I love to smoke salmon though it is awfully hard to keep lit
A few folks have asked me how I smoke salmon, so I thought I would write up a blog to share what I have done.
The best suggestion for making great smoked salmon, is hit up a friend who has done a bunch of salmon smoking already. In my case, my smoked salmon sen sei is my friend Tim Stephan. A life long Alaskan, if it can be hunted or fished for, Tim has probably shot, hooked, cleaned, cooked and eaten it. Needless to say, I hold him in very high regard.
The picture below shows Tim filleting up a few salmon we dip netted together on the Kenai. Though we had a number of fits and starts that day, including engine troubles and me forgetting my dip permit and fillet knife, we did manage to put about eighteen fish in the freezer. Not a huge haul, but not bad considering the run was hit by an emergency closure just a day or two later.
Tim playing Fillet o' Fish
So the following is a step by step process I take to smoked the fish. I'll probably add pictures from a future smoking session.
Materials
Smoker - (duh) I use the Luhr Jensen Big Chief.
Five gallon plastic paint bucket and lid from a hardware store.
One bag each of alder and apple wood chips
A Room Fan
Two days to be around or near the house
Instructions
Wood Chips
-Into a kitchen size garbage bag, empty both bags of chips and mix thoroughly to ensure a good blend.
-Store these in a dry place
START OF DAY ONE
Prepping Salmon
Using the frozen fillets still in bags, lay out on smoker racks to determine how many fillets will fit. Make sure to account for spacing between pieces.
-Defrost salmon at room temperature. Defrosting too fast (e.g. food saver bags in warm water) will cause the salmon texture to be compromised.
Checking for proper spacing
Defrosting on the counter
Prepping Brine
Mix thoroughly in clean plastic five gallon paint bucket
-1 quart tap water
-1 cup kosher salt or sea salt (do not use iodized salt - it will ruin the
fish)
-Three cups brown sugar (firmly packed, loosely packed, whatever...)
-1/2 cup molasses (this item can be a substitute of a variety of seasonings i.e. honey, bbq sauce, orange juice, wine, whiskey, beer)
-1/2 tbs garlic powder (same as above, any spices you want to emphasize like Tabasco, pepper, thyme, whatever)
Typical brine ingredients
Light brown and foamy. Mmmmmmmmmm.
Cutting and Brining Salmon
-Rinse defrosted fillets thoroughly, dry with paper towels, DO NOT PULL PIN BONES AT THIS TIME
-Cut fillets into 4" sections
A defrosted fillet ready for cutting
Cut into pieces for normal smoked and strips for jerky
-Place salmon in brine making sure all meat surfaces are submerged.
-Cover loosely with lid and let stand for at least eight hours.
Keep the meat side down as much as possible
Curing Salmon
-Spray the smoke racks with Pam or some other non stick spray.
-One piece at a time follow these steps,
a. Remove piece of salmon from brine
b. Rinse thoroughly to remove slimy feel from back and front
c. Pat dry with paper towels
d. Place on racks
-Repeat until all salmon is on racks. Optimal spacing of no less than a 1/4 inch.
-If desired, sprinkle with ground pepper or some other spice of your choice.
-Place racks in a cool dry place (i.e. a garage)
-Let stand overnight
Tails and strips for the lowest racks. These have been sprinkled with pepper
START OF DAY TWO
Continuing Curing
-If the salmon is still damp place racks of salmon in front of a fan (medium breeze) for a couple of hours, rotating rack position to ensure even drying.
-The dried fish should be tacky to the touch and perhaps even a fine skin may have formed. This is called a pellicle. This is a good thing.
Ready for the smoker
Smoking the Salmon
-About 30 minutes before you think the salmon is tacky enough, plug in the smoker in an open area (not your garage). If the outside temperature is below about 10F (not likely in Seattle, not unusual for Anchorage, I would consider a smoker blanket. You can buy one (expensive) or make one (cheap) using a product you can by at lowers that looks like bubble wrap coated with thick tin foil. Use this to wrap the sides of the smoker. Make sure you leave a gap or cut an opening for where the chip pan goes in.
-Place fish inside smoker and wrap smoker in blanket if necessary
-Put strips and tail pieces on the lowest levels and leave there for the duration of smoking. These will come out more jerky like.
We're smokin' now!!
Adding Chips
-Immediately after place salmon in the smoker, heat up the empty chip pan till it could cause a second degree burn on your finger. Don’t test the pan with your finger as I did.
-Fill the pan with the chip mix (be careful, the pan is hot as I found out the hard way) and place in smoker.
-Refill the chip pan two times (be careful, the pan is hot and I’m a slow learner). Each pan takes about 60 - 90 minutes to burn.
Yes Timmy - that is snow in the background
Length of Smoking
-Probably eight to ten hours should suffice, for thinner fillets such as pink salmon six to eight
-You can always have a piece that you poke at after about six hours to test for flavor.
-Switch rack heights twice during smoking. -Finished salmon will be dark red in color, slightly curled, firm to the touch, and will have salmon fat oozing out. Tail and other thinner pieces will be jerky like. Thicker pieces may have a little "give" to them. Either smoke these longer or remove at the same time to have a couple of different consistencies.
Oh Doggy, my house stinks like a salmon smokehouse!!
Finishing
-Remove to cookie sheets.
-Let cool to room temperature.
-Fish can be eaten now, but the next couple of steps provide a good finish.
-After cooled to room temperature leave uncovered for about 24 hours in a refrigerator.
-Reseal fish in vacuum bags and store frozen for up to 12 months (as if it will last that long)
This process works really well if have very little to do other than reading or watching football, in that you are tending the fish rather often.
Beer helps.
In Conclusion
Yes this is a lot of work, and probably would be less expensive to just go buy the smoked salmon at the store especially after you consider the cost to catch, freeze, the smoke the fish. But what can't really be valued is the satisfaction of be able to do something not many ever get to attempt. And having family and friends ooh and aah over the results is absolutely priceless. Gee, that would make a good MasterCard commercial.
