Calling all Kummock(s)/smoked salmon question

[winemakers]

I have a salmon smoking question for Kummock et. al.  I am lucky to have a large fish purveyor nearby with an exceptionally helpful staff and occasionally amazing sales (for instance picked and cleaned lobster meat for $9.99/lb on one overstocked weekend!).

They sell the short tail section of the salmon fillets for $3.99/lb (the leftovers of their fillet/steaking operation for restaurant use) and to me this looks like a salmon bonanza.  We often use these 6~7 oz. morsels to grill or plank on cedar and all other salmon munching methods.  They are thin of course, but I would like to smoke a bunch. 

Could anyone offer guidance for judging sufficient salmon brining other than, that batch was good/bad?    I suspect that I can and should shorten the brining period somewhat.  In the same vein; adjusting smoking time, should this be based on "have a peak/taste" like I do with my jerky?

Thanks for your help

mld

[tsquared]

I don't use the tail section for smoking as, like you, it lends itself so well to grilling. The other reason I don't use it is that it is so much thinner than the rest of the salmon which creates problems when curing it. I dry salt and sugar my salmon for cold smoke and brine my hot smoked salmon. I have done tails in the dry cure and try and address the thickness difference by adjusting the amount of salt/sugar I sprinkle on that section. It works reasonably well, providing you drain your container regularily so the moisture coming out of the fish and the salt don't create their own brine around the tail. Usually I don't bother. For a liquid brine for Kummock's strips, if all you are brining is the tails, then I think you are on the right track to reduce the brining time. I've never done it but I don't see why it wouldn't work. Let us know how it goes, and good luck.
T2

[Kummok]

The best answer I can give is....."It depends" ;)   Kind of a cop-out but it really does depend upon your supply of salmon. Ours is readily available and usually pretty large, as compared to "store-bought". A large amount of the salmon I smoke is tails and collars as these are the cull portion of the Kings I get. The tails are considered too "nasty" for grilling and the collars are too "odd-sized" to grill. Again, this is just because the rest of the fish is so ideal for cutting into steaks and we get so much of it, we can be more selective than if we were buying it at the local fish monger's.

The other "It depends" is how you like your salmon smoked. For reasons explained in other threads, I cut all my salmon into skinless/boneless bite size pieces....this allows for pretty consistent brining solutions/times, smoking times/locations in the smoker, and packaging. The name of the game for me, given the large volumes of salmon processed and consumed is C-O-N-S-I-S-T-E-N-C-Y and taste....this "bite-sizing" method achieves both for me.

[winemakers]

The good part of these tails is they are fairly uniformly shaped.  With some experimentation I should be able to settle into a pattern.  If ya gotta work, that wouldnt be bad work to do.

Unfortunately, I was spoiled on a 'good salmon fishery' on Lake Ontario in the middle to late 80's.  Not Alaskan by any means, but nice and consistent Kings in the mid twentys to lower thirty pound range.  Now that I have to pay for it, it just seems wrong.  I routinely wonder why I live in Ohio..........


mld

[Habanero Smoker]

The more I read this, the more I think about planning a trip to the St. Lawrence tributaries and do some fishing for Atlantic salmon. Maybe next year.

[Kummok]

The good part of these tails is they are fairly uniformly shaped.  With some experimentation I should be able to settle into a pattern........mld

The other good part of the tails is that there are NO pin bones to pull ;)   I skin the tails, taking ALL the grey meat off with the skin, then cut them vertically into 1/2" strips until I get down to the last inch of the tail, cut that in half and end up with two little triangles. The vertically cut strips are then devided into about 2-3" lengths before dumping in the brine chest. If I had Oldman's computer skills, I'd insert a diagram ;)

[winemakers]

It's called labor day weekend, sounds like I should labor over small pieces of fish and a large beer to fine tune this process.


thanks all,
mld