Jonas-Switzerland
TVWBB Super Fan
Strap in, this is going to be a long one.
I got some salmon again. And for pregnancy reasons, my wife and I felt uncomfortable eating it raw. We usually would, just not during pregnancy. So I wanted to experiment with hot smoking salmon again, but this time at barely "hot". I targeted about 85C/180F.
Left side I wanted to try out a teriyaki glaze, and the other side got a more traditional garlic+onion+chili rub. The chili rub also had more traditional salt + brown sugar added. Now both went into the fridge for a few hours.
In the mean time we went to buy some lump. Some of you may know I found a collier association near me. They produce lump charcoal with literally ancient techniques. We did not visit the "Kohlemeiler" this week. They are building one right now, and light it up next weekend. This week I bought bags from last year's Meiler. 4 bags of 20 pound beech lump.
I thanked bosch e-bike motor. 4 Bags was what I was able to store in my cellar. And its what I brought home.
The bags look fancy
Decently sized lumps. Every piece is shiny. Very little debris. Well, it better be. The longest distance this wood travelled was on the back of my bike
Now back to smoking. I filled half a charcoal basket with the new lump, added lit lump on the other half of the basket, and added a small piece of oak wood. Then, I added some water to my water pan. And my WSM 22 nailed the temp.
Now, after an hour in the smoker, it looked like this:
You can see the fancy shoes of my daughter. About 47-49C internal temp. Everything was... moist (including the shoes of my daughter). The teriyaki sauce did not stick to the salmon. I gave it another glaze, and gave it another hour.
Interestingly enough, I kind of hit a stall here. After the second hour, I still got basically the same temperature. As If I hit a stall. My temperature started dropping, because half my charcoal basket got burned up. I wrapped it in foil, put it in the oven at 60C/140F and fixed the moist shoes of my daughter.
And the result teriyaki sauce:
And the traditional rub:
The teriyaki salmon was pretty bare bone. The sauce did not penetrate, and the sweating of fat let the rest of the sauce slid off. The other one was pretty good.
In hindsight, I should have known the teriyaki sauce would not coat the fish at this low temperature. Oh well.
The texture was interesting. It was flaky, but completely moist. A lot of fat and liquid inside the meat. I did a hot smoke at 230F I believe, and overshot the target temperature at places I believe. This very low temperature either kept it moist, or gave me such a big margin of error that it did not matter. Either way, a good technique if you have thinner fish like I do.
Only the crust is nothing to write home about. One could think about maybe a reverse sear kind of cook. But then you'd have to be very quick about the sear, or overcook the salmon.
I got some salmon again. And for pregnancy reasons, my wife and I felt uncomfortable eating it raw. We usually would, just not during pregnancy. So I wanted to experiment with hot smoking salmon again, but this time at barely "hot". I targeted about 85C/180F.
Left side I wanted to try out a teriyaki glaze, and the other side got a more traditional garlic+onion+chili rub. The chili rub also had more traditional salt + brown sugar added. Now both went into the fridge for a few hours.
In the mean time we went to buy some lump. Some of you may know I found a collier association near me. They produce lump charcoal with literally ancient techniques. We did not visit the "Kohlemeiler" this week. They are building one right now, and light it up next weekend. This week I bought bags from last year's Meiler. 4 bags of 20 pound beech lump.
I thanked bosch e-bike motor. 4 Bags was what I was able to store in my cellar. And its what I brought home.
The bags look fancy
Decently sized lumps. Every piece is shiny. Very little debris. Well, it better be. The longest distance this wood travelled was on the back of my bike
Now back to smoking. I filled half a charcoal basket with the new lump, added lit lump on the other half of the basket, and added a small piece of oak wood. Then, I added some water to my water pan. And my WSM 22 nailed the temp.
Now, after an hour in the smoker, it looked like this:
You can see the fancy shoes of my daughter. About 47-49C internal temp. Everything was... moist (including the shoes of my daughter). The teriyaki sauce did not stick to the salmon. I gave it another glaze, and gave it another hour.
Interestingly enough, I kind of hit a stall here. After the second hour, I still got basically the same temperature. As If I hit a stall. My temperature started dropping, because half my charcoal basket got burned up. I wrapped it in foil, put it in the oven at 60C/140F and fixed the moist shoes of my daughter.
And the result teriyaki sauce:
And the traditional rub:
The teriyaki salmon was pretty bare bone. The sauce did not penetrate, and the sweating of fat let the rest of the sauce slid off. The other one was pretty good.
In hindsight, I should have known the teriyaki sauce would not coat the fish at this low temperature. Oh well.
The texture was interesting. It was flaky, but completely moist. A lot of fat and liquid inside the meat. I did a hot smoke at 230F I believe, and overshot the target temperature at places I believe. This very low temperature either kept it moist, or gave me such a big margin of error that it did not matter. Either way, a good technique if you have thinner fish like I do.
Only the crust is nothing to write home about. One could think about maybe a reverse sear kind of cook. But then you'd have to be very quick about the sear, or overcook the salmon.
