Well, it finally got cool enough here in sunny Arizona to take my first stab at smoking a nice sockeye salmon filet.
Big shout out to Jim Lampe for giving me the idea on how to control my temp below 200F; my target was 150-160F and getting that consistent on a WSM was a concern for me. His post on bacon showed me the snake method as the best possible approach. The photo below shows the initial setup on my 18.5; in the end I added another coal on top of the chain to get my temp up to 160. Apple wood splits:
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I brined the salmon overnight using a 4/1 ratio of brown sugar to salt. Target was 12-14 hours, but after 16 hours it was still not what I'd consider perfectly cured; most videos that I'd seen had the cured salmon come out pretty stiff. Mine was still a bit flexible. Next time I'll probably up the salt a bit; maybe 3/1 ratio. After the brine and before the smoker:
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As noted above, the smoke started out slow and I had to add a little more coal on the chain to get up to target temp, but then I ran 160-180 for the next 6 hours without a hitch. I was really trying to avoid anything over 200F since I'd seen many videos and all of them running hotter temps has the pellicle bust and the oils leak out. The final product after a brush of honey and some cracked black pepper;
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Amazing, moist, and delicious. I'll be doing this again VERY soon!
Big shout out to Jim Lampe for giving me the idea on how to control my temp below 200F; my target was 150-160F and getting that consistent on a WSM was a concern for me. His post on bacon showed me the snake method as the best possible approach. The photo below shows the initial setup on my 18.5; in the end I added another coal on top of the chain to get my temp up to 160. Apple wood splits:
I brined the salmon overnight using a 4/1 ratio of brown sugar to salt. Target was 12-14 hours, but after 16 hours it was still not what I'd consider perfectly cured; most videos that I'd seen had the cured salmon come out pretty stiff. Mine was still a bit flexible. Next time I'll probably up the salt a bit; maybe 3/1 ratio. After the brine and before the smoker:
As noted above, the smoke started out slow and I had to add a little more coal on the chain to get up to target temp, but then I ran 160-180 for the next 6 hours without a hitch. I was really trying to avoid anything over 200F since I'd seen many videos and all of them running hotter temps has the pellicle bust and the oils leak out. The final product after a brush of honey and some cracked black pepper;
Amazing, moist, and delicious. I'll be doing this again VERY soon!