Grilled & Smoked Salmon

thirdeye

Top picture is grilled salmon from last evening .... bottom ones is smoked salmon, still in progress today, (I'm doing this in my Big Chief smoke box). Both these pieces were from the same fillet....

Fidel

That smoked salmon looks terrific.

Nice size fish!

Anthony

hello thirdeye. are you cold smoking with the big chief smoker? what temps do you use and for how long? do you shoot for a final tempof the fish or just a flavor and what flow is it - strong smoke or delicate loxs? Do you brine the fish and would you consider it preserved?

I know it a lot of questions but you hot one of my future hobbies.

thank you

anthony

lowercasebill

wow that looks good .... it is HOT here..cold smoked salmon, cold roasted corn and asparagus fresh tomato and red pepper on a bed of spinach...beer. now i need to shop for dinner.
bill

thirdeye

It's possible to cold smoke with them, but I'm hot smoking this batch, I keep the box temp at 100° to 120°, for two hours, then I ramp it up to 140°-150° to finish it off. I take the internal of the salmon to 140°.

I start with alder wood for it's mild flavor and finish with cherry to add some color, I would call the smoke flavor about average I guess. Using only alder would make it much milder.

I use a dry cure instead of a water based liquid brine, but during the curing, the cure turns into a syrup as it extracts moisture from the fish. As far as "preserved"....I don't cook mine as dry as some folks do. Mine is firm, will flake nicely, but has a slightly sticky texture.



I keep it refrigerated. When I package fillets for gifts, I put them on a smoking plank and vacuum seal (the one requirement is to return that plank!!)



When I do it in the Egg, about the lowest pit temps I can get are in the 170°'s so I try to get large fillets and I'll use a drip pan with ice in it if needed. In this picture the drip pan has been removed as I am in the process of doing the cherry finish, dropping chips into the really small fire every 15 minutes or so.



The recipe/technique I use can be found in the recipe section of my cookin' site, link is below.

thirdeye

Thanks for the idea....I have one quart of pickled asparagus left. That sounds gooooood.

Lawn Ranger

Well, that certainly looks awful! :woohoo:

Looks like yet another successful cook under your belt.

Mike