Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation I couldn't smoke salmon......

if my life depended on it! And make it taste good. What is the secret?

I've tried two different brine solutions, one that was in the cook book that came with my Little Chef smoker, adn another that I found on the internet. The one in I made in the Little Chef, tasted great, but was like eating chunks of salt.

Anybody have a good way to do it, without the saltyness?

Thanks

contact one of the indian tribes in anchorage, alaska

I've eaten hundreds of smoked kings, reds, dogs and silvers, not one with any salt on it, just go right to the smoker, smoke as long as you like or until it looks like your doing jerky.


Air dry first and then smoke is faster.

I was just thinking back to the old guy that taught me to smoke fish when I asked about salt. Why would you want to add salt to fish that lived in salt water? This was forty years ago, was he not right?

Try this.
Used for salmon or steelhead.


1. Filet the fish when fresh, leaving the skin on the filets. Remove the ribs from each filet.

2. Separate the filets and freeze if necessary in order to preserve the fish until a more convenient time for smoking.

3. When ready to smoke, thaw the fish and wipe it dry to remove any slime or other moisture.

4. Cut the fish in chunks (2 to 3 inches square) convenient for eating.

5. Place the fish in a pan, skin side down and sprinkle liberally with 1/4 part pickling salt and 3/4 parts brown sugar. This will remove excess moisture from the fish and begin flavoring the flesh. This takes about 1 cup of mixture per side of fish for a 10-15 lb fish. Don't use too much salt or fish will be salty.

6. Put the pan containing the fish, salt and brown sugar in the fridge over night to cure.
7. In the morning, remove the fish from the pan and pat dry. Remove any un-dissolved salt or sugar from the top of the fish. Discard the residue in the pan.

8. Mix 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/8 cup mapleine to form sauce and spread liberally over fish.

9. Allow the fish to reach room temperature and glaze over from the sauce mixture. (about 1 hour total)

10. Spray the smoker with "PAM" to prevent sticking. Place the fish in the smoker skin side down and do not turn over.

11. Smoke for about 8-10 hours or until done.

12. After smoking, place the fish in a pan in the fridge covered with plastic wrap. The fish should be placed on edge to drain any remaining moisture and to soak up residual smoke flavor. Leave the fish this way for 2-days after which time the plastic wrap should be removed and the fish sit in the fridge for 2 more days to dry further.

13. Freeze any unneeded smoked fish.

Note: If a garlic cure is desired instead of a sugar cure, sprinkle garlic powder over the fish and omit the sugar and mapleine process (in steps 5 thru 8).

Thanks Rolly! I will try that one with the remaining filets we have (store bought).

One question though: what is mapleine, and where do I get it?

I think these are fresh water salmon, but I see what you're saying, and I could be wrong

Maybe I'll try your way too, along with Rolly's way. Some nice Apple chips would be good for your way I think

LiveFree
With all due respect I would not waste a fish with either of the recipes you have been given so far. Both have glaring holes in the processes that will lead to huge variations in results.

There are quite a few folks here that have had my salmon for many years and I doubt any would dispute the fact my fish is far better than average.

I will address critical process steps more than flavor issues, but my bias against flavors will show...

First, you can dry pack or you can brine the fish, in neither case is it an overnight proposition. The longer it takes to get the fish in the smoker the greater the chance for poor results.

Try smoking without flavors first so you can develop a baseline. Tossing teriyaki at salmon indiscriminately is one of the best ways to make it really not like salmon.

I generally dry pack with brown sugar and non-iodized salt at 2:1. One and one-half hours is plenty. Generally, pre-frozen fish is most reliable in salt/sugar uptake and many will only smoke fish after it has been frozen.

Rinse briefly with cold water after brining or dry-packing.

Arrange the fish on racks and provide a fan to dry the surface. This is the single most important step. Allow a pellicle to form. The ambient temperature and humidity will determine how long it takes to get the pellicle. Usually a couple hours in out very dry winters, inside.

Smoke with lots of smoke and low heat to start and slowly raise the temp to no higher than 140F. That can be as quickly as a half-hour or so. If it gets too hot too fast the outer parts of the fish will denature too rapidly and there will be a "boundary layer" in the fish that will not develop proper texture. If it goes hotter than 140F the surface will start oozing white liquids which will denature on the surface. The white will indicate the texture has suffered also.

