Apple Cider Cured Smoked Salmon

[Mike Batsarisakis]

Apple Cider Cured Smoked Salmon –Wildwood Restaurant, Portland OREGON

1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup salt
4 cups apple cider or juice
2 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon whole allspice
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
6 sprigs thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 large salmon fillets (about 1 pound each), skin and pin bones removed
A small bundle of wood chips or chunks
To make the brine: In a saucepan, combine the brown sugar, salt, and apple juice and bring to a boil. Add the remaining brine ingredients, remove from the heat, and cool. This brine can be made 2 to 3 days in advance and kept in the refrigerator.

Found the above recipe and I cooked it for Christmas Eve. Cooked salmon for 5 1/2 hours at about 212-219. Came out awesome. Barely perciptable apple cider flavor. I also made Jim Minion's and Jack Roger's brown sugar salmon rub on the soking topics of this website. That was also excellent. The brined one was just a tad more moist. The subtelties between the two were very minor. The curing method, although different did not make a difference in taste. I cured both for 1.5 hours to minimize saltiness. I also seasoned both lightly with salt, brown sugar, garlic and onion powder before placing on the cooker. I also cooked the salmon longer to achieve a dryer appetizer style salmon. Both recipes are outstanding especially mixed with creme cheese on a bagel. Everyone who tried same went back for seconds and commented that they couldn't get a better smoked salmon spread in the best bagel shop in Boston.

I strongly recommend either recipe. Mike

 

[Tom in VA]

Mike,

Is that Kosher or regular iodized salt?

Thanks

Tom

 

[Mike Batsarisakis]

I used kosher salt, although their recipe did not specify what type of salt. Other recipes use kosher or non-iodized salt. I don't think you will go wrong with either one. I think you will enjoy this recipe.

 

[Andy Skead]

Hi guys. First smoke, trying salmon - Atlantic (fresh) and Pacific (frozen) as a test. Question regarding rinsing the brine off prior to drying. It seems some people recommend you rinse the fish when you take it out of the brine but this recipe does not mention rinsing. What did you guys do? Thanks in advance.

Skeader

 

[Andy Skead]

I forgot to update this... Fresh Atlantic salmon turned out great. Frozen Pacific was sh*t. But that was kind of expected. I let it sit in the brine over night, then rinsed off under tap when removing from brine. I then let it dry for 4 hours, probably could have gone longer. I also added more salt after rinsing that was not required. Also added brown sugar\maple syrup rub on some pieces, lemon pepper on others and dill\all dressed on yet others. All turned out great!

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