Smoked Salmon question.

[Edmund Caro]

I was wondering what is the best way to control the temp when trying to smoke salmon during the summer? I have looked at a lot of recipes and most of them say you want a temperature at 175 to 200, 200 being on the higher side. I don't want to high a temp don't want to dry the fish out. Any suggestion would be great.

 

[Mike Freel]

Use less fuel and close down the bottom vents almost all the way. I often smoke salmon at the end of a smoke when my coals are v beginning to die down. I have water in the pan , the salmon skin side down, and place it on foil.

Mike

 

[S Wagner]

Use less fuel and close down the bottom vents almost all the way. I often smoke salmon at the end of a smoke when my coals are v beginning to die down. I have water in the pan , the salmon skin side down, and place it on foil.

Mike

I've recently done a lot (approximately 50 lbs.) of salmon in my WSM, and I've cooked all of the filets between 225 and 235 degrees for 3 hours exactly. No water in the pan, just foil. The key to not drying out your filets is that you brine them for at least an hour, and then let them sit at room temperature to dry for at least another hour. I then used one chimney full of lit Kingsford briquettes (no additional unlit charcoal needed) along with 1-2 large chunks of maple wood.

From there, you can adjust the vents as you normally would to achieve that 225-235 temp range. I can say all 50 lbs of salmon (not done in one cook, of course) turned out perfectly by doing it this way. The one batch that was particularly exceptional was the batch that I brined for about 3 to 4 hours.

I hope this helps, and good luck with your cook!

 

[Edmund Caro]

S Wagner thanks,

Do you use a dry or wet brine?

 

[K Kruger]

I use a liquid brine myself. I start at low temp (using water usually) but don't care too much about how high the heat eventually climbs. That won't dry it out. Overcooking will - at any temp.

See http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?23502-Smoked-Salmon-light-on-sugar-and-salt

 

[S Wagner]

S Wagner thanks,

Do you use a dry or wet brine?

I use a liquid brine. Combine 1/3 cup of salt, 1/3 cup of brown surgar, a tbspn garlic powder, a tbspn worschestire sauce and 2 quarts of cold water. Brine in the fridge for about an hour or so ( longer if possible). Thats how i've done it & gotten great results.

 

[David Games]

Do people that use the wsm for salmon find that it leaves a fishy smell to the wsm that affects the taste of pork etc done on subsequent cooks? In reading Harry soo's methods he won't use his competition smokers for fish. I didnt know if that was a big deal or not.

 

[Gary S]

I've cooked whole sardines over wood on my Platinum and let me tell you I don't think there's anything quite like fatty acids from a sardine! I can see where Harry Soo is coming from but it only took a couple of cooks to get rid of the odour from the residue. It's not likely I will have a deicated cooker for fish. It is likely sardines will be on the menu again soon.

 

[Gary S]

You might want to check out the Little Chief or the Big Chief Smoker recipes on the net. The brining kills any bacteria, adds flavor and aids in the smoking process. There are hot smoking an cold smoking techniques depending upon your temps. I used to do a lot of fish years ago with my Big Chief and brines. Lake Trout, White Fish, and Salmon all from Georgian Bay. I would generally cold smoke my fish at the time but I'm thinking I want to do some fish again and jerky on the weber, at different times of course.

 

[RGleason]

You cooking on the WSM or???

I make a modified version of the Carmelized salmon with mango cucumber salsa out of the weber grilling cookbook once a week. I dry rub it with sugar(heavy sugar), salt, pepper, lime zest, and hatch chile powder in a glass pan covered with Saran wrap overnight. I cook it skin down on a cedar plank with indirect heat on my weber gold with royal oak lump and apple wood chips for about 45 minutes. Temp probably runs about 300ish. The mango cucumber salsa is not only great for the fish presentation but it also tastes amazing!

 

[Wolgast]

We do our salmon a bit different here in Sweden. Low heat for aslong as it can take it before hitting 120-125 internal. Alder wood for smoke. And eather a brine or dry salt it 20h ahead. Just lemon/pepper is a good coating,or go the herb rout with dill and so on. To keep the WSM really low in temps i recomend a really small MM start. Maby 10 unlitt and 5 lit...Choke down the WSM @ 160f. The salmon done this way is done around the 2-3 hour mark. Oh and yes skinside down.(this is for file´s) Can even add a little oit to the skin so it wont stick to your grate.

The fish always better if rested for 24h(cold)

But witch method you wanna stick with is ofc up to you!

Good luck and report back.

 

[Gene B]

I'm liking the sound of the Swedish Method, and I eat some form of salmon or steelhead daily. I'm gonna be all over your recipe this weekend, Wolgast.