Smoked Salmon shelf life question

Canugghead

Took advantage of unseasonably warm weather and smoked a batch of salmon. I followed Russell's recipe at Naked Whiz site, with reduced salt and soy sauce. Smoked for over eight hours at around 200F. Plan is to serve and give out as gifts at Christmas.

Normally I eat or freeze within two weeks.  This time I'm wondering, since it's salted, smoked quite dry and chamber vac sealed tight, it's probably safe to keep them in the coldest part of my spare basement fridge until Christmas without freezing. What do the experts think? 



Also baked some Montreal style bagels in the kitchen box ... love bagel + cream cheese + salmon!
(my go to recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/montreal-bagels-35261 )

bgebrent

Calling @Darby_Crenshaw.  I think you're good to go.

Canugghead

@bgebrent great minds think alike - I had him in mind 

bgebrent

@Canugghead,  that you made minds plural is a high compliment!  Brother Crenshaw will elaborate with elan.

Braggart

A good read. 

Shelf life of smoked salmon, even vac packed, is the same or slightly longer than fresh fish. 

The bacteria that causes botulism can grow in vac packed smoked salmon that is stored over 3C.   As a matter of fact, vac sealing allows the botulism bacteria to grow at a faster rate as other bacterial growth is retarded. 

Bottom line...freeze them. 


http://seafood.oregonstate.edu/.pdf Links/Smoked-Fish-Part-III-Virginia-Tech.pdf

Darby_Crenshaw

Um. Forever. Does 'forever' work for you?

people never cured/smoked salmon because they liked the way it tasted. They cured and smoked it to last the season, so they wouldn't die when the salmon weren't running

it's like bacon. We like bacon because we can buy it for four bucks and cook it up on a Sunday 

but your great grandfather ate it because it was March, and although the hog they slaughtered in September is long dead, the curing and smoking allowed them to survive the winter

bacon, lox, pate', prosciutto, ham, sausage. 

None of it exists because it "tastes great". 

It exists because people found a way to preserve food for months in a way that was still palatable when you cooked it (or ate it) months later

seriously. The most dangerous thing in your fridge is not the month old meat. It's the farm fresh spinach

Canugghead

@Braggart , wow no kidding ;((  thanks for sharing.

Darby_Crenshaw

Braggart. Of course botulism can occur in vacuum packed food. It's because botulism occurs in low oxygen environments. 'Botulism' comes from the latin word for sausage, the interior which is low to zero oxygen

properly cured and smoked is never an issue

your article references 2C as the temp

 otice this is just above freezing. Barely, in fact. 
But guess what? Most refrigerators have a 'meat' drawer. This drawer is fed from the freezer side, and is typically at freezing or below. Meat stored at 32F (or 0F) WILL NOT FREEZE. 

Which means you can easily store smoked salmon at 32F (your meat drawer will actually be lower), and be safe

it's a sad truism that the vast majority of Americans are pathologically afraid of their food

they have no reason to be. We have the safest food chain delivery system in the world, and the most ignorant consumers

Braggart

Darby_Crenshaw said:

Um. Forever. Does 'forever' work for you?

people never cured/smoked salmon because they liked the way it tasted. They cured and smoked it to last the season, so they wouldn't die when the salmon weren't running

it's like bacon. We like bacon because we can buy it for four bucks and cook it up on a Sunday 

but your great grandfather ate it because it was March, and although the hog they slaughtered in September is long dead, the curing and smoking allowed them to survive the winter

bacon, lox, pate', prosciutto, ham, sausage. 

None of it exists because it "tastes great". 

It exists because people found a way to preserve food for months in a way that was still palatable when you cooked it (or ate it) months later

seriously. The most dangerous thing in your fridge is not the month old meat. It's the farm fresh spinach 

Not an expert by any stretch, and I urge that the OP research for himself before taking any advice coming from me...

Having said that, when I used to work in a fish shop, we were required to have holes for airflow in any packaged smoked salmon under refrigeration.   This requirement was enforced by the CFIA (Cdn Food Inspection Agency) due to the very thing the article I posted above outlines. 

I think the key between safe long term storage and not so safe is the salt content.   Guidelines for minimum safe percentages have been developed over the years.  As people become more aware of the health concerns of salt concentrations, low salt recipes have been developed.   This will certainly have an effect on shelf life. 

Again, I think this is addressed in the article. 

Canugghead

@Darby_Crenshaw , learn something new everyday   never paid attention to the meat drawer until now! Just checked the spare fridge and took this picture. We have been storing cheese in the cheese-meat drawer with the setting on meat which opens the flap at the back to capture freezer air, duh!

All I know all these years is the top shelf area immediately below the air inlet from the freezer is the coldest, to the point that meat stored there becomes 1/4-frozen.

May be I can gift the first piece to @Little Steven   

Canugghead

@Darby_Crenshaw ooops I missed your first reply.  Too bad my stoker is broken, otherwise it'd be fun to temp that cold spot over a 24-hr period.  I now kind of wish I didn't cut down the salt content in the recipe, but we are not big salt fans.  Agree with you about spinach, but strawberry is at the top of my watch-out list!

Canugghead