Smoked Salmon Contest/Questions

[JJC]

Hi All,

I just did an "experiment" in which I made Spyguy's lox, Kummock's salmon, and my own smoked salmon using a salty-type brine rather than the sweet style of Kummock. The salmon I used was farm-raised Atlantic Salmon. I brought it into work yesterday and served all 3  at an Usquebaugh Club meeting (read: single malt scotch tasting).  About 25 people were present.  

Here are the results:

Kummock's was the favorite by a 60-40 margin, even though people raved about both (I told them both recipes were mine, so they wouldn't think they were hurting my feelings by choosing one over the other).  The folks who liked my version, unsurprisingly, were not fond of sweet fish and preferred the saltier form. So, despite my confidence in the brine I use, Kummock's was an even bigger hit!

The lox was also very well received, but in my opinion the flavor was a bit bland and the texture was just slightly less firm than I like.  However, for a first try, it was excellent.

I've got several questions that I hope Kummock, bsolomon, and others will chime in on:

1)  I can fix the bland flavor of the lox, but what's the best way to firm up the texture?

2)  Farm-raised steelhead fillets are on sale for $4.99/lb this week at Shaw's--does steelhead make good lox?

3)  Wild Alaskan Coho or Sockey (can't remember which) Salmon fillets was on sale 2 weeks ago for $7.99/lb.  That's a good price, but will wild Alaskan salmon travel well?  Is there a reliable supplier of Alaskan salmon that wouldn't require a second mortgage to ship 20-30 lbs?

Thanks for helping!



John
Newton MA

[SMOKEHOUSE ROB]

john, check this site out and mix some of there tips with spyguys recipe http://www.sausagemania.com/loxmania.html and you will be in the money, i have used farmed salmon for lox for a long time no problem,  just add a few more  hours to both dry and wet brine, then with the drying pectile step use a fan for 3 to 4 hours, or use fridge rack  in the fridge over night will help. all of these steps will help with firmness. also i use table salt with no iodine instead of kosher salt , just because of cost factor, 20lb bag of salt about $3.50 a bag,

[JJC]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by SMOKEHOUSE ROB</i>
<br />john, check this site out and mix some of there tips with spyguys recipe http://www.sausagemania.com/loxmania.html and you will be in the money, i have used farmed salmon for lox for a long time no problem,  just add a few more  hours to both dry and wet brine, then with the drying pectile step use a fan for 3 to 4 hours, or use fridge rack  in the fridge over night will help. all of these steps will help with firmness. also i use table salt with no iodine instead of kosher salt , just because of cost factor, 20lb bag of salt about $3.50 a bag,
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Thanks, Rob!

I did use a fan for about 3-4 hours to dry, so I'll try increasing the dry brine time from 8hr to 10-12 hours, and the wet brine time from 9 hr to 12-15 hrs.

John
Newton MA

[tsquared]

JJC--as Rob said, increase the drying time. The other thing you might try is a dry salt then sugar cure.I posted a recipe on this site. http://www.bradleysmoker.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=555&SearchTerms=lox.%20 I have tried both Spyguy's and my dry salt method and I've found that Spyguy's gives you a silkier, smoother texture, but it is not as firm or dry. The last batch of lox I did (using wild king salmon)I did using the dry method. I have decided that I prefer the dry method as I prefer a firmer, drier texture. Have a look at the link and remember, as I say in the original post, it looks like a lot of work but most of those steps take 2 minutes and then your fish gets popped back in the fridge.
T2

[JJC]

Thanks, Tom--I'll give this recipe a try, too.

John
Newton MA

[tsquared]

You're welcome. I only wish I was there to help with the salmon and Scotch consumption.[:p]
T2

[JJC]

Ah, yes, the scotch . . . we had Oban, Balvenie Double Wood, The Macallan 12, and Bowmore 17 (one of my personal favorites with smoked food).  You know the salmon must have been good to make the single malts take a back seat!

John
Newton MA

[JJC]

Just taste-tested Spyguy's and tsquared's recipes for lox.  No losers--both were superb.  Folks who liked a saltier version or a firmer version preferred the tsquared approach.  Some really loved what tasted like a lower-salt lox and the softer texture of Spyguy's.  I'm going to fool around with the recipes a bit to suit my personal tastes, but I feel like I've really accomplished something new with the BS.

Thanks to Tom and Rob for their advice!

John
Newton MA

[psdubl07]

The Bowmore would have been my favorite out of those as well.
If you like that, try Laphroaig too.

[JJC]

I love Laphroaig, especially the 15 year old.  Them Islays be awful tasty [:)]

John
Newton MA