First Salmon smoke this weekend


 
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Jeff Edvik

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I'm going to try salmon in my WSM for the first time this Sunday. All I have access to is the farm raised salmon from Costco, so that will have to do.
Should I try it the way Chris did it in the cooking forum (brown sugar rub), or the full Cardogs recipe? Has anyone tried both that can give an opinion?
I'll try the Cardogs recipe with twice the ingredients of Chris' if it makes for better tasting salmon.
Also, where in the 140 - 155* range do people find best for this fish? I'll probably cook the fish to about 150* this time unless others have opinions on what has been the best temp for them.

Jeff
 
The full method has been published in Sunset mag, featured on BBQ America, and won quite a few awards.
The finish rub adds a sweetness to the fish you can get without it. Finish temp I find above 160? is drier than I like. Any where from 145 to 155? gives you good moist product ( the amount of moisture is dicated by the finish temp). Pull some a the lower temp and let some go to the higher temp and that way you can decide for yourself.
Jim
 
Thanks Jim,

I'll go for the whole shootin' match & try the full Cardogs recipe. Someday I'll be able to do it the right way with a wild salmon.
It seems like whenever my wife orders salmon at a restaurant, she either likes it or not based quite a bit on whether it's moist or dry. One of the lower finishing temps might be good in her case.
I'll be using cherry wood since we don't have any alder around here.

Jeff
 
I got a WSM for Christmas and tried my first salmon last night. Learn a lot about my smoker, mainly that I need more charcoal in the cold.

If you are looking for a very simple way to make your salmon, do what I did. Marinate the salmon for half an hour in plain old Italian dressing. When you put it on the grill, put a little old bay seasoning on it, or just some fresh ground pepper. Good stuff and easy. I smoked with alder chips for about two hours and it was pretty tasty.
 
Good Morning...
Oooops pulled salmon filets at 172. I was called away and so I made overcooked dry salmon.

After reviewing rubs, I made one quite good:
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c kosher salt
3/4 t onoin powder
3/4 t garlic powder
1 T fresh ground black pepper
 
I'm all set for my salmon cook using the Cardogs recipe this Sunday. It wasn't easy finding savory around here for some reason.

Jeff
 
Wow that was great!
I will definitely do the Cardogs recipe again. I don't normally like salmon all that much, but I really enjoyed this. My wife & daughter kept talking about how great it was too.
I used too much charcoal (2 chimneys) because I though I would have to with a temperature of only about 23* here today. The smoker stayed in the 270* range the whole cook, but the salmon still tasted great when I took it off at 150*.
Next time I'll only use 1-1/2 chimneys at the most.

Jeff
 
One thing I've discovered (by overcooking) is that wild salmon fillets cook faster than the farm raised salmon fillets, sometimes as much as 10 minutes faster. I thought I had my salmon cooking times down pat after many Costco farm raised salmon cooks. Then I came back from Alaska with a cooler full of coho/silver salmon fillets and proceeded to overcook them. It may be the type of salmon b/c different species of salmon have different amounts of oils. But wild coho cooks faster than farm raised atlantic.
 
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