Here I am at last, feeling comfortable working with a whole salmon. We had the opportunity to buy whole frozen salmon in bulk so I had to learn a new skill and I’m so glad I did.

I followed the instructions provided here, but any YouTube video will also work. It’s important to have a good knife. I used this one:

I cut in lengthwise and removed the spine and hand-pulled all the little bones I could find. I’m still struggling to get a nice smooth finish on the cut surface and don’t even ask me to skin it, This is the second one I have done and I’m not unhappy with it.

It helps that I am going to cover the raggedy surface with a nice parmesan crust:

1/2 C Panko

1/2 C seasoned bread crumbs

1/2 C melted butter

1/2 C shredded Parmesan

4 cloves garlic, minced

This is a previously frozen Coho salmon, so it benefits from being coated in flavor and butter. We had some leftover rice to use up, so we put that down first with some seasoned olive oil.

12-15 minutes in a 400 degree oven and we had salmon goodness.

Though we did have to keep guard, lest our dinner be stolen away.

Don’t throw out the trimmings. I boiled them down and froze the meat and the broth for chowder.