Smoked Salmon Project

I’ve done this a bunch, cold smoking in my MacGyver’d mailbox smoker. 

The cure is based on Ruhlman’s recipe from his Charcuterie book. Fillets are buried in a mix of kosher salt, brown sugar, white sugar, Prague powder (pink salt), mace, allspice, white pepper, ground bay leaf, a bit of dark rum, maybe some other stuff. Weighted and cured in the fridge for 36 hours or so — til the flesh is firm. 

After that, the fillets get a very good rinse before sitting again in the fridge until a pellicle forms — 24 hours or so, but more time won’t hurt anything. At that point it’s “lox” and ready to slice and eat, although we don’t because we are making nova, which is cold smoked.  Cold smoking in the mailbox on 2 levels, with the temp always under 90 degrees — we control the temp by distance between the egg and the mailbox. Sometimes we do a light smoke (less fruit wood, less time) and sometimes it’s more heavy. Last night we got into a few beers and some rum and cigars, and let the time get away from us, so it’ll be a heavier smoke. That gets tempered a bit by how long I let it sit in the fridge to mellow out -- a week or 2 is fine, although I typically change out the butcher paper if it's moist and get's wet or sloppy.  Last step is slicing thin (which I’m getting better at each time), weighing out and vacuum sealing. Yield runs about 1/2 lb nova per pound of salmon. As a special treat (and to push the yield a bit higher), we make “Japanese bacon” by slicing up the skin, brushing on a bit of soy vey or teriyaki sauce and firing it up in the toaster oven — it’s delicious!

Here’s a few older pix of the set up —