tyees, names which are also bestowed on great men or
leaders. Some kings weigh as much as 100 pounds. Born in gravel-
bed nests from central California to Alaska, the fish
migrate downstream, spend one to four years in the open
Pacific, and then return to their birth grounds to spawn and
die. Once they re-enter fresh water, they no longer eat,
relying on their stores of body fat and oil.

The season for wild kings starts in February, when a small
amount of Columbia River spring chinook are available. Mr.
Yoshimura ranks the Columbia springers, as they are known,
with the Yukon kings for taste and oil content.

Among the Alaska runs, Bristol Bay kings and coho from
southeastern waters around Sitka, are also starting to show
up on restaurant plates outside the state.

Outsiders, a term Alaskans use for anyone who does not live
in their state, sometimes consider diners salmon snobs when
they ask a waiter where a fish comes from, or whether it is
net-caught or troll-caught. This is not out of compassion
for the fish. Judging by the way Alaskans club, hook,
cajole or snag salmon during the summer, most residents
could not care less about how a fish died, so long as it
ends up on a grill.

The question has to do with how a fish is handled. Net fish
can be mashed in a pile, sometimes resulting in poor
texture. Marti Bickford, who is developing the domestic
marketing program for Kwik'pak, said that the Yukon
fishermen have been schooled in handling their catch this
year, to ensure that the fish do not arrive in anything but
prime condition.

As for how to cook the fish, true wild salmon lovers prefer
grilling with olive oil and sea salt, skin side first, and
then a quick turn on the flesh side near the end.

Mt. Yoshimura said he likes to poach his Yukon king in water
with ginger, a sprinkling of dried onions, and seaweed
or Japanese kelp.

"Then you eat what's left over cold, for breakfast, or in a
salad," he said. "And that's really good."

With the return of Yukon salmon to the lower 48 states, Mr.
Yoshimura has one hope for the run: long live the kings.
--
Alan

"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the relig-
ion, and avoid the people, you might better stay home."
-- James Michener

[email hidden] wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

In rec.food.cooking, Ken

Quoted message said:

I had some fresh wild salmon and decided to barbeque it.
I used a fish grilling basket, the kind with the two
pieces that fit together to hold the fish. When the fish
was done, it was thoroughly stuck to the basket. I
sprayed it with non-stick stuff before grilling.

Quoted message said:

Any solutions to this problem? Is it just going to
happen? Should I have brushed the thing down with oil to
prevent sticking? Help.

It will stick no matter what you do if you use a cold
basket and cold fish. You need to plop the fish down on a
HOT grill to sear it.

Everyone, thanks for your responses,

This is just a funny case of trying to improve things and
instead they just get worse. When I bbq fish, which isn't
too often, I generally do fillets right on the grill.
(There's a local albacore fisherman that I get fillets
from and they're great on the grill.) But this time, I had
wild salmon steaks and I had this fish basket thing that
never gets used, so I thought I'd use it just to justify
having it. So I used it and everything stuck. The fish
tasted great, but I did end up with some flakes instead of
one big piece.

So next time, I guess it's back to just doing it on the
grill like I always do or using a paper towel to oil the
basket completely.

Thanks,

Ken

In rec.food.cooking said:

As an aside, the best way to grill the salmon is to
lightly rub on olive oil all over. Place the fish skin
side down, until almost cooked. Turn over to the flesh
side, for just a minute or two.

I think you've got it backwards. If you do the skin side
first, then the flesh side, it will be at its maximum
fragility when you need it to hold together. You will be
taking it off the grill and trying to flip it over to the
presentation side when it is fully cooked, and is likely to
fall apart.

What I do is to plop the flesh side down on the grill, and
cook it until it releases. Then I rotate it about 60
degrees, and let it cook some more. This produces beautiful
criss-crossing grill marks.

Once the flesh side looks good, I flip it over to the skin
side, and move it to the cool side of the grill. I replace
the top, and let it bake until done. While it is finishing
on the cool side, the smoke from the charcoal further colors
the flesh side, until it is a beautiful golden brown.

When done, it is fairly easy to slip the spaula under the
skin and to carfully remove the fish.

alzelt said:

Having never used a fish basket, I have never had my
salmon, or other firm fish, stick to the grill. Two
things to remember: always oil the grill; two, never put
the fish on the grill until it is hot.

I use a basket (hamburger type - with no sides), not because
of sticking, but because it's easier to turn the fish and
it's not such a big deal getting onto the serving platter.
Otherwise, I agree with all of the above instructions... and
I heat the basket along with the the grill.

Practice safe eating - always use condiments

The July/Aug 2004 issue of Cooks Illustrated has an
article on grilling glazed salmon and how to get it not to
stick. I didn't read through the entire article, but the
main thing they suggested doing was rubbing the grill
grate with a paper towel dipped in oil. They had less than
stellar results with baskets/lemon slices/oil on
fish/cooking spray etc.

NS

"Ken" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

In rec.food.cooking, Ken <[email hidden]>
wrote:

Quoted message said:

Everyone, thanks for your responses,

This is just a funny case of trying to improve things and
instead they just get worse. When I bbq fish, which isn't
too often, I generally do fillets right on the grill.
(There's a local albacore fisherman that I get fillets
from and they're great on the grill.) But this time, I had
wild salmon steaks and I had this fish basket thing that
never gets used, so I thought I'd use it just to justify
having it. So I used it and everything stuck. The fish
tasted great, but I did end up with some flakes instead of
one big piece.

So next time, I guess it's back to just doing it on the
grill like I always do or using a paper towel to oil the
basket completely.

Thanks,

Ken