Overdone Smoked Salmon

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Guest

Guest
Hello,

I just got my WSM last week and have had several sucessful runs with the easy BBQ chicken recipe (very, very good!) and a lamb. However, today I tried smoking salmon and followed the directions found on the site as best I could yet ended up with them way overdone.

The best I can figure is despite the directions, it seems that I should have let the smoker temp peak then cool to 200-250 before putting on the salmon. It went up to 300 and took 30 minutes to get to 225, despite all vents closed. I had a remote probe measuring the fish and it reached 160 in that time period. The other probe was long enough to measure from the top vent down to the grill (that's where I got the 300 and then later temps of 200)

From what I can see, fish is cooked at around 140. When smoking salmon is it best to keep the fish temp to rise slowly to that, and the keep it there for the three hours or so?

By the way, I did have the water pan in and it was full the whole time. Also, the water was hot when I started.

Thanks for your help.
 
Salmon can be cooked cold smoking,low and slow or hot, they all work. The problem with the salmon was letting it reach 160 internal before pulling it of the cooker. The time it takes will directly related the pit temp.

Pit control comes with pratice, it will get easier.
Jim
 
Hi Jim,

A response from the master himself! Thanks!

In my notes I wondered if starting with the Minion method would have been the best way to keep the temps low. As legend and cooking instructions have it, a multiple hour smoke is best to smoke the salmon. Had I pulled it at 145 or so would it have not enough time to get that nice, slightly dry and smokey flavor? In a mere 30 minute cook time would it have not been just grilled and not truly smoked?

Thanks!
 
David
You can get some smoke in a quick cook but I prefer smoking at 225 for a couple of hours, pulling at 145. You can take to 155 less moist but not dried out, once you start hitting 160 or higher it dries out pretty quickly.

The recipe as used in competition our cook only lasted 15 min and it did very well with the judges.
Jim
 
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