help with smoking salmon

bobinaz

I tried my second attempt in 6 years to smoke salmon.... and failed again. I tried a recipe I saw that said to cover the salmon in salt, then cover the salt in brown sugar and keep it in fridge for 24 hrs. I then wiped off the gooey solution and put it in the egg with apple chunks. I think my problem was too high of heat. I started out close to 250 and it hardly ever got down close to 180. If it did, it seemed like it was going out...no smoke coming out of the egg. The salmon was very dry and way too salty, I could not eat it...
I think I need to learn the technique to get and keep a smoking temp of 180 for hours. Does anyone have a tried and true method to keep a low-temp cook (160-180) going for smoking salmon or any meat??? thanks for any help.

shelly

I cold smoke (under 80 degrees) salmon with oak to make lox every two weeks on a different smoker. I've been doing this for decades.[p]But I would never salt the salmon that long. I salt, with kosher salt only, for 6 hours if the salmon side is more than 3 lbs and for 4-5 hours if it is under 3 lbs. I never use a side less than 2 1/4 lbs, though.[p]Then, thorougly rinse the salmon under cold running water and towel dry before p[utting it on the grill, egg or whatever.[p]Cold smoking allows for very thin slices. Once he heat climbs over 125 degrees, as it would on the egg, the fish cooks and flakes. The hotter the heat, the more it cooks and firmer it becomes.[p]Shelly

thirdeye

bobinaz,[p]Here is a link to how I do my dry cured and hot smoked salmon. My first choice is using an electric smoker box but I use my large Egg throughout the winter with great results. With practice you can hold a 200° dome temp. I use my Guru and go with 175°.[p]~thirdeye~

[ul][li]Salmon[/ul]

Spaceman Spiff

WAY too long to salt the salmon. Try the previous suggestion or somethink like 1 to 2 hours depending on the thickness of the salmon.[p]Spacey

Unknown

shelly,
What kind of smoker do you use? I have a Little Chief, which I like for smoking salmon, but it is about 150*- safe, but not lox, which my wife and I both love. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Al

shelly

I use a dedicated smoker box that I built. It has a tubing about 6' long that takes the smoke into a New Brunsfel offset smoker. I keep the salmon, wrapped in cheesecloth to protect from ash et al, in the food compartment of the NB smoker.[p]Since the smoker box is external (a plywood box with hot plate and stainless steel pan to hold 3-4 chunks of oak cut from my firewood), the smoke remains at whatever the air temperature is.[p]It may start hotter but is cooled downby traveling through the tubing. The smoker box and tubing are pitch black with creosote from the smoldering dry wood chunks but there is never any that gets to the salmon. In fact, the food chamber of the NB smoker is relatively clean after so many years--cleaner than my Weber gas grill would get.[p]Here's a link where I describe he process with pics.[p]http://www.bbqsource-forums.com/invboard/index.php?showtopic=1814[p]Shelly

stike

shelly,
eeeew. 'scab' sounds a little, well, scabby.[p]say "pellicle".[p]i learned that from alton b.[p]hahaha[p]cool process.

MesaManiac

bobinaz,
I use this: http://www.salmonuniversity.com/rs_htss01_index.html[p]Scored the fillet into bite-size squares as shown.
Smoked mine in a Weber Smokey Mountain with about 6 briquets in one of the crescent-shaped charcoal pans from a Weber Kettle (used for indirect). Add charcoal as needed every hour or so.
Delicious!!
MM

shelly

stike,
I always used to say pellicle when I described the process but noone usually knows what I mean, so I just got used to saying scab.[p]Just don't picksat it.[p]Shelly