You just dropped $15 on a beautiful piece of salmon and after you throw it on the grill, or slide it into the oven, a weird white substance starts oozing from the filet.
So what is this white substance? Can you eat it? Is it safe? Yes, it's completely harmless!
That white stuff seeping from your salmon is called albumin. It's a protein — not fat — that pushes to the surface of the fish when you heat it."Once this protein reaches temperatures between 140 and 150 degrees, its moisture is squeezed out and it congeals and turns white," according to America's Test Kitchen.
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"There's nothing harmful in it," Donald Kramer, professor of seafood science at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, told America's Test Kitchen.
And before you start scheming, know that cooking salmon in a different manner won't prevent albumin from forming. But there are a couple tricks if you want to avoid it.
One option is to brine the fish. America's Test Kitchen recommends soaking the salmon in a standard brine — one tablespoon of salt per cup of water — for just 10 minutes before cooking. That should minimize the amount of albumin forming on the surface of the fish.
Or you could try cooking the fish at a low temperature, according to Martha Stewart. Remove it from the heat when the center is partially opaque and allow it to continue cooking for a few minutes away from the heat. But this solution isn't guaranteed to work (sorry, Martha!) because, as America's Test Kitchen notes, there will always be a certain amount that leaks out — no matter which temperature you cook it at.
Jaclyn London, R.D., Nutrition Director at the Good Housekeeping Institute, notes that salmon is a top source of lean protein, vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids (all which can help reduce your risk of depression, heart disease and cognitive decline) — but less than half of us are eating the recommended amount. London suggests eating at least one to three entrees of seafood per week. So really, don't sweat the white stuff — just make sure you're eating the pink stuff.
