Bradley Smoked Wild Alaskan Salmon

[lumpy]

Hey kummok,
Tried your method yesterday with Chinook. After the time allotted, I thought the fish was still too moist so I smoked for 1 more hour and raised the temp to 180 for 1.5 hours. After all that the fish was done to my liking. I liked the cayanne kick!
I think next time that I will back off on the soya sauce. It really discolored the meat. I also forgot to spray the grills with pam before smoking. Needless to say all the skin stuck on the grills.
Most of the fish I vac packed and froze. Upon vac packing, you could see the juice being squeezed out of the meat.

Thanks for the help!
Lumpy and much Lumpier since purchasing a BDS!

[Lefty_Smoker]

Lumpy, next time try the recipe with Terryaki instead of the soy sauce.  I like it much better with terryaki instead of the soy.

[lumpy]

Is Teryiaki sweeter?

[Gizmo]

Yes, Teriyaki is sweet as where soy sauce is not.

[yul]

 ;) I prefer the Soy sauce version. My previous efforts at smoking salmon used a dry brine, consisting of mainly brown sugar and salt. It tasted OK but my "better half" thought it was to sweet so I tried the Kummok method and we find it just right. :D

[firerescueman]

Oh my goodness!

We tried this recipe last night with a little twist.....    I didn't have any soy or teryaki sauce on hand.  What I DID have was worcestershire sauce.   Followed Kummok's brine recipe,  substituting worcestershire sauce.......  Geez!  This was the best salmon I have ever had in my life!   I am hooked!

Thanks for the recipe Kummok!


Jeff

[Kummok]

Really pleased to hear of the experimenting successes....THAT'S what it's all about! :) :) The recipe is/was offered as a easy place to start anyone off and running. I have even modified from it over the years, but the class I'm teaching tomorrow will again offer it as a place to begin and then modify for personal tastes. Pleased also that you're sharing you mods for others to experiment....gonna have to try the Worcestershire mod!!

Note to Lumpy:
The "juice", (or in Feeder King and Reds, 'oil'), becomes the "creme de le creme" as one's taste in salmon matures. To me that is the best part of the salmon, especially along the belly meat, which many cut off as waste. That's pure Omega 3 fat and really good! It CAN taste pretty nasty though IF the fish was improperly handled after catching....see other "salmon" threads for more details on handling (a significant emphasis during my classes!)

[SturgeonLake]

This will be my 2nd attempt at smoking salmon. I've just put a small batch (4lbs) into Kummock's brine recipe. Actually, its 2lbs of Salmon and 2lbs of Pickerel. I'm experimenting with different meats using small amounts so I don't have to throw too much away (or eat too much of something that tastes a little less than yuck!)

A couple of questions:

I cut my fillets according to the recipe. That leaves some pieces with thin belly meat, and others of a more consistent thickness. I understand that thicker pieces need to go lower in the OBS, but what do I do about those pieces with significant variance in thickness? Should I cut the strip where the thickness changes, so I have a bunch of thin pieces that can be put on a tray by themselves to be taken out earlier?

Also, bought an Auber WS-1500APH PID. Where would you recommend I put the meat thermo? In a thin piece, thick, or average? I'm thinking to put it in a thin piece and when that's done remove those pieces and move the thermo to a thicker piece...etc...until its all done.

I am planning on using a cold smoke setup, with the PID connected to the OBS not the smoke generator. The PID should let me keep the OBS at 100°F, right?

I think I've goofed up on the quantity of salt. I used "Fine Sea Salt" that was previously labled Kosher. I used the quantity recommended for Kosher salt. I now think that was larger than the number for Morton's because Kosher is typically coarser grained. Mine wasn't coarse at all. Do you think this is going to make a big difference (basically, I've used 50% more salt than I should have, I think.) All other ingredients are per Kummok's original recipe. Anything I can do to compensate after the brining is done?

Pickerel is no where nearly as oily as salmon, should I adjust anything while hot smoking because of the lack of oil? I've read about oiling white fish, is it ok to do that after the fish has been brined?

I assume that the hot smoking times will be roughly the same, despite the significantly less quantity, is that right? The PID lets me specify temperature and duration, and I have an ET73 to keep an eye on meat temperature, are there internal temperatures I can keep an eye out for to adjust the hot smoke time?

I read in another recipe that I should be targeting 140°F internal temperature. Is that true with this recipe?

BTW, when I adjusted the brine volume for my smaller batch I ended up needing ~3/4 gal of brine. However, I noticed that Kummok said he was just trying to cover the fish. So I took my fish, put it in the brining container, and added water till it was full. I then measured out the water and it turned out to be a lot less than I had calculated. I take it there's no reason for excess brine, is there?

I'll be smoking tomorrow alternating Alder and Maple, will post results after.

Cheers,
Russ

[Kummok]

I cut the great majority of my pieces across the grain. That allows me to make uniform thickness pieces. (See pics on second page of this thread http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=7481.15 ) I still end up with thin pieces.....which I place on the 2nd & 3rd racks up and in the middle of the racks. Towards the rear and bottom seem to be the hottest spots.

