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How long to bake salmon

How long to bake salmon

0:00
200°
Oven temperature · 400°F
63°
Cooked through · 145°F
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Oven times for salmon by fillet thickness at 200 °C, with the slower method for a wider margin and the internal temperatures for each doneness.

Cook to temperature, not to timeTimes are for a preheated 200 °C (400 °F) oven, skin side down on a lined tray, uncovered. Measure the deepest part of the fillet rather than reading the weight off the packet, because thickness is what sets the time. Food safety guidance puts cooked fish at 63 °C / 145 °F. Salmon is commonly served at 50 to 55 °C, medium rare to medium, and that is a personal risk decision rather than a recommendation. Anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immunocompromised should cook it to 63 °C.

More fish times

Common questions

Does a heavier fillet need longer in the oven?

Only if it is thicker. Heat travels in from the surface, so the distance that matters is from the outside to the centre, and a wide flat 400 g piece bakes in about the same time as a narrow 200 g piece of the same depth. That is why every row here is a thickness. 9 minutes at 1.5 cm, 16 minutes at 3.5 cm, whatever the label says it weighs.

Should I cover salmon with foil?

No, and covering it changes the result rather than just the timing. Foil traps steam, so the fillet poaches instead of roasting and the surface stays pale and soft. Leave it open for a firmer top. The exception is cooking from frozen, where foil over the first half stops the outside drying out while the middle is still thawing.

How do I stop baked salmon drying out?

Take it out sooner, and consider turning the oven down. Most of the moisture leaves between 55 °C and 63 °C as the muscle fibres contract, which is exactly the range you pass through on the way to cooked through, so four extra minutes is usually the whole problem. At 140 °C the same fillet takes about 25 minutes and the gap between done and dry is far wider. Heavy white curd on the surface is albumin, and a lot of it means the heat was too high.

Skin on or off, and which way up?

Skin on, skin side down. It sits between the flesh and the hot tray and takes the direct heat, so the underside does not overcook while the centre catches up. Oven baked skin will not go crisp, so lift the fillet off it at the table if you do not want it. Peeling it away after cooking takes a second. Doing it before costs you the protection.

Egg times come from the thermal-diffusion equation for a spherical egg published by Charles D. H. Williams (University of Exeter), calibrated so a large fridge-cold egg at sea level matches the times cooks actually use. Size, starting temperature and altitude then follow from the physics. Treat the result as a very good starting point, not a guarantee, because pans, hobs and eggs all vary.