Cold smoking salmon, second go

[Jonas-Switzerland]

Last year I did my first batch of cold smoked salmon, and written about it in this thread. This year I want to do it again. I was so glad of having everything documented. My google refused to show me any wet brine recipes. And youtube search swallowed the one good video I found.

Teaches me. Write down more. Everything else is ephemeral.

Last year I preferred the taste and texture of a wet brined salmon. It was slightly under-salted. The smoke flavor was generally "unrefined". It was too rough, even with alder pellets.

This was my wet brine recipe last year:
Wet brine recipe:
* 1l water
* 200grams salt
* 100grams sugar
Brine 1 hour per cm fish thickness, at the thickest part.
Then 30min rest in clear water.

I thought about increasing the salinity of the brine. But I chose a slightly different route this time. Last year the salmon was not completely covered by the brine. I don't remember if I made a tad too little, or if it was floating on top. This year I am going to make sure its submerged. Secondly, my salmon is a lot thinner than most. So I am going to decrease the clear water rest time to about 15-20mins.

So that's the plan. In the meantime, I am preparing the salmon and the WSM. It's been a while. I do a safety burn-off before I do any cold smoking.

E: Oh, I forgot to mention my other planned change: Weber's german website suggests to "lüften" the salmon, I.e. let it rest in the open air and air out for 6 hours. That's what I am going to do. So about 8h cold smoke session, air out for 6 hours, and then taste test. If its smoky enough, I am going to then vac seal and rest in the fridge.

 

[Josh Dekubber]

Looking forward to your results! I've been wanting to start smoking fish for quite a while now but haven't got around to it.

 

[Mike Freel]

Good luck. Hopefully it will taste as good as it sounds

 

[Mark Foreman]

Below is my brine recipe. I have used it for some 50 years.

INGREDIENTS​

1 qt water
1/4 cup salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp onion powder
1tbsp garlic powder
brown sugar

DIRECTIONS​

1. Mix salt, sugar, onion, and garlic powder in 1/2 of the water.
2. Mix until salt and sugar is dissolved. Add remaining water.
3. Add fish bring for 2-4 hours for fillets 1/4-1/2 thick; 4 to 8 hours for fillets 1/2-1 inch thick; 8-12 hours for anything greater than 1 inch thick.
4. Lightly rinse fish, dry.
5. Lay fish out on paper and let pellicle form, 2-4 hours.
6. Rub a light coating of brown sugar on fish.
7. Smoke with alder or apple wood at 175F until desired dryness is achieved.

 

[AndyK]

I love cold smoked salmon and kippered or what I call salmon candy.
I’m looking forward to hearing your results.

My brine is very similar to Marks.
That might be because I use to live relatively close region wise.

I am guilty of deviating a little depending on what I have in stock, growing in my herb garden or what mood I’m in.
I enjoy a bit of fresh dill in my brine for cold smoke salmon too.
I also do the luften thing for pellicle although if I’m rushed I will use a fan to assist.
Sometimes I will even put my mini fan into the fridge for a while.

Thanks for the tip using the fish thickness as an hour multiplier.
That makes sense.
I normally just go overnight.

 

[Mark Foreman]

I love cold smoked salmon and kippered or what I call salmon candy.
I’m looking forward to hearing your results.

My brine is very similar to Marks.
That might be because I use to live relatively close region wise.

I am guilty of deviating a little depending on what I have in stock, growing in my herb garden or what mood I’m in.
I enjoy a bit of fresh dill in my brine for cold smoke salmon too.
I also do the luften thing for pellicle although if I’m rushed I will use a fan to assist.
Sometimes I will even put my mini fan into the fridge for a while.

Thanks for the tip using the fish thickness as an hour multiplier.
That makes sense.
I normally just go overnight.

You are welcome.
The time part came from my best fishing buddy (RIP) many years ago. Haven’t had too salty fish since as salt level concentrates when the fish is dried.

Another thing I never skip is the drying step. This IMO is really important to the quality of the finished product.