Can't help you on the meat thermometer insert....never used one for salmon. I'm picky about some things but using a meat thermometer on salmon pieces would be to me like filling the gas tank in my car with a measuring cup...very low on the investment v gain scale.  :-\

On the salt thing......if you believe that you've used too much and already brined, try rinsing well before drying. Still will taste salty but even so, the end product won't be inedible! :)

I wouldn't smoke the white with the red personally....saves opening the door. White typically takes significantly less time than the red, albeit uses a bit more salt in order to be "safe" and not dry out.

Where do I start on the brine question...... :-\   You need to consider the amount of salt/sugar/other spices that the meat is going to absorb. Different fish absorb differently. All things being equal, I'd go with a little extra brine before I'd go with not quite enough. The best "cover" I recommend is to place a stainless steel (SS) or plastic (a dish drying rack works great!) grid over the meat in the brine and weight it down with just enough weight (SS, glass or enameled pottery object) to keep the fish completely covered in brine. Stir occasionally during the brining period.

Hope all comes out well Sturgeon! Nice thing about salmon smoking is that even any "learning" mistakes taste great!! My motto: "Seek perfection but savor the journey!"

[SturgeonLake]

Well, finished the first smoke in ~4.5hrs. They were salty, unfortunately, but only slightly too salty...definitely edible. I found the garlic and onion powder to be too much for my liking...it was hard to taste the salmon. Of course my salmon is store caught, not fresh caught, regardless what it says on the packaging. Also, my fillets are fairly thin, or they at least seemed thinner than what you show in your pics.

I brined up a new batch last night and they're in the smoker now. I modified your recipe slightly:

- In place of the (I assume ~750ml) wine I used Crown Royal Rye Whisky, Grand Marnier, and B&B in 50/25/25 proportions.
- I used 25% more brown sugar.
- Slightly less garlic and onion powder.

FWIW, I converted all of the volume numbers into weights so it was easier to make up smaller batches. I have been averaging 1.5l batches to cover ~9lbs of fish.

Also, for the thinner belly pieces I folded them over and put toothpicks through them this time so the meat has a far more uniform thickness today.

Here are some pics.

Here's my gear all set up ready to start. Yes, its inside...in my sunroom.


And here we are all done at the end.


Thanks again Kummok for the recipe, and everyone else in the thread for their advice/comments/tweaks.

Cheers,
Russ

[dcpendarvis]

Excellent Recipe Kummok.  I lived about half my life in Seattle and have really been missing some great smoked salmon.  I just put in a 10-lb batch in the OSB, half using your brine recipe, and half with a brine of Redhook ESB, garlic salt, and cracked black pepper.  I put rosemary and cracked pepper on the drying fish.  Will let you know how it turns out.

My only concern isn't it didn't get quite as dry as you seem to point to in your glazing discussion.  I didn't want to let the fish sit out too long, and maybe didn't let it dry enough.  Do you know how this affects the smoke?

[Kummok]

Glad you're not 'Smokeless in Seattle' (Sorry, couldn't resist, DC!). Gonna be down in Kirkland myself shortly....brief visit before heading for a WY-to-SoCal-to-Kirkland-back-to-Alaska trip.

I haven't noticed any problems with smoke flavor with "not dried sufficiently" salmon but it DOES make a notable difference in the meat texture and overall presentation. It also increases the chance of "white boogers". Concerns about leaving the meat out too long, e.g. higher ambient temps, can be alleviated quite a bit with an electric fan...I use a high velocity 24" shop fan with great results.

Looking forward to your results posting!

[Gizmo]

Gonna be down in Kirkland myself shortly....brief visit before heading for a WY-to-SoCal-to-Kirkland-back-to-Alaska trip.

Kummok,
You going to be down in SoCal long enough to get together?
We'll rally the troops.   :D

[philmiller]

Hello all

Has anyone measured the shrink between the raw salmon and the smoked using the recipe that Kummock has so generously posted?

Phil

[Kummok]

Kummok,
You going to be down in SoCal long enough to get together?
We'll rally the troops.   :D

Better to hide the silverware than rally the troops when I come through, Giz!!  ;) ;)  Man, would I LOVE to meet you all, but I'm zipping through pretty fast to get up the AlCan Hiway before the really BIG snow flies. Probably be down there a coupla days to take grandkids/neices/nephews to Disneyland, then off to the Bay area for B-Day celebration (not mine!) and offload a coupla really old Winchesters, then zoom North. Zooming seems to be the story of my life and unfortunately missing out on meeting some great folks too often. Grandkids are still down in San Diego area so I will be down again and will warn you in advance so I can meet up with all you crazy SoCal folks and SoCal transplants!  ;)  Meanwhile, if you "just happen to be in the area" up here, let me know and I'll rally the Salmon!


Edit....Opps! Forgot to answer your question, Phil.....I haven't measured it weight or size-wise, but I'm guessing around 30% reduction in size, by sight. I'll have to weigh/measure before and after a batch sometime!