Bradley Smoked Wild Alaskan Salmon

[Shasta bob]

Kummok ,how much salmon is used in this recipe pounds? or size of slabs?

[Kummok]

What it really comes down to is, how much salmon can you fit in this mix...I'd estimate it at around 10 -15 lbs if cut into piece size I've recommended in the recipe. l'm usually reducing about two average sized salmon (10-12 lbs, on the hoof w/o head/guts) down to a batch. I usually have a little leftover after the soak in the brine mix because it won't all fit on the 8 racks in the smoker. If you cut too much or brine too much, just vac seal and refreeze the leftovers for your next smoke. If I'm doing a BIG batch, all 3 Bradleys will be smoking away....

[pmmpete]

I put my brine recipes on Excel spreadsheets.  When I enter the total volume of brine which I want (say 5 cups), all the ingredients automatically adjust.  This avoids doing a lot of unit conversion and math before you mix up a batch of brine (Like, how many tablespoons are there in a cup?), and avoids the risk that you will screw up a batch of brine and fish by making a unit conversion or math error.  Then you need to figure out what ratio you like between the volume of the fish you want to smoke and the volume of the brine.  You don't want to go too skimpy on the amount of brine, but there also isn't any point in mixing up way more brine than you need to get the job done.

[claygirl]

do you put enough briquets to smoke for the entire time or just for the first couple of hours?  How critical is the glazing step?

[pmmpete]

How critical is the glazing step?

Wet fish and wet sausage don't take up smoke flavor very well.  So before you put fish in the smoker, you should put it in front of a fan on the smoker racks until your finger doesn't get wet when you touch it, and its surface is a bit tacky.  This is called "developing a pedicule."  I live in a dry climate, so an hour in front of a fan at room temperature is sufficient.  Then I put it in my smoker at 100 degrees for half an hour to dry off the surface of the fish some more and and start warming it up before I turn up the temperature and turn on the smoke.

[Kummok]

^^^What pmmpete said!^^^ He knows his salmon! Pellicle forming is critical to a good end product. As far as actual "smoke applied" time, I smoke pucks the entire 3.5-4 hours, but that's just me...it's a matter of personal taste...I like smoke flavor.

[tskeeter]

OK, fish experts, I need some advice. 

I screwed up.  Decided to try Kummock's recipe with some Iliamna reds that my brother-in-law sent down.  (First time using a wet brine.)  Got the brine all set up.  Chilled over night.  Put in the salmon in the morning before I headed to work.  Obviously, I didn't overhaul the salmon while it was brining.  When I got home that night, I took the salmon out of the brine and prepared it to dry.  The color of the salmon was inconsistent.  It looked like some areas of the fish had taken up more of the soy sauce in the brine than other areas.  The areas that seemed to have taken up less brine were also less firm than the darker areas.  It looks like the places where the pieces of fish were in contact with each other didn't get brined very well.

Believing that I had gotten myself into a situation where there wasn't much hope of recovery, I went ahead and smoked the fish following Kummock's recommendations.  Total time in the smoker was about 6 hours or so.

So, the $64K question, is my fish safe to eat?  Or would you suggest I trash it? 

[pikeman_95]

This is why I started to brine my fish in a 2 gallon zip-lock bag. You can slosh it around a couple of times and reorient the fish chunks. You should do this at least 4 times in the brining process. I have never experienced areas of the fish that look different from the rest.

[Akmoose]

Ok I may have an issue! I've had 12 racks drying in the fridge for almost 44-hours trying to dry them with not much luck so I decided to place them on the kitchen counter and dry them for a couple hours with a fan. Just before I switched the fan on I noticed the several pieces of fish had what looked like small bits of grey mold on them maybe the size of a pea or match head. I'll try to post pictures. Anyone ever had this problem before???

I'm desperate!

[Kummok]

Akmoose...answered on your other thread...

tskeeter...Sorry for late response. A quick look at my other posts will illustrate that I'm probably not the best person to answer "food safety" questions. Mostly because I stretch the limits! My response is of course I'd eat the multi colored salmon...likely wouldn't be able to tell much difference in a blindfold test. Curious because of my tardy response, what was you final action?

