Liquid brine for salmon question

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Hi Everyone,

I've used the dry brine recipe for hot smoked salmon that is posted on this site with great success. I was wondering if anyone has ever brined salmon using a liquid brine. Something like

Recipe Ingredients:

* 10-20 lbs. Ed's Wild Salmon, fillets
* 14 cups Salt
* 7 cups Brown Sugar
* 5 gallons Water
* 5 gallon Bucket
* Alder wood chips


The reason I want to do this is to brine a whole bunch of salmon at once without the hassle of rubbing like 20 lbs of fish.

Will the results be the same as the dry brine? Any comments or suggeetions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
randy,

I've liquid brined salmon many times.

Very good thing to do.

Be careful on how long you brine though, can get too salty if left in the brine for too long.

I usually brine just 2-3 hours. Then rinse, and refrigerate-dry another couple of hours.
 
I brine salmon more than not, usually 90 minutes. Whether there is a difference depends on brine v. dry cure ingredients and whether the dry-cured salmon is weighted.

When I brine I add spices, herbs and aromatics to the brine and I lightly rub as well.

If you want other flavors or flavor enhancements you can include them in your brine. If you wish, you can make a rub (no salt) and sprinkle on lightly before smoking; the salmon won't need to be rubbed per se.

Unless you're shooting for a cure sort of thing with a plain water soak after brining, the quantity of salt and sugar in your brine is, imo, far too high--almost 2.5 times what I'd use for salt and 4 times the amount of sugar I'd use for 5 gal of water.
 
K Kruger what ratio of salt and sugar to water do you use in your liquid brine. Also what other types of flavor enhancments have you used in the past that turned a good product? THanks for your help
 
Also what would be the difference between dry cre that is weighted or non-weighted.

Does the liquid brine release water from the salmon like a dry brine does?
 
I use a scant 1/4 c of Morton Kosher/qt of water and 1 T sugar/qt.

In the brine I use crushed fresh garlic, fresh bay leaves, dried or fresh thyme, and sometimes include dried savory, chilies, peppercorns, allspice, orange zest and/or a few other things depending on what result I'm looking for.

The difference between dry weighted and unweighted in one of finish texture. When weighted the salmon exudes moisture (from the salt) and much less is re-absorbed than with unweighted salmon which exudes moisture then re-absorbs much of it.

Brining does not release moisture from the salmon. The brine will season the salmon and when the salmon is removed from the brine it will contain more moisture than when raw.
 
I have been experimenting with planking with Cedar Shingles (I have a mate that has a supply of them) on the Q.
I was using 2 tablespoons of sea salt, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 litre (about a quart) of water for 90 minutes. The last time I cut it back to 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt, which was better. I was using a firm, white-fleshed fish (Blue Grenadier). I didn’t want to use the Salmon until I got the recipe worked out.(Salmon is $25.00 -$29.00 a kilo here). I tried it with herbs & spices and found that I need to get the brine and flavour balances right - too much of one will kill another and too much of all will detract from the subtleness of the cedar smoke.
I am going to try with a ½ teaspoon of Turmeric next time to see if it will give it some colour.

Planking works extremely well on the Q, once you get all the balances correct. I found that I needed to pre-heat the plank for 15 minutes to start it off and then cook for 12 minutes for a 19 mm (3/4") fillet.

regards
 
The difference between dry weighted and unweighted in one of finish texture. When weighted the salmon exudes moisture (from the salt) and much less is re-absorbed than with unweighted salmon which exudes moisture then re-absorbs much of it.

Brining does not release moisture from the salmon. The brine will season the salmon and when the salmon is removed from the brine it will contain more moisture than when raw.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the info. What is the reason to dry brine it and release water? What does it do to the final product?
 
When one dry cures a salmon the salt in the cure causes the salmon, at first, to lose moisture. Much of this moisture mingles with the cure and much is re-absorbed. The flavor can be a bit more intense than brining though this depends on the types and amount of flavoring agents (spices, herbs, aromatics) included in each method.

When salmon is dry cured and weighted it loses moisture but re-absorbs less. Flavors, though more subtle usually, do re-absorb a bit with the moisture re-absorbtion, but laso transfer because of the fat salmon contains. With less moisture the salmon is denser. This method is most used for salmon that will be cold-smoked (though not always). Because the final product is denser but also because salmon contains quite bit of gelatinous fat, the final product can be sliced paper thin (like lox) and still hold together.
 
I use this recipe and get rave reviews from the guests

Zesty Ol' Faithful

1 tsp of garlic powder
3 cloves of garlic (sliced thin)
1 cup soy sauce
½ cup of Worcestershire sauce
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup non-iodized salt (I use just a little less, but doesn’t come out too salty with the full ½ cup as long as you rinse the fish thoroughly after the brining.)
2 cups water in a large bowl.

Will brine two large filets.

Dissolve ingredients together in the large bowl, put salmon pieces in 1 gallon zip-lock bags (one filet worth of pieces per bag), pour half the brine into each bag. Put bags in bowls in case of leakage and refrigerate 5 hours. Turn bags every hour to distribute the brine evenly.

Rinse thoroughly in cold water and pat dry. Air dry on smoker racks at room temp. for 1 hour.

I use 3 pans of alder in my electric smoker (about 160F). Change pans of alder chips about every hour. Smoke in smoker for 6 hours. Remove and seal in vacuum sealer bags. Store in the refrigerator.
 
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