4 pound whole Coho Salmon

Nature Boy

Costco had some good-lookin' fresh farmed Coho Salmon. I picked up a 4 pounder, cuz I liked the way it looked. It is gutted, but otherwise looks like it was just plucked from the water.[p]I have not done Coho Salmon (nor any whole salmon), but understand it is richer and redder that Atlantic salmon. Any suggestions on how to prep and cook this mamma?? [p]Thank you!
NB

alternity

Nature Boy,
Emeril had a whole salmon on his tv show the other night. What he did was fillet the thing. It was interesting. I assume you want to cook it whole tho..which I have been wanting to do.
Oh, and another note- he made some Nova style salmon that looked good.
Take a 2 pound fillet skin on washed and patted dry
then he used about a half cup salt and sugar
mixed a quater cup of chopped dill
1 zest of an orange

Put over the fillet ,wraped in saran wrap and placed a heavy Iron skillet over it[p] Set it in the refridge for 24 hours[p] then rinsed it well under cold water[p] sliced thin ....it looked wonderful[p] I would maybe smoke it after its cured under real low temps with light smoke.[p] good luck and let us know how it turns out[p] [p]

Nature Boy

Okay. Sorry. I was just talking to my wife, who brought up the Miso recipe again. So, I think I want to cut this baby into steaks, and grill them with the miso recipe. Hopefully Coho will work well with this method. Has anyone used Coho, and what should I expect??[p]Thanks again!
NB

Nature Boy

alternity,
I will probably only cook half of this baby tonight....now that the missuz decided the recipe for me. I would like to try something like you mention, or a brine, then slow smoke the other half tomorrow. Really don't want to filet it....for fear of totally butchering it.[p]Thank you sir!
NB

sprinter

Nature Boy,[p]Coho has a bit more flavor than a regular Atlantic salmon. Again, not fishy, just more flavor. If you are steaking it, be sure to NOT eat the bloodline, its pretty pronounced as you look at the steak. I cooked Coho once, actually blackened it, and it was great, EXCEPT for that dang bloodline, it came all the way through the blackening seasonings, pretty strong flavor. I would recommend not making the steaks too thick as the outer portion of the steak will be dry and the inner portion will be raw. Would think that about an inch and a quarter would be great. Maybe an inch just to be sure.[p]Good luck, hope the miso recipe turns out as good as the last time you cooked it, that sounded really good.[p]Troy

Nature Boy

sprinter,
Thank you sir! The bloodline goes right down the side of the fish?? So I remove the skin in that area?
Thanks for the tips. This looks like one nice feesh!! Can't wait to cut into her.
NB

sprinter

Nature Boy,[p]When you steak the fish you essentially have a piece of fish with the backbone going right through the center of it, like in the hole of a donut. The bloodline will be just under the skin on what would be the sides of the fish. However, on Salmon it's not that thick. The easiest way to handle it is to just steak the fish, cook it, and be sure not to eat the dark meat just under the skin. Also, on a 4 pounder it may not be that pronounce either so it may not be a problem at all for you. I know on bigger fish it can be as thick as the filet itself. On a mackerel I caught one time, it was a 35 pound King Mackerel, the bloodline was all the way through to the backbone. I cut the fish into fillets, took off the skin, cut out the ribs, then just cut off the top and the bottom of the fillet 'cause the bloodline was so thick it would have been impossible to salvage any of the fish under it. The line was about an inch wide at the skin side of the fillet and was about a quarter inch thick at the bone side of the fillet. Just chopped it up and threw it to the birds, must have been about 2 pounds of fish meat on each side that I tossed. Somewhat saddening but the seagulls loved it. Good luck with the fish.[p]Are you going to remove the skin before cooking the steaks? My recommendation would be not to, it will help hold the fish together in steak form, then will basically just pull off after its cooked. Post a follow up on how it comes out, I'm real interested to hear your results.[p]Troy

Nature Boy

Thanks Troy!
Killer info. Yeah, I planned on leaving the skin on, as this is what I usually do with steaks. in fact, the meat next to the skin is delish and moist when done this way! It peels off as easy as worn out masking tape! Just about to go up and get out the ol' knife so I can go to town on that beauty. [p]Did I mention it was $1.98 pound?? If it is good, I am going back to Costco with the truck.[p]I'll try and 'member to post a followup. Thanks again for the great info. You and me will hitch up sometime over the next 10-20 years, and have a major seafod fest.[p]NB

sprinter

Nature Boy,[p]Looking forward to that meeting and the subsequent seafood fest. Looks like I may be able to poke my head in while eggfest is in Atlanta in September. I'll probably have a couple of free hours on Thursday after setup, will be there with bells on if so.[p]I have some shrimp/prawns that I'm cooking this weekend. We picked them up in FL at the end of our trip and they need to be cooked. I think these are about 8-10 count shrimp as I have 2 1/2 pounds of them and only have about 20 shrimp in the bag. Should be good.[p]Then, the best part of the shrimp cook, as if that isnt enough, is that I'm going to make some fish stock and make some seafood gumbo with fresh made Andouille sausage. Looking forward to Saturday.[p]Life is good, life with an egg is better.[p]Troy