Lemon butter sauce for salmon

The simplest sauce for salmon is lemon butter sauce: white wine and lemon juice reduced with shallot, then 100 g of cold butter whisked in over low heat, with dill and capers. It is ready in 10 minutes, while the salmon sears in the pan, 4 minutes on the skin and 2 on the other side.

25 min9 ingredients 5 steps
Sos pentru somon, porție de somon cu pielea crocantă pe sos lucios de unt cu lămâie, mărar și capere, cu felii de lămâie, pe farfurie de ceramică crem
Latură de somon Trim D crud pe farfurie, vedere de sus

Instructions

  1. Prepare the salmon

    Cut the fillet into 4 portions of 150 g while it is still slightly frozen, it cuts much cleaner. After thawing, pat the skin very dry with paper towels and salt the portions on both sides. Dry skin is what makes the crust.

  2. Sear the salmon skin side down ⏱ 6 min

    Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Lay the salmon skin side down and press it for 10 seconds with a spatula so it does not curl. Leave it for 4 minutes without moving it, then flip and cook 2 more minutes. Move it to a warm plate: the center is at 52-55°C and stays juicy.

  3. Reduce the wine with lemon ⏱ 4 min

    Put the shallot, wine and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Simmer over medium heat until about 2 tablespoons of liquid remain, almost a syrup. The reduction gives the sauce its flavor, do not rush it.

  4. Mount the sauce with cold butter ⏱ 2 min

    Turn the heat to low. Add the cold butter 2-3 cubes at a time, whisking constantly, and add the next cubes only once the previous ones have melted. The sauce turns glossy and creamy. Do not let it boil, or the butter splits.

  5. Finish and serve

    Take the pan off the heat, add the dill, lemon zest, capers, salt and a pinch of white pepper. Pour the sauce onto the plate and set the salmon on top, skin side up, so it stays crisp. Serve right away, with new potatoes or asparagus.

Good to know

Butter sauce does not reheat well, so make it right at the end, while the salmon rests. For a quicker version without wine, there is a dill cream sauce in salmon pasta in white sauce. The same sauce works over oven-baked salmon with vegetables and over oven-baked white fish, for example Barramundi fillet. The crispy skin technique step by step is in pan-seared salmon with crispy skin, and for a sweet and savory Asian sauce try salmon teriyaki. A Trim D fillet weighs 1.4-1.8 kg, that is 9-12 portions, and it is not refrozen after thawing, so cook the rest the same day or the next. For less fat, Trim E works too.

Frequently asked questions

What sauce goes well with salmon?

The classic is lemon butter sauce (beurre blanc), whose acidity cuts through the richness of salmon. Dill cream sauce, yogurt sauce with cucumber and garlic, or a teriyaki sauce for an Asian flavor also work well.

How do I keep lemon butter sauce from splitting?

Use cold butter, added 2-3 cubes at a time, and keep the heat at minimum, never letting the sauce boil. If it starts to split anyway, take the pan off the heat and whisk in a spoon of cold water or a cube of cold butter until it comes back together.

Can I make the salmon sauce without wine?

Yes. Replace the wine with 80 ml vegetable or fish stock and add one more tablespoon of lemon juice. The sauce is a little milder, but the technique stays the same.

Can I make the butter sauce ahead?

Only up to 30 minutes ahead, kept in a thermos or in a bowl set over a pot of warm, not hot, water. Reheated directly on the stove or in the microwave, the butter splits.

Does lemon butter sauce work with other fish?

Yes, it goes with any simply cooked white fish, for example barramundi, grouper, sea bream or sea bass, and with shrimp or scallops. With white fish you can skip the capers and add more dill.

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9 ingredients 5 steps ~25 min