That white stuff coming out of the salmon fillet you're cooking won’t kill you. You’re not going to come down with a case of Salmon Goop Poisoning (which, to be honest, would be a pretty lame way to kick the bucket). But what is that white stuff, anyway? And why is it there? Well, to start, let’s learn its name. The white stuff on salmon is called albumin.
Albumin is a protein that exists in the fish in liquid form when it's raw, but coagulates and becomes semi-solid when you subject the salmon to heat, whether that's in the oven, on the stove, or on the grill. As the meat cooks, the coagulated albumin gets squeezed out and appears in the form of the weird, slimy, white substance that you are probably familiar with (and weirded out by). Science is wild, huh?
But why does the amount of albumin that comes out of a salmon fillet never seem to be consistent? Sometimes, you’ll end up with a piece that’s absolutely covered in the stuff, and sometimes you won't see any at all. That discrepancy has nothing to do with the type of salmon you're cooking, but rather how you're cooking it. The more aggressively you cook your salmon, whether it's wild or farm-raised, the more albumin will appear on its surface.
Think of what happens when you wring out a wet towel. The water inside the fibers of the cloth is pushed out as you squeeze the fibers closer together. The same principle applies to salmon. As salmon cooks, the flesh contracts, pushing out albumin to the fillet’s surface. The higher the heat, the more quickly the flesh contracts, and the more albumin becomes visible.
Speaking of slow-roasting salmon, our friends at Healthyish have a pretty great recipe.
