The simplest techniques are often the best, especially when dealing with seafood. You don’t need fancy marinades or elaborate techniques to highlight the clean, rich flavors of salmon or give it a firm, bouncy texture. You just need salt (and a little dill wouldn’t hurt either).

A quick salt cure is all you need for the best baked salmon

Salt curing—or "koshering"—salmon before cooking is a technique we learned from chef Nikolas Paulsson of the Lanternen restaurant on the Oslo fjord in Norway, and it’s one of our favorite ways to prepare the fish. It’s the secret to the meaty texture in our Baked Salted Salmon with Dill, and what Chris Kimball calls the "simplest and best method" for any salmon, but especially thick pieces, like the 2-pound skin-on center-cut side called for in this recipe.

Though we add dill for extra flavor, you really only need one ingredient: coarse salt. Rub it all over the top of the fish, keeping the skin side down on a baking sheet, then set it in the fridge for about an hour. The salt doesn’t just season the fish, it draws out extra moisture while denaturing the proteins, concentrating the flavor and giving the fish a firm but juicy texture. It also removes any surface odor and moisture, letting the clean flavor of the fish shine.

Another benefit to the quick salt cure? It will all but eradicate the appearance of albumin, a goopy, white liquid protein you sometimes see on the surface of baked salmon. Cooking any fish causes the surface proteins to squeeze and contract, forcing albumin to the surface. Denaturing those surface proteins with salt allows them to cook and congeal without contracting, keeping your fish as pretty as it is tasty.

Rinse and bake

After about an hour, take the salmon out of the fridge and give it a rinse. The fish will be darker in color, and will feel a little bouncy if you poke it. Pat it completely dry, then rub it with a little oil and season with freshly ground pepper.

From there, you can cook as usual. When working with larger cuts—like the meaty side called for above—we take a slower, gentler approach, and deliberately "undercook" the salmon by a few degrees; a tented 5- to 10-minute rest will finish the cooking and bring the internal temperature up to 120°F at the thickest part. Serve with simple quick-pickled cucumbers—their bright, tangy flavor will balance the pure, meaty richness of your perfectly cooked salmon side.

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