I do alter ingredients depending on the fish. The one I listed is my go to for Salmon.

 

[Jonas-Switzerland]

Below is my brine recipe. I have used it for some 50 years.

INGREDIENTS​

1 qt water
1/4 cup salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp onion powder
1tbsp garlic powder
brown sugar

DIRECTIONS​

1. Mix salt, sugar, onion, and garlic powder in 1/2 of the water.
2. Mix until salt and sugar is dissolved. Add remaining water.
3. Add fish bring for 2-4 hours for fillets 1/4-1/2 thick; 4 to 8 hours for fillets 1/2-1 inch thick; 8-12 hours for anything greater than 1 inch thick.
4. Lightly rinse fish, dry.
5. Lay fish out on paper and let pellicle form, 2-4 hours.
6. Rub a light coating of brown sugar on fish.
7. Smoke with alder or apple wood at 175F until desired dryness is achieved.

Grrmll... american volume measurements . We can argue about the arbitraryness of celsius v fahrenheit, but volume measurements are just...

Anyways, so... roughly 1/8 of salt by volume. A google result says a cup of kosher salt is about 0.6 pounds of salt. Converting everything back to metric would be

1l water
79.2g salt
105.6g sugar
...

so an 8% salinity, compared to a 20% salinity my recipe calls for. Since my salmon is about 4cm thick at the thickest part, my recipe calls for a 4 hour brine while yours calls for an 8-12h brine.

Definitely gonna try your recipe next time. Even just to reduce the amount of salt I pour down my drain.

 

[Mark Foreman]

Grrmll... american volume measurements . We can argue about the arbitraryness of celsius v fahrenheit, but volume measurements are just...

Anyways, so... roughly 1/8 of salt by volume. A google result says a cup of kosher salt is about 0.6 pounds of salt. Converting everything back to metric would be

1l water
79.2g salt
105.6g sugar
...

so an 8% salinity, compared to a 20% salinity my recipe calls for. Since my salmon is about 4cm thick at the thickest part, my recipe calls for a 4 hour brine while yours calls for an 8-12h brine.

Definitely gonna try your recipe next time. Even just to reduce the amount of salt I pour down my drain.

100 apologies for not converting the measurements. The Switzerland in you name should have been a clue.

I prefer the lower salt in the brine but I do store smoked fish in the refrigerator.

 

[Jonas-Switzerland]

@Mark Foreman no worries. I came around to using pounds for weight. Its just the american volume measurements are wild to me. And the habit of measuring salt by volume. Never came across a metric recipe which does that. But I can google around well enough.

So, salmon was brined. Had to use the grate to keep them in the brine.


Rinsed, and rested for 20mins in clear water. It gained some grate marks, but that's it.


I forgot how much the salmon firms up in the brine. Now its in the fridge, forming some pellicles. Tomorrow evening will be smoking time.

 

[Jonas-Switzerland]

Tonight's the night. Should just drop to about freezing temperatures early tomorrow morning. Should be cool enough.

The salmon came out glossy and tacky



Filled up my WSM with 4-6l of cold water. I also added sacrificial block of raclette cheese, and an old piece of gruyere



No real reason for the cheese. My very first session of cold smoking was with various cheeses, and they turned out between "meh", and "...naah". But it was with smoke chips. So maybe this is better. We will see.

Filled up my smoke tube with alder pellets, lit them up and blew them out. Closed the top vent about 3/4, and closed two of the three bottom vents.



I wonder what kind of weather effects do this. I think its a warm air front pushing in? The little smoke which escapes the top gets blown back down to the ground. After 15mins or so, it was the bottom vent which mostly leaked smoke. I was worried the ambient air was "pushing through" the top vent. But it seems fine. It looks like its bathed in smoke. There probably won't be a ton of flow though.

But you can have fun with fluid dynamics. Moving your hand near the top vent produces small low pressure zones, which draws smoke through the vent. Even when your hand moves not directly above the vent, just next to it.

 

[timothy]

Looking forward to the final results!