Salmon: Pull at 125°F — 145°F Is Well Past Dry

Wild or farmed is a species question first. Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is essentially all farmed. The fish sold as sockeye, coho, king and keta are Pacific species, and Alaska has banned finfish farming since 1990 — so Alaskan salmon is wild by law, not by claim.

Fat is what separates them. King is the richest and the most forgiving. Sockeye is the leanest and firmest, with the deepest red flesh. Coho sits between. A sockeye fillet taken to the same temperature as a king will taste drier, because there is less fat holding it together.

Cook it to 125°F and stop. Carryover heat takes it a few degrees further on the plate. The white curd that seeps out is albumin, a protein squeezed out of the muscle by heat — a lot of it means the pan was too hot, not that the fish was bad.

Lox is not smoked. Lox is salt-cured. Nova is cold-smoked below about 90°F, so it stays silky and raw in texture. Hot-smoked salmon is genuinely cooked and flakes apart. All three get sold as "smoked salmon"; only two of them are.

Species	salmon
Subprimal	fillet and portion, cut from the side

Species

salmon

Subprimal

fillet and portion, cut from the side

What else it’s called

sockeye sockeye salmon coho coho salmon king salmon chinook atlantic salmon ora king ōra king copper river salmon fillet salmon filet lox smoked salmon gravlax keta nova

How to cook Salmon

Best methods	Pan sear Grill Oven roast Smoke Poach Raw
Cook to	Pull at 125°F in the center. King and Atlantic hold up longer; lean sockeye and coho go dry within a few degrees.
Step by step	How to Bake Salmon How to Pan-Sear Salmon How to Bake Chilean Coho Full Side Fillet

Best methods

Pan sear Grill Oven roast Smoke Poach Raw

Cook to

Pull at 125°F in the center. King and Atlantic hold up longer; lean sockeye and coho go dry within a few degrees.

Step by step

How to Bake Salmon How to Pan-Sear Salmon How to Bake Chilean Coho Full Side Fillet

If Salmon is sold out

Cooks like

Sablefish

Both are rich, high-fat fish that take well to searing, roasting, and smoking.

Cooks like

Trout

Trout is a salmonid — sear/roast/smoke it exactly like salmon, just thinner and more delicate.

Common questions

What temperature is salmon done?

125°F in the thickest part, then off the heat. The 145°F the USDA prints is a safety floor, not a target — by then the fat has rendered out and the flesh has gone chalky.

Is wild salmon better than farmed?

Different, not better. Farmed Atlantic is fattier, milder, available year-round and cheaper. Wild Pacific is leaner, more strongly flavored, seasonal, and firmer in the mouth. Buy sockeye if you want salmon that tastes like something; buy Atlantic if you want salmon a kid will eat.

Why is sockeye so much redder than other salmon?

Astaxanthin, a pigment it takes in from a krill-heavy diet. Farmed salmon are given the same compound in their feed, which is why farmed fillets come out orange rather than pale grey. Color tells you about diet, not about quality.

What is the difference between lox, nova and smoked salmon?

Lox is salt-cured and never sees smoke. Nova is cold-smoked, so it stays raw in texture. Hot-smoked salmon is cooked through and flakes. Counters sell all three as smoked salmon.

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