The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) states that salmon (and all fish) should be cooked to an internal temp of 145 degrees. But at 145 degrees, salmon can be overcooked, dry, and tough.
When conducting taste tests, our test cooks and taste testers agreed that the ideal internal temperature for farmed Atlantic salmon is just 125 degrees, at which point its flesh turns firm yet silky.
And when we cook with wild varieties, we make sure to pull the fish off the heat even sooner, when its internal temperature reaches 120 degrees.
Here’s how we tested these preferences.
How We Tested Salmon Temperature
To determine the best salmon internal temperature, we cooked two batches of farmed Atlantic salmon alongside four species of wild Pacific salmon—king (Chinook), sockeye (red), coho (silver), and chum. We cooked one batch to 120 degrees and the other to 125 degrees in temperature-controlled water baths.
The majority of tasters preferred the wild salmon samples cooked to 120 degrees, while they confirmed our preference for cooking farmed Atlantic salmon to 125 degrees.
Why Farmed and Wild Salmon Should Be Cooked to Different Temperatures
Thanks to their significantly more active life, wild varieties have more collagen, the protein that makes up about 90 percent of the connective tissue in salmon, than farmed Atlantic salmon does, and more importantly, more chemical crosslinks between collagen molecules. The flesh of wild salmon therefore turns noticeably firmer when cooked, making it taste drier. Wild salmon also has about half the fat of farmed salmon, so there is less of it to provide lubrication and the perception of juiciness when cooked.
Cooking wild varieties to just 120 degrees helps to offset their leaner, firmer texture, since the muscle fibers contract less and retain more moisture. With more fat and less collagen, farmed salmon can be cooked a few degrees higher.
Is Salmon Safe at 120 Degrees?
Just like eating undercooked beef in a rare burger or consuming raw egg in tiramisu, there is risk involved in consuming salmon that’s been cooked to less than the USDA-recommended temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit. Doing so should be avoided by immune-compromised people. (Alternatively, because killing pathogens in food is a matter of both temperature and time, holding a 1-inch-thick salmon fillet at 131 degrees for 5 hours would make it food-safe.)
Ultimately, if you are comfortable eating raw salmon in sushi, you may also be comfortable eating it cooked to a low internal temperature.
But this risk tolerance is a personal decision. If you would prefer to cook your salmon longer, check out our doneness temperature ranges.
Salmon Doneness Chart
Though we have a strong preference for cooking farmed Atlantic salmon to 125 degrees and wild salmon to 120 degrees, here are the internal temperatures for other levels of doneness. We do caution against cooking salmon to well done, which would take its temperature to 155 degrees or higher and result in extremely dry flesh.
To accurately check temperature, we recommend using an instant-read thermometer.
- Rare: 110℉
- Medium Rare: 120-125℉
- Medium: 130-135℉
- Well Done: 155-160℉
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