The key to great grilled salmon? Do less.

By Ali Slagle, The New York Times

Salmon likes to glom onto grill grates, and scraping the fish off can fracture it into flakes that fall into the fire. The experience is much like trying to get a piece of gum out of your hair. It’s sticky. You’ll lose some strands while prying it out.

But with these two savvy and simple techniques, you’ll be treated to fillets that release easily, flake under your fork, smell of smoke and possibly even have crispy skin.

Salmon can be tricky to cook for the same reason that it’s wonderful to eat: It’s moist and delicate, more so than steak or chicken. When any meat hits a hot surface, its proteins unravel and can fuse to a pan or a grill’s nooks and crannies. (Any bits of last night’s dinner may cause the proteins to cling, too, so be sure to clean the hot grates well with a wire brush before cooking.) Salmon’s loosely knit proteins are more prone to adhere to the cooking surface than to one another.

Only once the salmon hits a certain temperature does that bond break. Browning is a good visual clue that it is safe to move around, but a push from a spatula can cause the fish to separate into flakes that are hard to salvage. And by the time the salmon is browned, it also may be chalky and dry.

For silkier results, try one of the following methods, both of which create a protective layer between the fish and the grates, and skip the scary flip.

The New Classic

Salmon skin provides insulation against the heat of the grill, but to keep the fish from sticking, swipe the skin with a thin veil of mayonnaise, which also gives it a chiplike crackle.

As New York Times columnist J. Kenji López-Alt has said about grilling chicken, mayonnaise helps seal in juiciness, promote browning and prevent sticking and burning. It works well on lean or temperamental proteins including chicken breasts, shrimp, turkey burgers and fish. Because the mayonnaise greases the salmon, there’s then no need to separately oil the grates, which can cause flare-ups.