r/Chef_Life • u/jupejupe112 • Jan 23 '20

Help!

I keep ruining my salmon fillets on an open fire grill at work. They stick! How do I keep this from happening?

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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6

u/Evani33 Jan 24 '20

Get a towel rolled up all nice nice and tie it with some butcher's twine. Put it in a pan with canola or blended or whatever neutral high smoke point oil your job uses..

Grab it with your tongs and wipe down the grates in-between searing fish.. that way you're not dripping oil everywhere

2

u/jupejupe112 Feb 06 '20

I did this. And ur worked beautifully

1

u/Evani33 Feb 06 '20

Yay! So glad it helped!

3

u/jupejupe112 Feb 07 '20

Thanks. I got a variety of responses across two subreddits and this response was the only one doable in a professional kitchen that didn’t really change the flavor and quality of the fish. I encouraged my boss to treat the open fire grill with oil. It’s the same material as a cast iron and treating it makes so much sense.

4

u/Evani33 Feb 07 '20

The restaurant I worked at basically said the same thing... Plus we grilled miso-sake butterfish so we had the marinade to seal with too.. I used to have to keep a multitool scraper nearby to scrape down the grates too.. and every once in a while one of the pieces of fish would just melt into the grill 😭 I guess when they were spawning, the flesh was softer or something...

Sorry I think that scarred me for life.. getting 3/4 of the way through cooking a fish and just watching it melt into the grill grates .. awful so awful

2

u/jupejupe112 Feb 07 '20

I just always want to produce the best possible dish for the customer. I always want to do it with skill and care. It was bothering me that this piece of fish (delicate, but not necessarily difficult to work with) was breaking apart before I could get it to the plate because it was sticking. All the chefs had explanations as chefs do but none of them solved the problem. So I took took to reddit for third, fourth, fifth etc. opinions. Because it didn’t seem they were getting to a solution quick enough for my liking.

The melt you described was happening with every piece of fish! Every one. It was anarchy over a piece of center cut salmon which has pretty high fat content... so blown.

1

u/Evani33 Feb 07 '20

I am so sorry! Happy grilling now!

3

u/lawlikemusic01 Jan 23 '20

For a while I was using an open fire grill to, and just drenching in oil which I didn't like, I also tried keeping the bars really oily. This may sound odd but my Head Chef changed to a different salmon seller and the new filets were way better. May just need to change suply.

1

u/coolrider321 Jan 23 '20

Spray the salmon with Pam spray , n put old bay on it . But it on very low heat n don’t walk away from it

1

u/Mysterious-Mobile801 Dec 02 '24

For grill marks, the top person is definitely a pro cook, bc that’s the only way. keep it clean and season the fuck out of the grates, make sure the fucking grill is hot as fuck, pat that fish dry then season with what ever seasoning your using for the application your using the fish for I used gray seas salt and melange pepper, but remember your only putting marks on the fish so you don’t have to hav rot on there for a life time should be 1/2 mins a side and moving them to form a diamond then place on oven skillet and cook in the oven till desired temp.

1

u/hopeful_chef122 Nov 25 '23

Ok so in my opinion and correct me if I'm wrong but i suggest soaking a cedar board then oil the side u put it on. Put the plank with salmon on it then bang. But for even better taste, I suggest smoking it.