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!

 

[Jonas-Switzerland]

its funny

So the tube smoldered through half the pellets. But that's not the funny part. My sacrificial pieces of cheese shows it nicely.

Bottom side:


Top side:


It smoked "from the top" down. I remember the cold smoke coloration has always been top heavy. But I do believe this is more pronounced today.

Surely I did not get a lot of air flow. I presume the smoke settled on top of the produce. Maybe that's part why I think the smoke taste is "unrefined"? It got particulate matter settled on top, which should be blown off in a good cold smoker.

The salmon is currently sitting covered in the fridge. My plan was to let it air out through the next night. Now I am contemplating giving the salmon a quick rinse.

It would not be wise for spoilage. It introduces more moisture (obviously). But my WSM was not a drying environment anyways. I had a water bowl, and the weather here is foggy, we are talking saturated air humidity. The underside of the salmon was damp. So maybe I should let it rest in the fridge uncovered after the air out period anyways.

 

[Peter Gallagher]

It smoked "from the top" down. I remember the cold smoke coloration has always been top heavy. But I do believe this is more pronounced today.

Surely I did not get a lot of air flow. I presume the smoke settled on top of the produce. Maybe that's part why I think the smoke taste is "unrefined"? It got particulate matter settled on top, which should be blown off in a good cold smoker.

Looks nice - you're essentially making lox, and typically the outside of the fish gets a heavy layer of smoke - Often the top or outside slices are discarded, as some find the smoke taste overbearing - me, I kinda like it. Keep at it! Once you get it dialed in, there's nothing better than cold smoked salmon.

 

[Jonas-Switzerland]

Salmon has been vac-sealed a few days ago. I chose to pat off the salmon with a kitchen towel, and then let them air out overnight.

We tried a piece and observed:

1. Much softer smoke aroma
2. Still under salted
3. Surprisingly, a lot firmer and less lox silky as I believed my first batch was.

My takeaway from observation 2, I think doing a 20% salt brine with a clear water rest isn't that great for my tastes. Too much salt goes down the drain, and still feels slightly under-salted. Maybe it has better curing properties than Marks'. Who knows. Gonna try out his brine method the next time.

Observation 3 is weird. I did leave it longer in the fridge (24h vs 4h). And I did replace the fridge in the meantime. Its now a cheap one, and because I didn't trust it I turned its thermostat to do some extra cooling. Maybe it really dried out the salmon. Maybe its just the fish.

Observation 1 is cool, it was my main gripe. But sadly too many variables changed to truly separate their influences. I do believe the airing helped, and will repeat it. Like, it did not get a good air flow of smoke, it did not get a full tube worth, etc. My hated off-taste was there while I was handling the salmon. But after the airing, there was just a hint of it. I was contemplating doing another round of smoke. But My wife liked the amount of smoke it had at that point, so let's see what it tastes like after it matured for a week.

Side note, I do like the smoke taste in general. What I had was a harsh smell in the WSM's firebox after the smoke session. My first cheese cold smoke had a smell of brimstone, and yellow ash inside the firebox. Here I also got some yellow ash (much less than my cheese experiment) and maybe a hint of brimstone. When tasting the cheese or salmon, it got some IMO interesting smoke flavor, followed by a "taste mark" of the firebox. That's what I wanted to reduce.

Hm... I should make a picture of the ash to show you guys.