What's all this white stuff on my salmon?

[Easton]

I don't remember this happening the first few times I made salmon, but I've been noticing some white goo on the sides of my salmon. Is it fat? Does it usually appear when I've overcooked the fish?

[college_cook]

Are you noticing the white "goo" after the salmon is cooked or before? I think salmon is a pretty fatty fish, as far as fish go, so it could just be fat.

[Easton]

After.

message too short

[Nicholas Mosher]

If it's after, it's probably just bits of protein that rose to the surface with moisture and coagulated. Same thing happens quite often to hamburgers when they are cooked undisturbed... except it's gray goo.

[Bibi]

It might depend on the salmon and where it was caught. Copper River red salmon and Yukon River king salmon are very high in fats (the good kind, loaded with Omega-3) and some of that will cook out of the fillet or steak. It's harmless and doesn't affect the flavor, so if you don't want to eat it just scrape it off.

[YT2095]

it`s blood proteins, quite harmless :)

[AllenOK]

Originally Posted by YT2095

it`s blood proteins, quite harmless :)

YT beat me to the punch.

That's the serum albumen, part of the the blood, that's still present in the flesh of a critter after it's cleaned. It will set up and congeal just like the albumen in egg whites.

If I remember right, this stuff can even be used to thicken liquids, just like egg liason can. Tradition Coq au Vin uses the blood of the bird to thicken the sauce, if I remember.

[ironchef]

Originally Posted by AllenOK

Tradition Coq au Vin uses the blood of the bird to thicken the sauce, if I remember.

Yup. Coq au Vin is an OLD dish. There are ancient references to coq au vin recipes dating back to B.C. times. Traditionally, very old birds were used and this dish came about because of that. Slow braising was the only way to make the meat tender. When we get in whole birds, we'll sometimes run coq au vin as a special or for crew meal. However, we use a different thickener for the sauce. Our executive chef used to work under David Bouley and he learned how to make a liason from the chicken's livers and other offal. This liason is used to thicken the sauce and add a sublime richness and depth of flavor.

[AllenOK]

That sounds interesting. Is this liason anything like a "raft" used in consumme?

I've thought about doing some Coq au Vin at home for my family, especially since I usually keep leg-and-thigh quarters on hand, and just got a new enamelled cast iron dutch oven recently. The only problem is, I don't know if my kids well eat it or not. I know it's delicious, but they may be turned off by the color.

[obiwan9962]

you'll find this occurs more with pacific salmon than atlantic
the two are two different species
it's just naturally occuring albumen protiens as my two esteemed predecessors mentioned
i also find it seems to be more abundant the fresher the fish

**** i miss pacific salmon
all i can get here is coho and once in awhile silver
but i want KING salmon
nice fraiser river or yukon river or my fave bristol bay

quick!
someone fedex me some!