Bradley Smoked Wild Alaskan Salmon

[Kummok]

Sorry for being off-line sooooo long. King fishing has been absolutely unbelieveable up until I hit the road to America in Nov. I actually put 45 pounds of King through my 2 Bradleys the morning of the day I flew out of Homer. Wouldn't have tried that with any other smoker, (or without Chez Bubba's drying rack)! We were limiting out on every trip and the trips were 6 miles RT instead of the 35-45 miles we needed earlier in the season. Last nice one caught was a 35 pound WHITE Feeder King on a <u>spoon</u>, 15 feet down in 60 feet of water, aboout 20 feet from shoreline[]
Heading back home this week and will try to pay closer attention to answering questions on the recipe, at least until fishing starts up again in March/April.

Anyway , the last question I saw was from BigHoof about rinsing brined fish. I don't....but then again, I've never seen the "chunks" mentioned. I really mix up the ingredients to dissolve better before putting in the fish....maybe that's it[?]

I'm pleased to read of the successes with this recipe....does my heart good[] I'm also pleased to read about the modifications to the recipe and can't wait to get back and give them a try, (esp Cold Smoke's!)....does my stomach good!![:p]

Kummok @ Homer, AK USA

[nsxbill]

Kummok

Welcome back.  In your absence you have been elevated to Salmon super mentor status...like the Emerill of the BS forum! [^]  Glad to see you posting again.

Bill

[birdboy]

I'm going to give this a try on Friday (if I can get a smoker that works), it sounds very good.  I may cut a number of filet's and try several of the variations as well at the same time!

[Curtis Jackson]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by birdboy</i>
<br />I'm going to give this a try on Friday (if I can get a smoker that works), it sounds very good.  I may cut a number of filet's and try several of the variations as well at the same time!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

For what it is worth, I use the tried-and-true Kummock method, with the following brine, and get uniformly rave reviews:

For 12-16 lbs. salmon filets:

2 gallons cold water
1 cup Morton or 1.5 cups Diamond Crystal kosher salt
1 lb. brown sugar
1 quart soy sauce
1 bottle white wine
6 oz. (weight) garlic powder
6 oz. (weight) onion powder
4 tablespoons cayenne

I used to use 2 lbs. of brown sugar, but the resultant salmon tasted noticeably sweet, so I cut it back to 1 lb.

BTW, I brine in a 5-gallon plastic bucket with a screw-on lid I got from Duluth Trading Co. on the web. The patented Kummock slices of filet stay submerged nicely, and it is just the right size for my usual 13-14 lb. batch.


Curtis Jackson
curtis@curtisjackson.com

[birdboy]

Thanks for the reply, I was wondering about the 'sweetness' level at that quantity of sugar, I don't want to add any sweet flavor to it, so I will try your alteration. Did you get any noticeable increase in sweetness at 1lb?

I will probably only be smoking 1/2 the amount of salmon that you did.

[Curtis Jackson]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by birdboy</i>
<br />Thanks for the reply, I was wondering about the 'sweetness' level at that quantity of sugar, I don't want to add any sweet flavor to it, so I will try your alteration. Did you get any noticeable increase in sweetness at 1lb?

I will probably only be smoking 1/2 the amount of salmon that you did.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

It is not sweet at all; don't worry. Definitely don't leave it out. You need both salt and sugar to get the full brining effect and the tacky pellicle that will hold the moisture in. Just be sure you wash off any chunks of brown sugar as you take it out of the brine and before you lay the salmon out.

BTW, we prefer to eat this at room temperature or slightly warmer. YMMV.


Curtis Jackson
curtis@curtisjackson.com

[Curtis Jackson]

I forgot to add: If you are smoking 1/2 as much salmon, just halve all the brine ingredient amounts. Works fine, although you'll be forced to drink the remaining half bottle of wine.  
[]

Curtis Jackson
curtis@curtisjackson.com

[birdboy]

True, can't leave 1/2 a bottle ... []

[car54]

I just tried Kummok's recipe and I used the teraki sauce with farm raised salmon. I gave it to a half of dozen people and all praised it.
Man, this smoking is getting expensive. It's so good and I end up giving it away to share the pleasure!

[birdboy]

Hey CJ,
You hit that salmon with 5 hours of smoke?  Sounds like quite a bit, someone earlier had mentioned 1.5 - 2 hours.

[birdboy]

Well tried out several receipe's on the salmon, this was the favorite for sure.  The only thing is that it came out pretty salty, would you reduce the Soy or the pickling salt?

[Curtis Jackson]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by birdboy</i>
<br />Hey CJ,
You hit that salmon with 5 hours of smoke?  Sounds like quite a bit, someone earlier had mentioned 1.5 - 2 hours.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Yep. 5 hours.


Curtis Jackson
curtis@curtisjackson.com

[cologcab]

on Kummak recipe for salmon do I give it smoke the whole time ?

[birdboy]

I would suggest you start with between 3 - 5 hours of smoke, depends on how much smoke flavor you like.

[cologcab]

Birdboy Ty its my first batch