Fishing Season is here, (smoking that is)

[RossP]

Well here is last weekends smoke, a pictorial from start to finish.

Here are the tools, a French Cook Knife, Fillet Knife and my Hemostats for
removing the pin bones.


A 25 lb King Salmon from the Port Alberni inlet on the west coast of vancouver Island,
graciously donated by my eldest son, well actually he was storing it in my freezer and
it has been about 3 weeks so I smoked it.


Here is a picture of the peices all cut up and packed in a dry brine, ready to be
put to bed in the fridge for the night.


Here it is the next day after spending about 18 hours in the brine, now I have a sticky mess to
deal with. Pick all the pieces out and rinse them off.


Now back into the fridge for the night to dry. This is what the Salmon looks like after the
brine and sitting in the fridge for the night. The two racks on the right are actually trimmings
from some Sockeye I got. Figured I should smoke them up, their big brother (the nice fillets will
be used to make Lox)


Here it is an hour into the smoke and I am getting ready to rotate the rack. Unfortunatly
this is the last picture as my camera packed it in right after I knocked it off the top of the
smoker while rotating the rack. >:( so no money shot this time. I can tell you that the wife
made off with two chunks right after I took it out of the smoker and my Pastor whom I gave some
to did not share it with his wife ;)


Ross

[SouthernSmoked]

Looking Good Ross!!

[punchlock]

Look at that fillet knife, not to many more trips to the sharpening stone left in that one!

     Fish looks great.

[RossP]

Look at that fillet knife, not to many more trips to the sharpening stone left in that one!

It's been around for a long time. I got it from a buddy who owned a commercial
lox plant 10 years ago. It was one of the knives they used in the plant. I only sharpen
the knife once or twice a year. Holds it's edge really good, my favorite knife
for fish prep.

Ross

[StickyDan]

Care to share the recipe for the dry brine? Looks good.

[Slamdunk]

Looks good Ross!

I don't rinse off my salmon when I take it out of the brine but I do have to let it dry for longer than normal.

What type of wood did you use. I have only used apple and alder but am wondering how other woods taste.

Any hints as to how are you going to cut those larger fillets into lox? I've read that if you freeze it a bit, it is easier to cut into the very slim pieces required. What is your method?

[tsquared]

Any hints as to how are you going to cut those larger fillets into lox? I've read that if you freeze it a bit, it is easier to cut into the very slim pieces required. What is your method?

Slamdunk--I use a combination of dry salt/sugar cure and lots of drying time to get the fish a bit drier than most people--it makes it easy to slice nice and thin.
T2

[RossP]

Care to share the recipe for the dry brine? Looks good.

I use one part Kosher Salt to three parts Demerara Sugar by volume, then adjust from that.
Sometimes I will make a mixture of Brown Sugar and Dark Rum to glaze the Salmon at teh
end of the smoke.

Looks good Ross!

What type of wood did you use. I have only used apple and alder but am wondering how other woods taste.

Any hints as to how are you going to cut those larger fillets into lox? I've read that if you freeze it a bit, it is easier to cut into the very slim pieces required. What is your method?

I used Maple for this smoke. When doing Lox I use Apple.

For slicing thick lox I use a very sharp Sushi style knife and I cut the slices on a 30 -45 degree angle
vertically. That way I am cutting larger slices, learned how to cut from an old friend of the family.Next time
I cut some up i will post some pictures.


Ross