Salmon is a very popular fish among seafood. The tender and moist flesh of the fish is beloved when steamed, fried or baked. Salmon also happens to be fairly costly as meat goes and you would be forgiven for wanting to make sure you get the best out of salmon after buying it. Seafood is prone to spoiling very easily and quickly so the matter of how long you can store cooked salmon in the fridge for is not that simple. It is also a matter of how you handle the salmon before and after cooking and the lengths you go through in storing it.
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Salmon
Salmon is a group name for a wide variety of fish. Salmon are members of the Salmonidae family. Other members of this family include Char, Grayling and Whitefish. Salmon are predominantly salt-water dwellers that migrate to freshwater to reproduce. Therefore salmon are born in freshwater, live in salt-water and come back to freshwater to reproduce. Salmon have a slender and streamlined body while possessing very few spots. The flesh of salmon has a colour that is a mix of orange and pink. They have very tender and fatty flesh which works well when baked, fried, steamed and in salads. Salmon, when cooked, can be stored in the fridge but there are a few precautions you need to take when handling it. What do you need to do to get the best out of cooked salmon?
Before Cooking
Raw fish is highly perishable and salmon’s delicate quality makes it even more so. When buying salmon you need to be careful with it. The first tip you should consider is buying your salmon last. This will reduce the time it spends outside a refrigerator. If you can, transport your salmon from store to home on ice or in a cooler box. If you cannot do any of these you will need to count the time spent between the store and home. This will reduce your two hour countertop period. Once you get home getting the salmon into the fridge should be the first thing you do. When it comes to cooking the salmon make sure you only take it out of the fridge when you are ready to use it. All these precautions are important because many recipes involve lightly cooking salmon and if you have bacterial growth at an advanced stage you are at risk.
Storage
When you have cooked your salmon and want to place it in the refrigerator there are also a few guidelines to follow here. Firstly make sure that you refrigerate your salmon within 2 hours of removing it from a heat source. The bacteria danger zone is between 5 and 60 degrees Celsius. Between these temperatures, bacteria grow rapidly. When storing cooked salmon you have a few options on the type of storage containers or materials you can use. You can use shallow airtight plastic Tupperware to store your salmon in the fridge. Another great option is to wrap your salmon in aluminium foil making sure to wrap around a few times to prevent any gaps from emerging. You can also use cling wrap to wrap your salmon right around making sure that there are no gaps for air. As long as you use an airtight storage method you will be able to keep cooked salmon in the fridge for 3-4 days.
How To Tell If Salmon Has Gone Bad
If you’ve managed to follow all the instructions you should be able to keep it in the fridge for 3-4 days. You’ll need to know what to check for to make sure your salmon has not gone bad. There are two main things to look out for the smell and texture. It is important to smell your salmon first. With salmon the visual signs of going bad to take a little longer to develop so it may look good but still have gone bad. If your refrigerated cooked salmon has a smell that is akin to the sourness of dairy products then it is highly likely it has gone bad and should be thrown out. The second thing to check is the texture of the salmon. If your cooked salmon develops a slimy texture or film on the skin then it has gone bad and should also be thrown own.
Reheating Cooked Salmon
Congratulations on preparing and storing your salmon well. There’s just one more thing you have to be mindful of which is how to best reheat your cooked salmon. There are two great ways to reheat salmon and both of them need a little extra care to get the best out of them. The first option you have is reheating your salmon in the oven. When reheating your cooked salmon you should avoid the urge to do so at high heat. You want to use a moderate heat setting to avoid drying out the salmon. Preheat the oven to 130 degrees Celsius. Place the salmon in your oven dish or tray, add a splash of water and cover the salmon with aluminium foil. It will take around 15 minutes for the fish to reach a safe eating temperature. The other way you can reheat your cooked salmon is in the microwave. Reheating salmon in the microwave is very difficult as microwaves are all about quick blasts of high heat. It is best to reheat your cooked salmon in the microwave in short intervals of 10 to 15 seconds. After each interval, you should check the temperature until it reaches the desired temperature.
If you plan to store cooked salmon in the fridge know that you can do so for 3 to 4 days. What’s important is to make sure it spends as little time out of the fridge as possible before cooking and goes into the fridge within two hours after cooking. You can wrap in cling wrap or aluminium foil.
