You don’t have to de-scale a salmon, especially a 3-4 pound one (probably a pink or a sockeye). Larger king salmon have larger scales that don’t make for very appetizing skin, but it is easy to peel the meat from the skin.
So season the meat as usual, slap it on the grill implement skin side down, allow a few more minutes to cook through?
What should be the standard for scales that need removing on other fishes?
Do you plan on eating the skin? If not don’t bother.
I don’t know if they’re malodorous when cooked, wouldn’t want to add an unpleasant flavor to an entire fish.
I caught some hell on a BBQ board for this suggestion, but here it is:
Go to Home Depot and buy a untreated cedar fence plank. Cut to fit BBQ. I can get three cooks out of one plank which only a few $. Beats the he’ll out of what BBQ Galore or Amazon gets IMHO.
On the skin issue I leave it on and when I go to serve I slide the spat between the fish and skin.
One more thing you can also cook salmon steaks on a plank.
I’ve never noticed any issues and I’ve never heard anyone else say anything about it.
Why’d they they give you a hard time? Because it’s not “food grade” cedar?
I would be suprised and pissed if I bought a fish retail that wasnt scaled. Most home cook dont have alot of experience with fish, and its much easier for the store to take care of that for you. I feel the same way about pin bones, but I have to remove those about 80% of the time.
Eh. If you salt crust bake a fish in general the whole skin will stick to the salt crust and the meat will separate from the skin. Scaling a fish is easy, just a bit messy.
I normally scale either outside or in the sink. No special tools required, I frequently use the back of my knife, but i have been cleaning fish since I was about 8 years old. [family policy, you catch it, you clean it … ]
And I guess my follow-up question would be “What is food grade cedar and how’s it different from regular cedar?”
That’s also what Alton Brown suggests. Just make sure it is untreated (not you, Rick, but anyone else running with this idea).
The BBQ board is probably upset because you save a ton of money that way and it makes them feel foolish, so they are finding any reason to justify spending more money than you.
Your guess is as good as mine, other than it will be more expensive.
Well a lot of wood intended for construction, especially woods like cedar which are typical for outdoor use, is sprayed with chemicals to make it more water rsistant, more resistant to mold and fungus, etc.
Not sure you want to cook food on that stuff. My assumption is that buying cedar fence planks from Home Depot the fear was there’s no way you could safely know they have not been treated. Wood intended to be cooked with should have been sequestered from the pile going into fencing to ensure it’s not sprayed.
Fish that tastes good AND protects me from mold and fungus in my tummy? Bonus!!
…and what does this have to do with my comments?
Originally Posted by Snake Plissken View Post
I would be suprised and pissed if I bought a fish retail that wasnt scaled. Most home cook dont have alot of experience with fish, and its much easier for the store to take care of that for you. I feel the same way about pin bones, but I have to remove those about 80% of the time.
I made comment that you can salt crust an unskinned and unscaled but gutted fish and not have to know jack shit about cleaning a fish because the salt crust tended to hang onto the skin so you could get the flesh out without skinning it first.
Why do you have to be so snarky?
Mmm, this makes sense.
While treated wood does exist, the reason western red cedar is used in a lot of outdoor applications is because it is naturally resistant to decay. I have never been to a lumber mill that sprayed their wood with anything.
But unlike the wood at the grocery store, it is stored around other chemicals that may be unintentionally (and even unknowingly) put on it - that would be my only concern with picking a plank up at lowes vs. krogers - I agree in general that either would be fine, but sometimes its worth it to be a little more cautious.
Sorry for the snark, but salt crusting is alot more laborious than scaling a fish. It’s also passe’. My point was, if you are buying it retail, there is no reason they cant clean it for you.
Have you seen what chemicals are in the fish itself?? There’s no escaping it.
simply not as true as popular media would have you believe.
yes - there are trace chemicals in fish - there are ‘consumption advisories’ for eating fish from streams/rivers/lakes in my areas - but in general, to get to the point of actually having an issue with consumption, you would have to eat pounds of fish every single day for a year or more.
You’ll note here that Salmon is usually lower in this potential.
There are chemical traces of something in everything you eat and the water you drink - some more than others - if you want to escape it, you’re gonna have to quit eating.
Don’t forget, that some fish eat POO! OMG! (Tilapia and Mike Rhodin, I thank you for this knowledge!)
There is also a huge difference when it comes to burning wood that is laced with chemicals or adding chemicals to your food at cooktime.