Hey you. Yes, you lurkers who are not posting. (Part 2)

Maybe they have lives.... With real friends.... and jobs.....

I came out of hiding this morning after lurking for a long while!! I thought it was time to start posting now that I have a Big Green Egg of my own!

Fiiiiine. 

My name's Kevin and I hail from Saskatoon SK, Canada.  I recently bought my first Egg after many weeks of deliberation and weighing my options.  I settled on the Egg largely as a result of the climate of my home.  We're blessed with 6-7 months of winter, some carrying us deep into the -40's.  I wanted to be able to smoke deer meat following hunting season and by that time of year it can be pretty chilly up here.

Aside from the Egg I use a Weber NG grill.  To date I've done a spatchcocked chicken and I just finished a marathon 20hr low & slow on a pork shoulder today.  Both were exceptional and largely improved from my Weber work.

Here's some pictures for y'all:





Weber pork butt (bark was too black and somewhat "ashy".  The one I did on my egg today was light years ahead.







Salmon candy:





My new Egg.  I just got the metal nest for now as we're having our deck rebuilt this month.  I'm looking at a stainless setup from a fellow out of Illinois, down along the Mississippi.

Not sure how to do the @ bit yet.  Is it as simple as typing @double ?

Anyhow, I've been doing the salmon on my gas grill on account of not owning a smoker prior to this week.  Here's the recipe I use, not sure if a guy can get a low enough temp on the Egg?  I haven't tried for a low/cold smoke on mine yet..

This is the evolution of another salmon recipe I've used for years.

Cut your skinless salmon fillets into 1" strips, across the grain.

In a large plastic or glass bowl mix 1 part pickling or kosher salt with 2 parts brown sugar.

In a large glass or plastic container put a 1/4" layer of the mixed cure followed by a layer of salmon strips. Cover with cure and repeat layering until the container is near full. Put a lid on the container and let it sit in the fridge for 4-6 hours, mixing it up every hour or so. (The cure will turn into a liquid). The fillets are done once they take on a firm texture and the edges become translucent.

Remove all the fish and rinse it thoroughly with cold water. Take the time to rinse for a good 5-10 minutes, making sure to rinse every individual piece a few times. If you don't, it'll end up too salty. Let it dry in a strainer for 5-10 minutes.

Wash out the container and put all of your clean salmon back into it. This time cover the fish with 1 part soy sauce to 3 parts pure maple syrup. At the same time, put 3-4 cups of wood chips/shavings (I use Alder) in a separate bowl of water and let them soak as well. Let the salmon sit in the fridge for at least 12hrs, stirring and flipping a few times over the course of it.

After 12 hrs don't rinse the salmon off, but drain it and let it sit on a drying rack until it gets tacky to the touch. Scorch your grill, clean it and rub it down with olive oil on a paper towel. Set your bbq to it's lowest setting. If you have a side searing station in the main grill, perfect. You're looking for 120-140 degrees.

Lay the salmon strips across the grill pattern (if you lay them with the grill they'll be tougher to move without breaking once the salmon warms up and gets soft), and brush every strip with 100% maple syrup, just one good coating.

Throw a few cups of soaked wood chips into a small pie plate and put it over the side of your grill that is on (again, the searing station works perfect) I put through two cycles of wood chips, over a half hour or so and then that's it for smoke. Pay close attention to the wood chips because you're gonna want to get them out of there as soon as they've done there burn, even a bit before every last chip is black. If you leave the chips in for too long you'll pick up that acrid, bitter smoke flavor.

Once the smoking is done let the fish sit in the bbq @ 130ish for another 3-4 hours. At this point you can remove the salmon and package it as is, or you can do the next step which my wife and I agree just makes this recipe what it is.

Once our fish is done in the grill I go out and open the lid and crank the bbq onto high. I'll stand out there with a table next to me with a cooling rack on it and just monitor/turn the salmon for the high temp part. I try to get it so that every piece of fish has a decent amount of slightly charred meat. If you do this right quickly, you'll mostly be browning the syrup that's on the outside which I find REALLY elevates the flavor.

Once they've all got a splash of "burnt" on them I let them cool outside on the rack until they're cool enough to vacuum seal.

The salmon meat will be quite flaky and weak when you're charring it so be prepared to be fast but gentle with your tongs. It's going to break into smaller pieces no matter what you do, you're just trying not to destroy it so that it falls apart completely and drops through your bbq grate. It really firms up nicely once it's totally cooled off.