Mother's Day brunch - now it's smoked hot salmon


 
Brett-EDH

Brett-EDH

TVWBB Olympian
Going to do a brunch spread of bagels, lox, fixings and omelettes. Of course mimosas are on the menu.

Salmon at 12 hours into its 24 hour brine. Just rotated the slab and ensured no brine was stuck to the container. Making sure the brine is fully liquid at this stage is key to consistent and even flavor penetration.

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In 12 hours the slab will get fully rinsed and then air dried in the fridge so I can smoke it tomorrow evening. Smoke will be 100% maple pellets in a smoker tube.

Then it’ll get wrapped to settle the smoke flavor over Friday night through Saturday. And then sliced on Sunday for brunch.

Pics to follow as this comes together over the next two days.
 
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Bruno said:
I don’t do the seafood but my kids and wife would go crazy for that.
Next level as usual.
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I’m just that crazy guy who plays with food.

The recipe was born out of passion as we missed the lox we grew up with. So learned how to make it, and fast. It was expensive to mess up so had a very quick learning curve.

You should give it a shot. It’s basically salmon bacon. Doesn’t taste fishy at all. Just a cured fish and then smoked. That smoke is heaven.
 
I’m down with this! I love eating lox straight from the package - I don’t even get to the bagels, capers and red onions. What’s the salmon you’re using?
 
Wil A said:
I’m down with this! I love eating lox straight from the package - I don’t even get to the bagels, capers and red onions. What’s the salmon you’re using?
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Costco farm raised. Do NOT use wild salmon for lox as wild salmon has parasites and needs to be fully cooked to kill those parasites. Lox is a cold smoke process. Hot smokes process can use wild salmon because hot smoke fully cooks the salmon.

I have other threads posted here already on lox making. Feel free to reference those as well if you’re interested in making this at home.

And yup, we’ll just eat the lox once it’s sliced. It’s that tasty.
 
Sounds delicious. I often have smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on sourdough toast for breakfast.
May I make a suggestion if you're going to use the traditional cream-cheese on the bagel? Horseradish Sauce! It adds a bit of zing, & really compliments the salmon. (Mix a small amount at a time into the cream-cheese until preferred taste).
 
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24 hours brined. The smaller tail pieces are firm, as they usually are. If they’re too firm after drying I might cube them into salmon jerky bites or chop them up for a salmon cream cheese spread.

The slab is evenly cured with its thickest part just slightly more springy than the rest of the body. The air drying will firm up the fish a little more as the cure will continue to set as the fish develops a pellicle which is needed to attract and grab the smoke once in the smoke session.

Rinsed and racked and exposed in the fridge for a few hours. Smoke session should be tonight as the weather forecast is for cool temps.

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Nice and even color across the salmon. A lot of moisture was released during the curing.

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RLittle said:
Can't wait to see the final product Brett. Sure it's going to be amazing!
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one of my previous lox threads. sneak peek for you of what's to come.

tvwbb.com

Cold smoked salmon, coming up (Lox)

Just completed the 24 hour dry brine on a side of Costco salmon. Rinsed and racked, exposed in the fridge to build pellicle. And tonight I’ll hit this with maple cold smoke for 90 minutes and then fridge it over night. And then slice this up tomorrow for some lox with anything (bagels, sushi...
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enjoy!
 
24 hours fridge exposed and pellicle is beautifully set. Nice firm exterior ready to grab smoke.

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2/3 filled smoke tube with maple pellets. Then an oiled napkin inserted and capped off to 3/4 fill with pellets.

Light the oiled napkin with my small torch and let the pellets fire up for 5 minutes. Then make sure fire is out and just smoking pellets are happening.

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Set smoke tube off to one side of the grill. Bottom E6 vent full open and top half closed.

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After 5 minutes presmoke, confirm you have cold smoke. NO HEAT showing on the dial. Any small amount of heat gets the E6 to 200° quickly so you’ll know you have cold smoke.

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Opened lid to visually confirm no fire and all smoke and then place salmon into chamber.

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I’m off to the gym as this salmon takes its smoke bath. Smoke time is usually 90-120 minutes.

Maybe my workout will go to 90 minutes? Yeah, right. 60 minutes will be enough to punish my body.

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See ya in 2 hours. 💪🔥 💨
 
This thread, and the other you linked to Brett, are both filled with so much awesome info. I would love to try this, but if you’re scared, say you’re scared, and I’m scared. :LOL: Your expertise makes it seem sooooooo easy though.
 
Wil A said:
This thread, and the other you linked to Brett, are both filled with so much awesome info. I would love to try this, but if you’re scared, say you’re scared, and I’m scared. :LOL: Your expertise makes it seem sooooooo easy though.
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You have nothing to be afraid of. Ask any question you have. I will do my best to answer and advise. Trust me, you CAN do this. Im no wizard.
 
Well, we now have hot smoked salmon. Learned something new today.

The E6 holds heat so well that it cooked the salmon. Now mind you it’s barely cooked. But it’s moved beyond lox.

Good thing is the taste is great and it still goes with tomorrow’s bagels.

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So I’m thinking next time to reduce the bottom vent opening and fully open the top vent and pop the upper lid open a little to dissipate any heat in the chamber.

Historically I’ve used my Summit S670 as the smoking chamber which has substantially more interior volume than the E6. So the heat never reaches the salmon.

Good thing is the wife loves salmon and hot smoked salmon too. So I get to live another day.
 
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