Sockeye using Kummok's Recipe

[Montcoyote]

Hey salmon experts,

I have started a small batch of sockeye fillets. They aren't very big/thick. I used Kummok's brine overnight and they are now drying. So a couple of questions:

We are at about 25% humidity in our house right now. And, as I said, the fillets are not very thick (maybe 2" in the biggest piece). They have been drying for about 3 hours. They are still looking a little moist in the cracks, but are dry to the touch. I'm going to let them go for a couple more hours...but I was reading some of the posts where the drying process was taking 12+ hours. Is there any reason to wait that long once the outside of the fish has dried?

Second question...because the fillets are not very thick, I was going to follow Kummok's smoking times and temperatures, but I was going to use the low end all the way through. So, 1 hour @100, 2 hours @140, 1 hour @175, for a total of 4 hours. I was going to run alder for only about the first 2 hours. Does this sound about right? Will the final 175 degrees be too hot?

I just installed my PID sensor, so I'm excited to give it a try on this step-temperature recipe!

Thanks in advance for your help!

[FLBentRider]

When dry, the surface of the fish should be slightly tacky. The lower your humidity the shorter the dry times.


The low end of the temp ranges sounds like a plan to me.

[Kummok]

As FLBR says, it's more about the "touch" than about a specific time. I've even found over the years that "sight" is another good indicator...after the tacky-to-touch threshold has been crossed, I look for a little "opaque-ness" in the meat...hopefully I can get a good picture illustrating this sometime?!?!?

As far as smoke-time, I prefer smoke throughout the 4 hour time...but that's just my own personal taste. I think you'll be happy with the 4 hour total time in the smoker. 

[Montcoyote]

So I gave it a few more hours and definately got to a "glazed" look and tackiness.

I threw it in for the 1 hour, 2 hour, 1 hour, and went to a birthday party. I just got back in time to see my PID reading 175, and then it said END.

My wife and I have almost eaten 2 fillets already! We literally can not stop eating it warm. We're going to package it up and refrigerate it and see how the flavors change. She suggested that we do the rest of the fillets in the freezer this way (I guess she liked it).

Thanks for your help!

[Kummok]

Glad to hear it turned out well for you. Personally, I think it gets tastier after refrigeration........