[tskeeter]

Akmoose...answered on your other thread...

tskeeter...Sorry for late response. A quick look at my other posts will illustrate that I'm probably not the best person to answer "food safety" questions. Mostly because I stretch the limits! My response is of course I'd eat the multi colored salmon...likely wouldn't be able to tell much difference in a blindfold test. Curious because of my tardy response, what was you final action?

Thanks for your response, Kummok.

Trashed it.  Was going to use it for a neighborhood gathering and decided that I wasn't willing to take any chances due to the number of people who could be affected.

Had a lot more brine that I needed.  Thought I'd be OK brining while I was at work because of the amount of space in the brine container.  The soy sauce made the inconsistent curing pretty obvious, which I was able to confirm with a press test.  The darker areas were much more firm.  Obviously cured.  The lighter areas were soft, like freshly filleted fish.

So, how often do you overhaul your salmon while it's brining?  I'd like to take another shot at this and get it right.

[Kummok]

Better to be safe when feeding others...good choice! I normally brine overnight, so it doesn't get a lot of stirring...maybe 3-4 times. The meat to liquid ratio is akin to a thick soup so meat isn't actually packed in real tight. Also, for my own personal taste, I no longer use soy sauce, preferring teriyaki sauce instead...Kikkoman being the sauce of choice but Yoshida's as a close second...results in a bit sweeter but still enough salt taste for my taste buds....

[Jack D]

Love the recipe and the results but I have a question about the glazing and pellicle formation.  I have let the salmon dry for 15+ hours in the fridge, and have also tried air drying with a fan blowing over the fish but I'm not sure I'm getting the 'pellicle' formation.  What is meant by pellicle?  My fish after either of the above approaches is more-or-less dry to the touch but otherwise it doesn't seem to have any kind of harder surface if that is what is meant by pellicle.

I don't rinse the fish after the brining stage and I assume that the residual brine is what would form the pellicle/glaze but would appreciate somebody confirming that this approach is correct.

Thanks

[Habanero Smoker]

A good pellicle should be tacky to the touch. It is a reaction of the salt and proteins on the surface of the meat or fish, that produces a sticky membrane. If the surface is too dry it will not pick up much smoke. The pellicle improve the smoke favor, and the smoke will not be as harsh. It is also said that the pellicle help keep the fish or meat more moist. If the surface is too moist, more of the "harsh" chemicals in the smoke will adhere, possibly producing a bitter taste..

[Kummok]

Hab's answer is A+...Time, tackiness, translucency, all add up to determining the end of the drying, (or pellicle), stage but I've learned over the years that the "look" is my best final indicator of when it's ready to put in the smoker. Of course, it takes doing it quite a few times before you develop your own confidence in seeing "the look" but I'll try to describe it;
Fresh from finishing a seven rack load at midnight thirty last night, the pellicle stage was complete after 7 hours of drying on my custom rack (which provides plenty of air space for proper venting). The first 6 hours were inside my house at around 72*F, then moved outside at around 45*F for an hour to cool. The fan was blowing on 'High" the entire time and I rotated the rack 90* about every 1.5 hours. That's just what I did for this particular batch...it's also turned out great leaving it out overnight with fan on "Low" and not rotating it while I slept.
With last night's batch, I knew it was ready at 7 hours  by seeing the slight translucency, the "pulling" of the thinner spot of meat where it was in contact with the frog mats, and the barely perseptable tackiness by touch. ( I also never rinse the meat after brining)
I teach salmon smoking class in Alaska so I have everything from totally open students to highly observant and critique ready students in the typical class...and the most often sought information, after the brine recipe, is how to determine when it's ready to smoke. That's why my class ALWAYS starts with a rack full of salmon ready to put in the smoker, having achieved peak dryness so they can see/touch a proper pellicle stage completion. Then the rack is placed in a warmed smoker for the duration of the 3.5-4 hour class, the "final exam" being a taste test that is always well received and everyone seems to pass!
Here's a couple pics from last night's smoke. The first one shows the fan setup and the second shows the finished product. In reality, the "finished product" photo is pretty much how the salmon looks when it it also ready to smoke. Hope this helps you achieve pellicle perfection!!