Slicing salmon fillet

[The Life of Brine]

For cold smoking
Has anyone experimented with thinly slicing salmon fillets on the skin
a.) before placing in the brine or
b.) after drying before going in to the smoker?

What were the results?
Thanks in advance,

[Salmonsmoker]

Welcome to the forum LOB. I've never sliced before brining. I can only guess it will change the texture of the flesh and drastically cut down on the brining time. Say..two minutes ;D  One thing I'm thinking as I type, is the ability or inability of the slices to hold together and may become very hard or impossible to hold everything together until it's brined and smoked. Could be you'll end up with a major mess on your hands. But, I've been wrong a time or two. If you try it let us know how it turns out.

[The Life of Brine]

Thanks for the welcome.
I had some ideas too how it might work out. That's why I wondered if anyone's actually done it,

[Wazzulu]

I always slice/score on the flesh side about every inch or so down to the skin but not through when I dry brine.  I find that does two things for me first it is that you can pack all the good stuff onto more surface area and two is that it is easy to eat! 

[Habanero Smoker]

I guess it depends on how thin. Here is Kummok's recipe:

Smoke Wild Alaskan Salmon

[The Life of Brine]

Thanks for your replies.

Kummock mentions strips up to 1/2" wide by 6" long and doesn't mention depth.
The pieces in his photo look much larger than that.

Scoring the fillets sounds very interesting.
Has anyone gone further and cut the fillet like this before brining or smoking?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmkBn25IcL0

[iceman]

If you try it prior to brining your lucky to even get thin slices without tearing the flesh. Brining / curing firms the salmon up and makes slicing easy. Brining or curing after slicing didn't work at all for me. I've tried many times and never did get anything out of it I liked.  If you find out otherwise please let us know.  :)

[Up In Smoke]

Welcome to the forum.
Never done fish, But am curious to see how quick they assimilate your user name to film.  :D :D

[Habanero Smoker]

As Pat stated, if you try to slice it that thin, as on the video it will tear to pieces, and if by chance you were to slice it that thin prior to brining, just handling it during the brining process would tear it to piece.

The video is on slicing smoked salmon. All the commercial smoke salmon I have purchase, and now make my own, has been cured and cold smoke. It is the same as lox, but the salmon has been smoke, as with lox it is not smoked. So the salmon you are referring to has already been either dry brined, wet brined or a combination on both. After curing and cold smoking, the flesh is firm enough to slice that thin, though I can not cut it as thin as on the video.

Here is a link to an excellent Smoke Salmon/Lox recipe:
The Best Smoked Salmon (Lox)

[manxman]

Excellent video Life of Brine, certainly don't think I will be competing for the world record as it takes me an age to get nice thin slices! Interesting how they leave the slices on the skin initially then cut them all off at the same time.

I am with Pat and Habs on this, it would have to be brined / cured to slice like that.

Seem to remember reading an article that the company involved in the video are the suppliers of smoked salmon to the Olympic Games, bet that guy is busy slicing right now!!  :)

[tsquared]

 x2 on what Habs says re slicing before smoking. I do the slashes on the back  of the fillet prior to dry brining only on thicker fillets to better enable salt penetration. Interesting video tho--i'd like to see them plucking the pin bones in real time to see how fast they do it--thats the part of the process that is most painstaking for me.
T2 

[manxman]

i'd like to see them plucking the pin bones in real time to see how fast they do it

Suspect it would still be a heck of a lot quicker than me!  ;)

[tsquared]

How are you doing anyway, Manx? boat in the water for the season yet? Salmon fishing here is hot right now but work keeps getting in the way. 1 more week and then i'm off for the summer.
T2

[manxman]

How are you doing anyway, Manx? boat in the water for the season yet? Salmon fishing here is hot right now but work keeps getting in the way. 1 more week and then i'm off for the summer.
T2

Keeping very well thanks T2. Re-engined the boat this year, swapped 2x Honda engines for 2 x Evinrude Etecs together with new fishfinder and chartplotter  but it was the kiss of death on the weather.... I have managed to get out just three times so far due to a long run of poor weather. Lobster / crab pots have beed productive when I can get out but I have most of August off so hope to catch up then!  ;)

Hope all goes well with you, have a great summer off.  :)