Smoked salmon

Who likes smoked salmon?

Me!

Really, I like salmon of all incarnations but smoked is probably my favorite.

I hot-smoke my salmon to ensure food safety. I also dry-brine and short-term as I can never seem to rinse enough salt out when brined for 24+ hours
 That being said...


I make a dry brine of two parts kosher salt (do not use any other kind, please) to one part white sugar one part brown sugar.
Or as you can see, 1/2 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar

generous smattering of course ground black pepper and a pinch of dill (optional).

Mix it well, so it does not look pretty like shown below.

This is always too much. But you can keep some for the next time or so.

Oh and duh, you need salmon which you will see later. It MUST have the skin on, and needs to be de-boned if not already. Two thickish slices/filets of near equal size and shape preferred. You will see why later.

the dry brine.

So then I lay out two pieces of foil with two pieces of plastic wrap on top. The tin foil should overlap so that...hm I am out of analogies. Let about three inches overlap. It doesn't need to be precise. 

Sprinkle a little dry brine on to each piece of foil/plastic wrap.

foil, wrap, brine.

Here is one slice of salmon on top of the foil, plastic wrap, and sprinkle of brine. Do the same for both pieces.

steelhead salmon this time around, I believe.

Once you've placed both salmon pieces on your foil-wrap-brine, sprinkle brine on top of each piece. Put less brine on the thinner parts or else you'll have fish-colored salt.

Many fish smoking recipes cover the fish in salt so all you see is salt. I find it too salty no matter what I do, kind of like if you did salt cod without bathing it for 48 hours. Bleck. But each to their own.

brine time

Then, once each piece is properly brined, move one piece (pull the plastic wrap close to the next) and put your hand under the foil and PLOP! Plop it on top. Matching sides matters a little, which I did not do here, oops, but it doesn't effect flavor. (see photo at left)

And then, using the foil around your fishy, wrap it. Wrap it TIGHT, you may need to press and pull stuff, but don't make it so tight the foil tears. If you've ever made tamales or pierogi, think of it being that tight as in filling-to-wrap, but you can exert more force since it is foil and not dough. (see photo at right, It looks like a California/Mission burrito!)

plopped on top

fish burrito?

Now for the part my camera decided to erase.

Put the fish burrito into a deepish dish, whatever you can find to fit it. Lipped cookie sheets or a 9x13 dish work well.

Go hunting in your pantry (imagine another magically deleted image) for some cans, preferably expired so they don't risk getting fishy.

Put the heavy cans on top of your fish in a dish (I can rhyme). This weighs down the fish a bit, in addition to your tight foil burrito, to ensure the brine does its job and quick.

Place your fish in a dish in the fridge for 4-6 hours. Again many brine 24+ hours. I don't. It is up to you.

Then, as finally pictured, rinse your fish and I even lightly swipe it to get any chunks of salt off.

rinse your fishes

Lay your fish out to air-dry for one hour. I like to put it on foil on a lipped cookie sheet and lay it on a slight angle for water to drip off. When it is below 55 out but above 25-30, I leave it outside and just pray no ravens, hawks, or eagles take off with it. No joke.

The fish should feel kind of like shellac or even just kinda sticky.

Place in a smoker (I have an electric one) and smoke it. I use alder and maple wood and add a handful of chips every hour. Well my handful is skimpy so a big handful. I also use a cooking/oil brush to wipe the white fat goop off after an hour. You can even dip the brush in real maple syrup if you like.

I smoke it at varied temps depending on the weather, plus we are at 5,000 feet and it just seems I have to smoke hotter and faster up here. So I start at 180 for an hour and crank it to 210 for an hour. I want to to be an internal temp of 155, and I want it from outside drying, to finished at internal 155 in 4 hours so worse case scenario, crank up the smoker the last hour until done.