Anne Morgan For a party of 8, Delia Smith’s whole baked salmon is a 1.8kg fish cooked very slowly in foil. Butter, onion and herbs go inside it, and the parcel needs 2½ hours in a low oven. Then the salmon cools in its wrapping and comes to the table cold, with her green herb sauce.
Delia calls this recipe Baked Whole Salmon with Sauce Verte, and it is in her How to Cook Book Three. She writes that she cannot recommend this slow method highly enough.
The fish keeps its skin, bones, head and tail while it cooks, so the flesh stays moist. Afterwards the skin peels off easily, and the fillets lift away from the backbone.
The same method works for a side of salmon, and for steaks or fillets there is her quicker salmon in foil. To cook salmon on the hob instead, see her method for a smaller piece on the whole poached salmon recipe page.
Delia Smith’s Baked Whole Salmon
Course: DinnerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Medium8
servings30
minutes2
hours30
minutes640
kcalA whole salmon baked in buttered foil in a very low oven, cooled in its wrapping and served cold with a green herb mayonnaise.
Ingredients
- For the salmon:
1.8kg (4lb) fresh whole salmon, cleaned and gutted
50g (2oz) butter, plus a little extra for greasing
1 small onion, peeled and thinly sliced
4 sprigs tarragon, chopped
salt and freshly milled black pepper
- For the green herb sauce:
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons mustard powder
1 fat clove garlic
275ml (½ pint) groundnut or other flavourless oil
2 dessertspoons white wine vinegar
75g (3oz) spinach
40g (1½oz) watercress, tough stalks removed
40g (1½oz) flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons chopped tarragon
1 tablespoon snipped chives
1 tablespoon lemon juice, or more to taste
salt and freshly milled black pepper
Directions
- Sauce base: Break the eggs into a blender or food processor. Add the mustard powder, the garlic clove and a teaspoon of salt.
- Oil: Measure the oil into a jug and switch the machine on. Pour the oil in a thin, steady trickle, because too much too fast will curdle the sauce. Then blend in the vinegar.
- Leaves: Rinse the spinach, watercress and parsley under cold water and put them in a saucepan. Stir them over a medium heat until they have just wilted.
- Refresh: Tip the leaves into a colander and rinse them under cold running water to keep their colour. Press out the water well with a wooden spoon.
- Blend: Add the leaves, the chopped tarragon and the chives to the sauce and whizz until it is smooth and green. Season it with the lemon juice, pepper and more salt if it needs it.
- Oven: Heat the oven to 130°C, fan 110°C. For a gas oven, see the first note.
- Foil: Wipe the fish with damp kitchen paper. Lay it in the centre of a large double sheet of foil that you have buttered well.
- Fill: Put 25g of the butter, the onion, the bay leaves and the tarragon sprigs inside the fish, with salt and pepper. Smear the rest of the butter over the top.
- Wrap: Fold the foil over to make a loose but well-sealed parcel. Lay it diagonally on a 28 x 40cm baking tray, and bend the tail upwards if the fish is still too long.
- Bake: Bake the salmon in the centre of the oven for 2½ hours.
- Cool: Take it out and let it cool completely in the foil, without opening the parcel.
- Serve: Peel off the skin. Slit the fish along the backbone, ease the fillets away and serve them with the sauce.
Notes
- Gas mark ½ no longer exists on modern cookers. Delia says to use gas mark 1 and give the fish 25 minutes less.
- She thinks the sauce is best made the day before, so the flavours have time to develop.
- The sauce is made with raw eggs.
FAQs
How do I cook a side of salmon the Delia way?
Wrap it in buttered foil and bake it at the same low heat. Her cooking times go by the weight of the salmon, so use the table at the end of this page.
A side has no cavity, so put the onion, bay leaves and tarragon under and over the fish, my own tip. Keep the parcel loose but well sealed, as she does.
How long does a 3.5kg salmon take?
About 3 to 3½ hours at 130°C, fan 110°C. That is the estimate her food editor gave a reader on her website in 2026, for a fish of exactly that size.
She suggests a digital probe, pushed through the foil after 2¾ hours. The salmon is ready when the thickest part reaches 60°C, and then it cools in its wrapping as usual.
Can I serve the whole salmon hot?
You can, although Delia’s own recipe serves it cold. For a hot salmon, her food editor says to take the thickest part to 65°C.
Open the foil at the table, because the parcel holds all the juices and the smell, my own view.
How far ahead can I cook it?
Cook it on the morning of the party, my own view, so it has time to cool completely. In her Complete Cookery Course, Delia says a salmon parcel can stay unopened until just before serving.
The sauce can be ready even earlier, because she likes to make it the day before. For cold salmon in portions, her salmon with avocado sauce bakes 6 steaks in 20 minutes.
What does Delia serve with a whole salmon?
Crisp, dressed salad leaves such as Cos lettuce, with cucumber. She adds hot, buttered new potatoes, or a potato salad.
That makes a whole summer buffet with almost no last-minute cooking, because only the potatoes are hot. For a starter on the same table, her smoked salmon quiche serves 6.
Delia Smith’s cooking times for a whole salmon
These are her own times for salmon in foil at 130°C, fan 110°C. The fish for this recipe is the 1.8kg one.
| Weight of salmon | Time in the oven |
|---|---|
| 900g (2lb) | 1½ hours |
| 1.35kg (3lb) | 2 hours |
| 1.8kg (4lb) | 2½ hours |
| 2.25kg (5lb) | 3 hours |
The first, second and last lines are from the note under her recipe.
