Loxus Interruptus

[The LoxSmith]

Hi:

   You can break up the lox-making process...

   I use Spyguy's recipe for making lox.  This week we had a party on Saturday afternoon (Canada Day) and I wanted some freshly smoked lox.

   On Wednesday I did the dry brine, overnight the wet brine, and Thursday morning I freshened the lox.  I then let the fillets stay out (with supervision  ;) )  to form a pellicle, while I was at work.

   When I came back from work, I wrapped the fish (in plastic cling wrap) and refrigerated it (in a Tupperware container).  It was refrigerated from Thursday afternoon through Saturday morning. 

   Saturday morning I smoked the lox, and it came out quite good.

   Aside:  My ultimate lox is from a place in New Brunswick, called Ovenhead smokers.  They smoke with maple (so do I) and seem to smoke for a long time...not sure, but their lox sure is smoky.  This time I smoked my lox for 5 1/2 hours (normally I smoked for about 4 hours) and I used more smoke this time.  It is really nice and smoky.

Enjoy the summer, all

The LoxSmith

   

[Habanero Smoker]

Sounds great.

I am preparing to do some lox. I will be using SpyGuys recipe, but I am going to include one additional step. I'm going to prepare a syrup of brown sugar and cognac. It calls for  about two pounds of brown sugar to a fifth of cognac. After refreshening the salmon, you paint a few layers on top of the salmon, waiting for one layer to absorb, before applying the next. You have to do this step for 5 to 6 hours. Have you every tried this? If so, how did it turn out?

[The LoxSmith]

No, I never used an additional step of flavoring the fish.  As a matter of fact, the only spice I add to the wet brine is (are) peppercorns.  I don't add garlic or dill when I make lox. 

This time I did use some maple syrup in the wet brine, but I don't think that is necessary.  Most folks use Alder as per SpyGuy's recipe.  I use maple for smoking, so the flavour from the syrop is (probably) not needed.

The LoxSmith

[Habanero Smoker]

I'll let you know how it goes. The original recipe called for dark brown sugar and dark rum. Since I will be using cognac, I will use Maple Syrup granules.

[Habanero Smoker]

Well the lox turned out good. I smoked them for two hours using maple. I'm not sure if coating one fillet with a mixture of cognac and maple syrup granules was worth the effort, or if I did not apply the mixture enough. I will taste the lox in a couple of days, when my olfactory system returns to normal (it always gets whacked out of alignment during a smoke). I also smoked some cheddar, and jalapeno cheese, and let the cheese smoke for 4 hours.

One problem noted. I used two trays for the salmon and one tray for the cheese. I placed a large pan of ice on bottom of the BS, and placed a tray of ice packs on the top rack. The ambient temperature was 74º when I started and 69º when I took the lox out. The RH was 65% at start and 61% at finished. The cabinet temperature never got above 52º, which is good but a lot of condensation built up in the cabinet, especially on the ice packs that were on the top shelf. The problem with this is that water kept dripping down onto the cheese and lox; which I did not notice until I took the lox out. So keep this in mind when cold smoking. If you place ice above the product(s) you are smoking, line the bottom of the tray with a towel or some other absorbent material.

[asa]

HS -
Thanks for the lox tips. That's something I want to try when our ambient temp drops this fall and my neighbor comes back from his annual fishing trip to BC.

[The LoxSmith]

Hi:

    I just wanted to make it clear why I would interrupt the lox-making process.  Doing it the way I described in my first post in this thread enables me to smoke the lox early in the morning, thus taking advantage of the cool part of soon-to-be-hot day.  Thus the technique extends the lox-making season.

The LoxSmith