Dan C. FL
TVWBB Pro
First, thanks to all who replied to my "what smoke wood do you use for salmon" post! My wife had suggested apple, but the recipe Chris has says alder. I had both so I was torn. In the end, I decided to go with alder...but, wait I'm jumping a head of myself.
So, confession time: I don't really like fish. I know, a Floridian that doesn't like fish!?! It's true. I'll eat some occasionally, usually mahi mahi or swordfish. I usually will pass on fish until the wife becomes really insistent and cranky about not having seafood. She's from Maine, so she's a big seafood eater. We tried the Scottish Salmon from our Earth Fare probably about a year ago and I decided it was passable for a seafood meal. Over the past couple of weeks, the misses has been getting seafood cranky...that phase where every time she brings it up, I shoot it down and she drops hints whenever we're at the store. For the first time in a while, she did the groceries alone this past Friday. She came home with a 1.75 pound filet of Scottish Salmon and some shrimp. She said, "You're going to smoke this. The guy said he would use cherry or apple." I remembered seeing Chris' article for Brown Sugar Rub Salmon. Not 100% sold on this idea, I came up with a few alternatives, showed them to the wife and she told me to do that recipe in Chris' post. I got all the ingredients, including a special stop for savory. Then, I created the first rub and put the fish in the fridge:
Then, three hours later, I rinsed the fish off and put it back in the fridge for a half an hour to get sticky/tacky. While this happened, I prepared the WSM for action. I was a little concerned with the amount of smoking wood that was used in Chris' article, but I just happened to have 6 small pieces of Maine Grilling Woods' Golden Alder. So, I put all six pieces in with the lighter charcoal for minion method.
Rather than wait to get up to temp first, I went ahead and put on the finishing rub and put the fish on the grate.
Within no time, the smoker was up to 190* or so. The fish was heating up pretty quickly too. Once the smoker hit 225*, I went and closed the bottom vents to about 33%. From there, I figured that I would just let her ride until the fish was done or the smoker got hotter than 265*. It never got that high, it cruised right about 245* for the last 15-20 minutes while the fish was finishing. I wasn't timing it, but I'm guessing the total cook time was 45 minutes.
Here she is before I put a blanket on her to rest.
The color from the smoke wasn't quite as dark as what Chris got, could be the difference between Scottish Salmon and King Salmon. But, the flavor was just about perfect (for fish). Just like Chris said, "In terms of taste, it had a well-balanced flavor of salmon, smoke, and seasoning." After every cook, I ask the misses what she thinks...for honest feedback for tweaks in the future. When I asked her what she thought, her reply was, "Again." I said, "Just like that, huh? No changes?" She said, "Nope. Just like that."
I'll call that a success. Now, to figure out what I'm going to put on her shrimp when I grill it.
So, confession time: I don't really like fish. I know, a Floridian that doesn't like fish!?! It's true. I'll eat some occasionally, usually mahi mahi or swordfish. I usually will pass on fish until the wife becomes really insistent and cranky about not having seafood. She's from Maine, so she's a big seafood eater. We tried the Scottish Salmon from our Earth Fare probably about a year ago and I decided it was passable for a seafood meal. Over the past couple of weeks, the misses has been getting seafood cranky...that phase where every time she brings it up, I shoot it down and she drops hints whenever we're at the store. For the first time in a while, she did the groceries alone this past Friday. She came home with a 1.75 pound filet of Scottish Salmon and some shrimp. She said, "You're going to smoke this. The guy said he would use cherry or apple." I remembered seeing Chris' article for Brown Sugar Rub Salmon. Not 100% sold on this idea, I came up with a few alternatives, showed them to the wife and she told me to do that recipe in Chris' post. I got all the ingredients, including a special stop for savory. Then, I created the first rub and put the fish in the fridge:
Then, three hours later, I rinsed the fish off and put it back in the fridge for a half an hour to get sticky/tacky. While this happened, I prepared the WSM for action. I was a little concerned with the amount of smoking wood that was used in Chris' article, but I just happened to have 6 small pieces of Maine Grilling Woods' Golden Alder. So, I put all six pieces in with the lighter charcoal for minion method.
Rather than wait to get up to temp first, I went ahead and put on the finishing rub and put the fish on the grate.
Within no time, the smoker was up to 190* or so. The fish was heating up pretty quickly too. Once the smoker hit 225*, I went and closed the bottom vents to about 33%. From there, I figured that I would just let her ride until the fish was done or the smoker got hotter than 265*. It never got that high, it cruised right about 245* for the last 15-20 minutes while the fish was finishing. I wasn't timing it, but I'm guessing the total cook time was 45 minutes.
Here she is before I put a blanket on her to rest.
The color from the smoke wasn't quite as dark as what Chris got, could be the difference between Scottish Salmon and King Salmon. But, the flavor was just about perfect (for fish). Just like Chris said, "In terms of taste, it had a well-balanced flavor of salmon, smoke, and seasoning." After every cook, I ask the misses what she thinks...for honest feedback for tweaks in the future. When I asked her what she thought, her reply was, "Again." I said, "Just like that, huh? No changes?" She said, "Nope. Just like that."
I'll call that a success. Now, to figure out what I'm going to put on her shrimp when I grill it.
