Northwestern Smoked Salmon

Bear Naked Cook 2

Ingredients

1c white sugar, or 3/4c of baker's sugar

1c brown sugar firmly packed

1/3c salt

2tbsp garlic powder

2tbsp onion powder

2tbsp black pepper

Honey (optional)

Instructions

Combine the dry ingredients in a zip lock bag.  This is your special dry fish rub.

After filleting the fish.  Cut fish into no bigger than 6" x 4" portions.  Place one layer of fish skin side down in a 1 gallon freezer bag and coat the top of the fish with a moderate amount of the dry rub covering the fish evenly.  Once your finish zip the freezer bag closed while pushing out most of the air.  This is ready for the refrigerator or freezer.  Repeat this process until all of the fish are bagged.

The fish can be frozen and rethawed if it is fresh, but if the fish has been frozen once before then follow these directions.

Place bags in refrigerator.  The fish will start to emulsify and the dry rub will turn to liquid in a couple of hours.  After 24 hours, flip the fish to skin side up and alternate every 12 hours.  If you're smoking Coho the soak time is 48 to 72 hours.  If you're smoking Chinook, Pink, or Sockeye salmon, then your soak time will be 96 hours (4 days).

After the desired soak time has been completed, pull the fish out of its bags and rinse.  The fish will need to be cleaned just enough to remove the hard ingredients on the meat of the fish.  The fish will have a deep red look to it after it's rinsed.

Spray grill with a non-stick spray while off of the Green Egg.  Place fish skin side down on the grill and let it rest for 30 minutes. 

The internal heat of the Green Egg should be at a consistant 150F while smoking.  Alder or Hickory works well for smoking salmon.

Smoke salmon at 150F for 6+ hours (depending on the thickness of the fish) adding smoking chips as needed. 

 

 

Notes

The cooler you can smoke salmon, the better. If you can smoke below 150F then add a little more smoking time. It is great to enjoy by itself, but crackers and cream cheese lightens the flavor for serving to guests.

Number of Servings: 8-10 per 10lb fish

Time to Prepare: Up to 4 days