What You'll Need
- Flexible knife
- Fish tweezers or pliers
Directions
Salmon steaks are cut into cross sections from whole fish, as opposed to fillets which are cut lengthwise from tail to collar. They contain three sets of bones: pin bones, rib bones, and vertebrae. Watch our video to learn more.
To debone, use a sharp, flexible knife and a pair of pliers or sturdy tweezers to remove them or cook and eat around them.
Steaks can also be rolled into a spiral. After removing the bones, wrap the belly flaps around to form a round spiral then tie with kitchen twine
Steaks can be separated into two fillets and cooked as you would any type of salmon fillet.
Any recipe on our website that calls for salmon fillets can be adapted to use whole salmon steaks. Since whole steaks are cooked on the flesh sides only, the skin will not make contact with the pan to become crispy.
Similar to steaks, salmon roasts are cut into cross sections. These cuts are made closer to the tail and lack the belly flaps and rib bones. As a result, they may only contain the pin bones and vertebrae. Roasts tend to be 2-inches thick and will need additional time to cook all the way through.
Grace Parisi
Culinary Director Grace Parisi is a cook, writer and cookbook author. Formerly the Senior Test Kitchen Editor at Food & Wine Magazine and Executive Food Director at TimeInc Books, her work has appeared in Cooking Light, Health, O Magazine, Epicurious, Fitness, Today, Serious Eats, Martha Stewart, and many more. She’s the author of more than 6 books, among them The Portlandia Cookbook and Get Saucy, which was nominated for a James Beard award for Best Single Subject Cookbook.
