Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Help!! Salmon smoking

Ain't my bailiwick, but My Grandson brought over some nice size salmon fillets and wants them smoked. Have a decent upright propane smoker. I know how to light the fire and that is it. I do have oak and pecan. I do like pecan.
Help please.

Are you going to hot smoke them? I prefer cold smoked fish but I wouldn't turn down a hot smoked filet either. This is how I cold smoke salmon.

I normally do 3/4 cup of salt to 3 cups of brown sugar. Cover the filets with the salt/sugar mix and let them sit overnight. Rinse with cold water and let air dry for a few hours to form the pellicle. Sometimes I sprinkle the fish with course ground black pepper for a little zing. Put it into the smoker until it gets to the dryness I am looking for. I use a big chief, it doesn't cook the fish. Never used oak or pecan, usually use cherry, apple, and alder.

Sitka Deer should be along shortly, he does it differently and gets rave reviews on his smoked salmon.

I don't know shift about cooking or smoking. I know that it is sacrilege, but I never acquired the taste for salmon. Kinda like caribou, never liked it regardless of how it was killed, field dressed, or how it was prepared. My Grandson and Great Grand Daughter think it is like heaven "salmon". Now I love moose, bear, and all other meat from the sea. I only have 8 pounds of fillets, but that will keep them going. They even like sushi!


Cold? I can only hold about 145deg at the lowest.

I do mine a lot like FishinHank. 1 1/4 cup kosher salt, 2lb package of brown sugar, 2 Tablespoons of garlic powder.
Cover fish with brine, set in fridge overnight.
gentle rinse, then set out to dry. Usually 3-4 hours.
I always use Alder to smoke salmon, just my prefence. 2 pans of chips.
6-8 hours in a big chief, depending on outside temps.

The big chief smokers are supposed to run about 165 degrees, so yours should be goood to go. Run the recipe above and your grandkids will love it.

You can reduce the temp in a Big Chief by opening the pan door and cracking the lid if it is too warm.

I brine and smoke using SD's method:

1 C kosher NaCl/2 C sugar in 1 gal of H2O* - 90 min soak.

Water rinse. Air dry to pellicle.

Alder only in the smoker. 2 pans.


My smoked salmon had been hit and miss trying to find a consistent brine concentration vs. time. Using this method it has been fabulous every time.

* Very cold water. I dissolve the salt and sugar in 1/2 gal of cold tap water. Once dissolved, I add another 1/2 gal of water that has been super-chilled in the freezer.

I also prefer alder for smoking salmon, apple wood is ok too. Keep in mind that propane is something like 90% water so keep that in mind for smoking times (you can thank Art for that info). I also use propane and have a number of vents and ports for temp sensors on my smoker (homemade) to closely monitor my salmon.

FishinHank,
I went with your method and smoked it with the pecan wood as that is what I had. I still don't like salmon, but everybody else raved about it.
I ate my smoked Cajun sausage.
Thanks to all.

Propane is C3H8...
Every molecule that burns produces 3 CO2 molecules and 4 water molecules by combining with 10 oxygen atoms.

By weight 26 pounds of propane produces about 40 pounds of water and 64 pounds of CO2.

I like to use a roughly 50/50 mix of alder and hickory.

I was hit or miss with a wet brine and hence went to a dry brine and had better results. Whether you wet or dry brine, it's key pat the fillets as dry as possible with a paper towel, and then run a fan for a couple hours to get a pellicle to form.

The big chief is a bit too hot if you use to get the salmon to the right dryness which I find takes 5 hours. I use one heaping pan of wood chips and just put the heating element on a timer for five hours. If your smoker is "wet" from the propane heat, after you've smoke it you can put it in the oven at 140F for a couple hours until it is firmed up to your preference.

White boogers from too much heat, but eats just fine

Never was very good at science.

I use a Smoke Chief-or whatever it's named-electric smoker, with alder chips. 458 above pointed a very important key, and that's to air dry the fillets with the use of a floor fan until the fillets develop a sheen. I don't like salty nor sweet salmon, because it's not supposed to be like candy, nor like barrel-salted mackerel (old sailors ate that stuff):

SMOKED SALMON BRINE

INGREDIENTS
-8-10 pounds of salmon fillets, skin on, rinsed, patted dry, cut into small strips not wider than 3”
-8 cups of ice-cold water
-2 cups soy sauce
-1-1/2 cups brown sugar
-1/2 cup sea salt or kosher (not ionized)
-1-1/2 tablespoon granulated garlic
-1 tablespoon ginger

DIRECTIONS
1. Mix the ingredients together in a large bowl

2. Pour mixture over the fillets making sure that all are covered with the brine, or until they float

3. Cover the container and marinate for 8 hours in the refrigerator

4. Remove the fillets from the brine, pat dry with paper towels, and place on racks to dry for about 1 hour-until a glaze forms over the surface of the fillets

5. Immerse the chips in water before putting it in the hot smoke pan, and let it smoke just until the chips turn to charcoal (don't over-burn). When the smoke stops, remove the pan, dump the ashes, and add new moistened chips.

Smoke fish from 8-12 hours, or as indicated by the smoker’s manufacturer. Use alder, mesquite, or hickory wood. A wetter product is suitable for canning, while a dry product is best for straight snacking.

I am a cold smoker and a wet briner. I usually brined my strips in very cold water. My brine is simple non-iodized salt, brown sugar and dark molasses. After brining I rinse the strips well. The purpose of the brine is mostly to prepare the surface to be dried and form a pellicule. Over the years I have reduced my salt concentration. I came up with a system that works well for me. I think higher concentrations of salt allow for shorter brine times. Rinsing the fish after brine is important because if not rinsed the product becomes too salty as the fish loses water weight. I rarely add spices or condiments to salmon as I like the taste with a bit of salty/sweet. After rinsing and patting dry is when I will add pepper, garlic or what have you, as the pellicule is formed the spices will adhere to the fish. Hot smoked fillets is also known as kippering. It is wonderful when prepared correctly. Too often have I seen fish that had been smoked too much. Smoking is another line for discussing. For salmon Alder is king.

No alder here unfortunately. From what is available here, I prefer pecan. Mesquite is good, but too strong for me.

another small 2 cent tip: when salmom is 3/4 done i like to sprinkle some brown sugar on top of the fillet or edible parts. some people put a thin layer of apricot jam on fillet when its 3/4 done and that`s tasty too.

Smoked about 5T of salmon in my lifetime. All good advice so far.

My secret is a few bay leaves in my brine, and a very light sprinkle of dill spice when it's drying. Sometimes I will add dried diced onion.

I use ice water. Keep the temp as low as possible, or refrigerate.

Alder is the only wood that should be used on salmon. If there is a second it would be apple but that is not a close second.

I've just been clearing some alders around the house so if anyone wants to pay for a USPS medium flat rate box I'll gladly fill it full of alder and send it your way. Ought to be enough to smoke 100#'s of fish give or take.

Many of the native Alaskans swear by cotton wood for smoking salmon. I've never tried it and I believe they use it in large cold smokers where there is a light smoke for several days.



You can definitely go too strong with the smoke and ruin the fish. Too much alder leaves a nasty metallic taste and I believe removing the bark helps eliminate that.

PM an address and money will be on the way.
Thanks

When the AFN convention is in town FBXS or ANC smoked salmon strips are available to buy from folks that live along the Yukon River. These strips are typically smoked with cottonwood, dried and not brined. The king salmon is amazingly full of oil. Chum strips are available when the king run is down. Compared to the methods described here the taste of Yukon king is acquired.

That's exactly what I do with mine, set it in ice cold brine then put it in the fridge over night.