First Meal

[LJR]

Hi, we've just bought the Original Smoker and yesterday used it for the first time.  We had a salmon to smoke, and followed the directions in the recipe book.  We are quite disappointed with the results though and are not sure what we did wrong.  The salmon tastes more like regular cooked salmon rather than smoked salmon (looks like regular salmon too).  We are wondering if we cooked it for long enough or what?  Any ideas, comments appreciated ... LJR

[manxman]

Hi LJR and welcome to the forum. Most folks here do not use the recipe booklet that comes with the BS, I don't think I have even got mine anymore..... not the most inspiring recipe book!

Where I am coming from it that it would help if you posted details of what you actually did...... preparation, brining time, smoking time, cooking time, vent open/closed?, temperatures (internal/cabinet) etc which will help folks here get a feel for what may have gone wrong.

I have hot smoked salmon on several occasions and now have people buying the salmon for me to smoke for them... it comes out that good!

The ultimate post for hot smoked salmon is:

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=107.0

Kummock is the smoked salmon "god" on the forum, well worth a good look through this post. Also see the recipe site:

http://www.susanminor.org/

Hope this helps.  :)

[Habanero Smoker]

It also sounds like you wanted to make lox and not hot smoked salmon. If you are looking to make lox check out this thread or go to the recipe site that Manxman posted.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=128.msg1255#msg1255

I almost forgot to welcome you to the board. Welcome

PS
This search engine is really bad news. The only way I could locate the above post was to go to Members; go to Spyguy's profile and look at his last posts.

[manxman]

It also sounds like you wanted to make lox and not hot smoked salmon.

That's a good point HS, it did cross my mind but without the BS book for reference I wasn't sure what LJR was referring too. You may have hit the nail on the head.

For information in case you are unaware LJR, lox is cold smoked (uncooked) salmon.

[LJR]

Thanks for your input. 

This was to be hot smoked salmon, not lox.  We marinated the salmon as per the BS recipe book, (20 hours in the fridge with onion and garlic powder, parsley and chives flakes). 

We put the salmon in the BS, smoked for about 1 1/2 hours at 40 - 60C then increased to 60 for 2 hours at 80C for another 1 1/2.  (approx times!).

[manxman]

Hi LJR..... I would have a look at the forum topic below and see if there is anything very different there to what you did by way of brining, drying, total smoke time, cooking time etc.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=107.0

Did the smoke generator actually burn all the pucks it was suppossed to burn? (clutching a straws a bit here!)

One thing, what was the size of the salmon pieces you did? The first time I attempted this the pieces I used were too big and came out a bit undersmoked for my liking.