I had never heard of salt crusted salmon until The Butcher’s Market introduced me to the concept. As usual, they love pushing us to try new things and my mom and I were pretty nervous about this one! It’s truly so fun working with The Butcher’s Market as we are constantly discovering new cuts of meat and interesting ways to cook them.
As for this salt crusted salmon, it tasted GREAT. However, as is often the case when we try something for the first time, we learned a few important lessons I want to share with you! My mom tweaked the original recipe we were given to make it one we prefer. You may remember from past posts that my mom’s favorite thing to buy at The Butcher’s Market is the salmon, so she loved experimenting with this.
First thing’s first: You need a great salt rub!
The concept of a salt crusted salmon is to bake it completely covered in a salt mixture for even cooking and maximum flavor. For this recipe, the mixture includes a coarse salt ( we used The Butcher’s Market sea salt crystals, cilantro, honey, and egg whites.
You’ll place a base layer of the salt on your cooking pan, lay the salmon on top, and then cover the filets with the rest of the mixture.
LESSON #1: We cooked the salmon on a dark baking sheet and discovered that it made the salt burn faster. We recommend using a lighter colored sheet if possible!
You’ll then bake the salt crusted salmon for about 15 minutes or until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Don’t worry (like I did), you WON’T be consuming the thick salty crust. Break into it with a knife and peel it off the salmon.
LESSON #2: Clear off as much of that salt as you can. We removed the thick crust, but didn’t worry too much about the leftover salt on the salmon. This was a mistake! It was too salty, as you might guess. After we wiped off more of that salt residue, it tasted much better.
The other half of this recipe: The sauce!
This recipe calls for a simple sauce that takes the salmon to another level! It consists of greek yogurt, cilantro, vinegar, and either shallots or red onion.
LESSON #3: We used red onion, and we wished we used shallots for both texture and flavor.
Enjoy!
Serve with lemon wedges and enjoy! This was an interesting way to cook salmon that we enjoyed learning about together. Let us know in the comments if you’ve ever tried making salt crusted salmon!
Salt Crusted Salmon
Ingredients
- 1 pound salmon filets
- 1 pound rock salt
- 3 sprigs fresh cilantro chopped
- 1 tbsp honey
- 2 egg whites
- olive oil
- lemon for garnish
Yogurt Sauce
- 1 shallot peeled and finely chopped
- 6 tbsp vinegar
- 6 tbsp water
- 1 personal size plain greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 460 degrees F.
- In a bowl, combine the salt, honey, egg whites, and cilantro. Spread evenly across baking pan, add the salmon filets on top, and cover with remaining salt mixture.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until it reaches an internal temperature of 165.
- Allow to cool for five minutes. While cooling, prepare the yogurt sauce.
- Place chopped shallot in saucepan with vinegar and water and cook over medium high heat until it reduces to 1/3. Add the greek yogurt and cilantro. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Break the salt crust on the salmon with a knife and discard, making sure to brush away remaining salt.
- Serve with yogurt sauce and lemon wedges. Enjoy!
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