Foods & cuts · Salmon
Salmon fillet
A fatty fish with delicate muscle structure, which fails in the opposite direction from meat: it falls apart rather than toughening.
What it is
- Form
- Fillet
- Typical weight
- 120–220 g
- Typical thickness
- 20–35 mm
- Cut
- Not a cut of anything
Why it behaves as it does
Two independent publishers now express fish timing as a rate per unit of THICKNESS rather than per portion — Clemson's ten minutes an inch in an oven, Weber's 8–10 an inch on a grill. The appliances differ so the numbers are held apart, but the shape of the rule is corroborated, and it is the right shape.
When is it done?
Food-safety endpoint
Health Canada
In Canada, pork pieces and whole cuts — bone-in chops, boneless loin chops, rib roast and loin roast — should reach 71 °C (160 °F), and fish 70 °C (158 °F). Shellfish and crustaceans are 74 °C. No rest interval is attached to any of these.
- 71 °C (160 °F) — measured at the centre of the thickest part.
- 70 °C (158 °F) — measured at the thickest part of the fillet.
The rule and its source
In Canada, pork pieces and whole cuts should reach 71 °C (160 °F), and fish 70 °C (158 °F). No rest interval is attached to either.
Well established
Health Canada — States this directly
“Pieces and whole cuts, for example, bone-in chops, boneless loin chops, rib roast, loin roast 71 160 ... Fish 70 158”
- The sharpest disagreement in the catalogue between two neighbours. Canada gives a pork chop 71 °C; USDA FSIS gives 63 °C with a three-minute rest. That is eight degrees and a rest interval between two countries whose supermarkets sell the same cuts. Fish diverges too: 70 °C against the American 63 °C.
- Canada's chart attaches no rest interval to any row.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-15
Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Use separate equipment for raw and cooked meat, and never put cooked meat back on a tray or plate that held it raw. Throw away leftovers unless there is refrigeration available to cool them quickly.
The rule and its source
At a barbecue, raw and cooked meat must be kept apart: separate equipment, and cooked meat never returned to the tray that held it raw.
Well established
Food Standards Australia New Zealand — States this directly
“never place cooked meat back on the trays that held the raw meat”
- The single most common barbecue food-safety failure, and one that no cooking temperature prevents.
- Where it applies:
- Australia and New Zealand.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Food Standards Agency
In the UK, fish is cooked when the flesh has turned opaque — no longer transparent — and separates easily with a fork.
The rule and its source
In the UK, fish is cooked when the flesh has turned opaque and separates easily with a fork. The regulator gives no temperature for fish.
Well established
Food Standards Agency — States this directly
“fish flesh should turn opaque (no longer transparent) and separates easily with a fork”
- How it was measured:
- A visual and textural test, not a thermometer reading. The same document gives 70 °C for 2 minutes as the general combination for food, and does not apply a figure to fish.
- Where it applies:
- England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-16
Food Standards Agency
Wash a thermometer stem in hot soapy water before and after each use, and do not put the head in water.
The rule and its source
A thermometer stem should be washed in hot soapy water before and after each use, and the head should not be put in water.
Well established
Clemson Cooperative Extension — States this directly
“Make sure to clean the stem of your food thermometer with hot soapy water before and after each use. Do not immerse the head in water.”
- Before and after, not just after. a probe that went into an undercooked bird and then into the next one is a cross-contamination route BBQHQ's food-safety model already recognises between surfaces and hands, and has never described for the instrument that touches every piece of meat on the grate.
- The head exclusion is an equipment instruction rather than a hygiene one — electronics — and is recorded here because it is in the same sentence and separating them would misquote the source.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-21
Texture endpoint — how you actually know
Just beginning to flake, with the translucency gone
The flesh separates into flakes under gentle pressure from a fork and has lost its raw, translucent look. Clemson gives exactly this signal, and it is more reliable than any temperature for a fish that goes from underdone to dry in about ninety seconds.
Where this comes from
Fish is timed by thickness rather than by weight. Clemson gives ten minutes per inch at 450 °F in an oven, with five minutes added in foil or sauce and double for frozen fish; Weber gives 8–10 minutes per inch on a grill. Doneness is a physical signal — the flesh just begins to flake and loses its translucency.
Well supported
Clemson Cooperative Extension — States this directly
“bake for 10 minutes per inch thickness of the fish, turning the fish halfway through the cooking time”
- Method:
- Stated for baking at 450 °F, NOT for grilling. The oven is the assumed appliance.
- How it was measured:
- Measured at the thickest point, after stuffing or rolling if either applies.
- Add 5 minutes if cooked in foil or in a sauce; double to 20 minutes per inch for fish cooked from frozen.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Weber-Stephen Products LLC — States this directly
“General rule for grilling fish: 4 to 5 minutes per ½ inch thickness; 8 to 10 minutes per 1 inch thickness.”
- Form:
- Expressed per unit of thickness rather than per portion.
- Close to but not identical with Clemson's 10-minutes-per-inch rule, which assumes a 450 °F oven rather than a grill.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Clemson Cooperative Extension — States this directly
“Fish is cooked when its meat just begins to flake easily when tested with a fork and it loses its translucent or raw appearance.”
- Form:
- A physical signal rather than a temperature — the shape a texture endpoint takes.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
How long it takes
Salmon fillet, direct heat
Estimated cooking window
10 min–12 min
Moderate confidence
Why this is a range, not a number
- Thickness varies between pieces
- Cookers hold temperature imperfectly
Cook to the endpoint, not to the clock. The window tells you when to start checking.
What this rests on
BBQHQ publishes a window for this cook.
- Observations
- 3
- Documents
- 2
- Publishers timing this cook
- 2
Clemson Cooperative Extension · Weber-Stephen Products LLC
Why confidence is not higher
- At least one source does not state the cooker temperature.
- No source states whether the food went on fridge-cold or rested.
How the sources were combined
Weber gives 10–12 minutes over direct high for a fillet 1 to 1¼ inches thick. Clemson's ten-minutes-per-inch rule is for BAKING at 450 °F and is recorded as an enclosed-oven cook, so reconciliation keeps the two apart rather than treating the near-identical rates as corroboration. What IS corroborated is the shape of the rule: both publishers express fish timing per unit of thickness rather than per portion, which is the correct shape and the one BBQHQ could not previously source.
What makes the window as wide as it is
- Thickness varies between pieces
- Cookers hold temperature imperfectly
When it goes wrong
- It came out dry
- The fish came out dry — 2 distinguishable causes.
- It stuck to the grate
- Food sticking to the grate — 2 distinguishable causes.
- It caused flare-ups
- Flare-ups — 2 distinguishable causes.
- It fell apart
- Fish falling apart on the grill — 2 distinguishable causes.
Also relevant to salmon fillet
Afterwards
Cooling, keeping and reheating what is left is general guidance for barbecue leftovers. Neither UK authority publishes anything specific to salmon fillet, and BBQHQ does not invent a distinction they do not make.