Tools for the Task

Fish spatula An elongated spatula with a wider base rim that makes it easy to flip the fish and to transfer it from stove to plate

Fish Knife or Fillet Knife An elongated knife with a flexible blade that makes it easy to remove the skin from the fish before cooking if desired.

Sharp 8- or 10-inch Chef’s Knife A sharp chef’s knife is a kitchen essential and critically important for chopping herbs, sectioning fillets, and smashing garlic cloves. It’s worth investing in a high-quality knife that feels good in your hands as it will last and be used for years to come. 

Ridged Grill Pan A cast iron ridged grill pan is convenient for grilling salmon indoors when the weather may not be conducive to outdoor grilling.

Oven Proof Frying Pan An ovenproof frying pan can be used both on the stove top and in the oven which makes these pans very versatile. We call for oven proof frying pans in the Pan Roasted recipes. Oven proof frying pans can be cast iron, enameled cast iron such as Le Creuset, or nonstick chef quality pans such as a Tramontina. If you are unsure if your pan is ovenproof, check the manufacturers product details. 

Fish Tweezers With their angled tip, these specialty tweezers make it easy to extract the pin bones from the fish before cooking. 

Lemon Zester Lemon is so often used with fish, it’s worth getting a lemon zester or micro-plane zester to shave the aromatic peel off the lemon. The white pith underneath is very bitter, and the zesters do a great job of only shaving off that bright yellow peel. 

Fish Scaler Many cooks like to scale their salmon before cooking and a fish scaler makes that a snap . Alternatively, the dull side of a chef’s knife can be used to remove scales from your salmon.

High Quality Baking sheet  Get a high-quality heavy-duty baking sheet. A half sheet size can fit a whole fillet, and a quarter sheet size is perfect for cooking two or three pieces of salmon at once. We used the Nordic Ware quarter sheet pans when testing these recipes. 

Olive Oil Dispenser Of course, you can drizzle olive oil right out of the container onto the salmon before cooking, but we like the control of an olive oil drizzling spout as it results in a finer drizzle over the fish, and it looks more professional.