Because there is so much variation in smokers, ambient temperatures, relative humidity, fish and everything else it is very hard to give anything approaching an absolute for smoking time. Generally an hour or so is all the smoke the fish needs. More smoke increases the nasty tars and such that can create "hot spots" when eating it. It is very easy to overdo the smoke.

Maintain the heat at under 140 until the fish is firm and uniform all the way through. Too long and it will be dried out.

Most AK Native dried fish is seriously over-smoked and inconsistent.

Cold smoking is a whole other ball game and pak is the King of that game...
art

I do have a complaint about your smoked salmon... you don't make it often enough.

You can get mapleine in the grocery store in the spice area. It is a concentrated maple flavor. Comes in a small bottle.

My recipe may have some holes in it but I have never had a problem with my smoked fish....ever.

I've screwed up plenty of smoked salmon over the years, and have finally gotten to a fairly consistant quality product. Basically just a big ditto to Sitka Deers post. The salty taste is due to over brining.

Many of my failures were due to wet brining (too salty, then the next batch I'd compensate by soaking in clean water and not only would the salt flavor be gone, all flavor would be gon) I changed to a dry brine and found that had a huge improvement. I use a 50# sausage tote, and just lay down fillets with brown sugar and pickling salt. Don't use iodized salt.

The pellicle is critical, and if you don't let a pelicle form properly, it is impossible to get a good end product. Better to let the fish dry a bit longer then not long enough. I typically put the fish in the smoker in the evening, fire up the fan, and let it go all night.

I use a big chief and find that using a combination of hickory chips and alder provides a perfect smoke flavor. Hickory only and the kids said it tasted like bacon, which was a compliment. I'd fill the pan every hour for a total of 3 smokings, and let the smoker run an additional hour for a total of 4 hours. Midway through I rotate the racks.

What I should do is add a temperature element and a controller that will cut the power to the smoker to keep the smoker from over heating. A simple mod that will be a huge improvement.

I brine salmon (or trout) in salt water for a couple hours, rinse it and then smoke it. If I use teriyaki, I dilute it and let the fish soak for a couple hours. For trout, I clean and remove the head before soaking, rinse, lay the whole fish on the grill flesh side down and opened as flat as possible.

Everyone seems to like it.

Sweet! Thanks guys, I have some testing to do, I'll try and remember to come back and let you know how I do. I don't have any fresh fish though, so frozen is goign to have to do it for now. Maybe I'll grow a pair, and go ice fishing for some fresh fish.

Al that cracking ice freaks me out!

I'll try it.

Whelenman- Let us know how it turns out, and whose recipe you used

I couldn't smoke salmon...... It's hard to know which end to light?

That's it. Just a stupid question here for the OP. You are rinsing off the original brine right?

As a matter of fact I am not. The recipe's never said to, so I just figured it would add to the flavor

For me that would likely lead to a salty end product. I would rinse the original brine from the marinated salmon and re-season with whatever you desire---i.e., brown sugar, cracked pepper, light sea salt etc...

If you do try it that way please let me know the end result. I brine and cold smoke on a big green egg and it comes off better than anything in stores.

Happy Cookin'
David

I'm gonna try something when I can get my hands on some fresh fish. My buddy went ice fishing yesterday and caught a 3 lb trout, and a decent sized walleye. I call ed him too late to have him save them for me (he's allergic to fish, but loves to catch em and release)

I'll update this thread when I get a chance to try one of these recipes

The brine should import enough salt for anyone's taste. I wet brine and I have cut the salt content, in the brine, from a common 10% to around 2.5%. Yes, rinse the brine from the fish. I generally brine 4 hours with previously frozen fish. Fresh fish will brine more slowly than frozen. Frozen cells are damaged from the freezing. The faster the freeze the less damage. Next year I'm going to put dry ice in my freezer to help drop the temp and help with quality both with my table salmon(reds) and my smokers king and coho. Currently I only cold smoke. Alder is my preferred wood by a long shot. Cherry, which smells best, is next and cherry smoked fish needs to be eaten rather than stored, usually this is not a problem. Cherry smoke seems to get bitter with age where as alder seems to aquire a sweet nature, noted by smoking and aging cheeses and nuts. Good luck, be consistant it is not hard to exceed the store bought products. Although I have tasted some local stuff that is really good, e.g. Copper River Seafoods.
pete