Thanks to the people of this sub for giving me some tips and tricks a couple of days ago. I made a fantastic, gorgeous, delicious piece of salmon. This was my first time smoking salmon. Very happy how it turned out.
1.6 pound fillet, Applewood chips, brined for several hours in a mixture of salt and brown sugar.
After reading a lot of different suggestions about raising the pellicle, I put the salmon into the refrigerator for nearly 20 hours. In my reading it suggested having some kind of additional airflow in the refrigerator. I wasn’t about to buy a little battery powered fan, and then I remembered that my first ex-wife (long story) who always gives me gifts and stuff she gets at her office, gave me one of those neck fans. I popped it into the refrigerator and it moved the air nicely…albeit so silly to have that neck fan in the refrigerator with it.
Initially I had some smoker/heat problems because the stainless steel smoker tube I added to my smoker was putting off too much heat. So I had to monkey around with the heat and worried that it was going to get to temp too soon. Fortunately it all worked out, two hours and 50 minutes of smoking to a temperature of 140°.
Not only did we love it for dinner, but it was great on toast with cream cheese the next day. My son said, “I don’t think I’ve ever had smoked salmon that was almost too juicy.“.
by Fabulous_Log844
5 Comments
Neck fan … got it … I thought you just kept your headphones in the fridge haha.
Does one need a pellicule when hot smoking salmon? I definitely engineered a pellicule when cold smoking a couple of sides of salmon, but can’t see why one might be required for hot smoking.
Did you cure it first boss? I have no opinion either way, you look like you got results
Nice work man, the neck fan in the fridge is genuinely one of the most creative problem solves I’ve seen on here. Gonna steal that trick. I’ve been wanting to try salmon on my offset and now I’m motivated.
What was your brine ratio