Salmon question

[Andy Kaminski]

Hi all I was thinking of smoking up some salmon on my performer.
My plan is to cold smoke with a pellet tube and use my charcoal igniter to low heat/smoke cook it.
I don’t want to use any charcoal on this cook.
I am not looking for lox but rather smoked salmon.
I might get enough fish to do both lox and smoked but we will see.
Maybe a piece of apple wood over the igniter but I don’t think I will need that.
Have any of you ever done something like this ?

I am at our cabin for the holidays
It is cold as heck so that might make the cook a bit interesting.
I am also a bit bored and think this could be a fun cook.

Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks.
Andy.

 

[Brett-EDH]

cold smoke = a good amount of salt in your brine, means more like lox than smoked salmon.

feedback please what the desired texture is you're seeking and i can share whatever i know.

to cold smoke, meaning 60-90F, you have to cure the fish to kill any parasites/bacteria and even then, i'd never do a wild salmon cold smoked as it doesn't get hot enough to kill off bacteria; only farm raised salmon (Costco has some of the best quality farm raised salmon IMO).

hot smoked, meaning the salmon is cured (a lot less salt than making lox) and hot smoked, 100-175F, does kill off bacteria and cooks the fish. now mind you the cook is very mild and not like a direct heat cooked salmon. you'll get all that smoke flavor and the brine (which likely has brown sugar) will caramelize on the outer flesh layer. if you go too far on time, even with a low temp, you'll have salmon jerky, which is quite yummy too.

i'd recco you find a hot smoked salmon brine recipe and go from there. just keep your temps in the desired range for desired outcome and you should be just fine.

i would not cold smoke if you're not intending to make lox as the brine strength and brine time are usually paired for desired results with a 24 hour refrigerated brine time, rinse, pellicle development and then a cold smoke session.

fruit woods would be good for a hot smoke. i am very partial to maple flavor with salmon. i just really like the flavor profile produced with its smoke.

 

[DanHoo]

I'll see if I can find my smoking marinade recipe and post it.

 

[Mark Foreman]

Since you do not want to use charcoal, you might consider:
Apply smoke using the smoke tube for 1 to 2 hours (not sure how much smoke you like).
Finish in the oven at 150 to 170.
Alder, cherry, maple (Brett !!!).

my 2 cents

 

[Brett-EDH]

Since you do not want to use charcoal, you might consider:
Apply smoke using the smoke tube for 1 to 2 hours (not sure how much smoke you like).
Finish in the oven at 150 to 170.
Alder, cherry, maple (Brett !!!).

my 2 cents

JD gives off the cleanest smoke, IMO. and you can flavor that smoke with a bunch of chips of those woods. i'd keep adding chips over the JD to impart the flavored wood smoke onto the salmon.

now you got me wanting to do one. so that's what i'm going to do on Xmas day now. i'll load up the smoke tube to max with maple pellets and light the JD under the deflector plate. i can hopefully get the E6 to hum along at 200F and i'll shroud the salmon with heavy aluminum foil to keep the heat away from it so i can go longer and will pull the salmon at 145-155F. that should be more than enough temp.

 

[Erik Tracy]

I've done a two step process for smoked salmon.

Chilled filet straight from the fridge to the grill, off, with a smoking tube of pellets for 1hr.

Then, fire up the grill to sear/cook, and serve.

 

[Andy Kaminski]

I picked up a decent sized sockeye fillet with skin on today.
I am about dry brine it with brown sugar, kosher salt, black pepper.
Tomorrow after it warms up I’m gonna smoke tube it to taste then use my propane igniter for a heat source.
Probably might take 2 hours or so for the cook with a sweet braise on the last half hour.
I will take some picks and give an honest critique when done.
Thanks for the tips guys.
Andy.

 

[Andy Kaminski]

Here is a couple pics so fa.

 

[Brett-EDH]

Here is a couple pics so fa.

looking good! because you're using individual fillets, your cook session will go much faster than cooking the whole side, uncut. do you have your target temp for done?

 

[Joan]

Andy, have you checked out the Seafood recipes here. A lot of good Salmon ones.

 

[Darren Lebner]

I'm planning on trying this out soon:

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Here is a couple pics so fa.

Not sure what your exact plans are there but I do a 4 to 1 sugar to salt....
Overnight ends up being too salty when I cook it.....mind you I try for as low as possible with charcoal for as long as possible....
I aim for texture to know when the brine has done its job...usually 4 to 6 hours. There are a lot of things that add or take away time like the thickness of the fish.
Cooked to temp to eat meal style.
I did a huge write up on how I do it for a meal....I start around 6 or 7am for a dinner........

Today’s smoked salmon

While this isn’t a traditional 160 degree for 12 hour smoke on salmon, this is more of a cook for dinner and eat salmon all week for lunches cook. I think more people eat it this way for traditional meals. The old 12 hour or more at very low preserves the meat well, becomes a bit dryer but...

tvwbb.com

 

[Bob Bailey]

Hi all I was thinking of smoking up some salmon on my performer.
My plan is to cold smoke with a pellet tube and use my charcoal igniter to low heat/smoke cook it.
I don’t want to use any charcoal on this cook.
I am not looking for lox but rather smoked salmon.
I might get enough fish to do both lox and smoked but we will see.
Maybe a piece of apple wood over the igniter but I don’t think I will need that.
Have any of you ever done something like this ?

