Brett-EDH
TVWBB Olympian
The goal is to not salt preserve it like fish was preserved before refrigeration.
The rub really is to remove moisture and the salt and sugars add flavor. The real issue is length of brine. I’ve found 24 hours to be perfect for my brine recipe.
When I started this years back, I did a 3 day brine. Basically I made salmon jerky. While tasty, it was unsclieable and inedible for a bagel or appetizer.
I also cut the tail sections off and into pieces as they tend to dry out in a 24 hour brine. Depending on how they turn out from smoking, I might slice them as lox or chop them and add them into cream cheese and make a salmon spread.
As for pellicle, my biggest issue is personal time. I use the fridge as a holding station as I don’t always have time to smoke the same day as the oellicle develops. Like last night, I ran out of time to smoke the salmon.
I’ll have time tonight as dinner is leftovers so instead of cooking, I can prep the smoke tube and set the salmon into the grill to smoke it.
I’ll either use my Summit gasser which I’ve done in years past or use the S6 and crack it open so the heat dissipates and doesn’t hot cook the salmon, like my Mother’s Day snafu.
And yes, the pellicle does develop in 2-3 hours in the fridge, and yes, you can use a fan too. The salmon oils come to the surface fairly easily so pellicle development is not difficult nor time consuming.
My recipe, for one whole side of salmon is:
2/3 cup pickling salt - must be pickling salt when using this salt amount. Don’t subs another type of salt.
1 cup of sugar divided into half of non-bleached sugar and dark brown sugar. Do not use raw sugar. Just unbleached. While you can use bleached (white sugar), we don’t consume that product in our home.
1 tbs each of ground white and black pepper
1 tbs dried fresh dill - we make our own which is air dried, not factory dried as factories use dehydrators which changes the taste and flavor of all dried herbs.
Combine all ingredients and thoroughly mix.
Sprinkle half the dry brine mix atop the salmon and gently press into the flesh.
Flip the salmon over and do the same application to the fish, gently pressing the brine into the flesh.
Cover and refrigerate for 12 hours.
After 12 hours, open the container and incorporate the sugar that is on the bottom of the vessel so it’s fully mixed into the now liquid brine. This will ensure a better flavor and more penetration into the flesh as the brine is at maximum flavor.
After 24 hours, remove fish and gently rinse under cold water to remove the brine and excess solids. Place onto a rack on a tray and fridge so you can develop the pellicle.
Discard the liquid brine. It’s not useable.
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pellets in the smoke tube. Will blow the flame out and then lay the tube down to smoke the chamber which has the salmon in it. 