I am at our cabin for the holidays
It is cold as heck so that might make the cook a bit interesting.
I am also a bit bored and think this could be a fun cook.

Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks.
Andy.

This is a great brine (attached) for hot smoked salmon. I sub in lime for the lemon.

 

[Andy Kaminski]

I did 4 to 1 sugar, a small tbs of garlic powder, a tbs of pepper and a tsp of the prauge #1.
Temp wise I’m thinking taking it off at 135-140.
I didn’t want to use charcoal because the “smoked“ salmon from that on my kettle would turn out bbq’d or baked looking and feeling.
I am looking for soft and kinda chewy.
Good call on the short cook times for the cut fish.

I'm about to go rinse out the salt and let them set.
It is still high 20’s here so I’m gonna wait a bit and then see if I can stabilize the temps on my performer.
Might do 2-3 briquettes to bring it up to temp and then just see if the igniter will keep it there.

Thanks for the tips.
Andy.

 

[Andy Kaminski]

Darren I saw that video before.
Oh mamma that looks good.
Perfect for a holiday platter.
I went small this time for test and half here don’t care for salmon.
Now that platter I would have no problem grazing off of.
In fact I could do that all day .

 

[Andy Kaminski]

Well it’s not as hard to hold temps in this cold weather as I thought It would be.
It’s 36 outside with no wind.
The smoke tube maintains 104 degrees with both vents half way.
Some smoldering hickory chipmunks brings it up to 140.
Using the igniter for heat makes it too hot so I have to throttle it up and down a bit.
I think this will work out ok but I do have to keep a bit of attention on it.
Definitely not a set it and forget it cook but I’m just enjoying the holidays and all is well.

 

[Brett-EDH]

if your CStube is generating 104, you're fine. just let it roll at that till you get your desired internal doneness. might take a while but at least you're not burning the fish. if you can get the CStube up to 135 then you'll be golden. your fish won't go above the available temp (135) so you're in the safe zone for this cook.

 

[Darren Lebner]

Well, I went and did it! Bought a whole salmon. One side has been sent to the deep freezer for future experiments. The other side was cut in two. Using the YT video I posted here on 12/21, I dry brined the half on the head side. For the tail half I used the same simple brine but added water for a wet brine. I also added zest of a lemon and a lot of chopped dill to the brines, the idea being taken from another YT video I watched.

After 24 hours in the fridge, I began the cold smoke on my Genesis II 310, using apple wood pellets. Each burn of pellets lasted several hours but there were numerous intervals between one batch burning out till the next was ignited. Maximum temperature was 86 on the rack where the fish laid. Most of the time during smoking it remained around 75.

I decided to freeze the dry brined half for another time. I sliced and served the wet brined smoked tail half to our children and theirs. It went down with great approval on bagels with cream cheese and some red onion.

The wet brined salmon came out very smoked. The smoke flavor was very domineering. A bit too much to my liking. The flesh inside was very soft and smooth, almost melting in our mouths. I bet the dry brined half is even smokier, as I assume the dryer flesh will more readily absorb the smoke. Time will tell.

I don't think that the lemon zest and dill contributed much to the flavor, if anything at all, at least with regard to this wet brined tasting.

Next time, I'm going to tinker around with brined versus no brine at all and minimal smoking, so that the flavor of the salmon itself clearly stands out. We're all big sashimi eaters in our family.

Your mileage may vary.

Before and after pics:

 

[LMichaels]

How did you get a cold smoke on that grill? In any case you could simply use the brined fish as Nova Lox (unsmoked). I do this all the time. You need VERY high quality salmon though. Sam's Club sells a very nice Norwegian product that is Sashimi grade. It's what I use. I have not done a smoke on one though. The reason being I cook the whole side BUT, before cooking I trim off the belly and tail to make a nice squared off piece I can easily work with on the grill. So the cook is nice and even. I cure the pieces I trim off for Nova Lox

 

[Darren Lebner]

How did you get a cold smoke on that grill?

WYSIWYG. What's the problem? You mean how did I light the pellets in the smoker tube? I filled the tube half way, leveled it out flat and used a Bunsen burner to ignite the open end and begin the slow burn.

In any case you could simply use the brined fish as Nova Lox

In order not to get lost in semantics, lox is salted/brined salmon, Nova Scotia is brined or non-brined smoked salmon, and graved salmon/gravlax is marinated raw wet or dry brined salmon.

You need VERY high quality salmon though.

Local fish monger, fresh out of the chipped ice delivery carton. Clear eyes, red gills and no fishy smell.

...before cooking I trim off the belly and tail to make a nice squared off piece I can easily work with on the grill. So the cook is nice and even.

I can only say that the results whre that the thinner belly area was no more or less done that the upper thicker flesh. This most likely is due to the low maximum temperature maintained throughout the 24 hours the fish stayed under the cover. When you visit a commercial cold smoke kiln, you'll see the entire fish or fillet hanging or on shelves, with no section removed and similar temperature conditions. At least, that's my recollection from various visits to fish smokeries over the years.