Avoiding store-bought frozen Salmon---My learning curve.

[precookingsmoker]

I have the unhappy experience of finding out from the appearance of Salmon after a 12 hour brine, that frozen salmon in their vacuum sealed packets....clearly have been frozen twice.

1/2 of my "in-process" Salmon is frozen packet meat. The other half is a Salmon fillet which was on Ice. Both fishes were of the same type(Silver Salmon) and from Washington & the Canadian territories.

The iced Salmon(Canadian) clearly feels more like soft flesh in handling and appearance with good red color like blue blood rare meat whether artificially induced or not. The flesh does not look opaque and has visual depth to it. Feels a bit sticky too after brine.

The frozen & vacuum sealed Salmon is distinctly more opaque, having a distinct ugly washed-out appearance with little color and the texture and handling feel like soggy cardboard. It is not sticky after the brine.

I'll eat smoked cat-food before I buy another bag of frozen and vacuum sealed fish packets from a market. The prices were nearly the same too which is a double insult.

Am doing the 12 hour drying now. Started at 9:30 PM. Looking forward to the Alder wood smoking stage even tho' it will be chips and not chunks which will arrive from Washington next week..... -Larry

 

[Northern_Smoke]

I noticed that too and had that same learning curve. I read somewhere that using frozen salmon was better because the cells burst open when they are frozen letting the brine penetrate better. But when I made salmon I used frozen and fresh as well and found the frozen to get "mushy" and the color was almost grayish compared to the fresh. Once they were smoked, the fresh had a much better feel and texture to it. The flavor wasn't bad on the frozen but the presentation sure wasn't what I would want.

[Quarlow]

I always freeze my salmon before making smoked salmon. It opens it up and helps the smoke penetrate. But I dry brine and the salt firms the meat up pretty solid. Now having said that, the last batch I made was I think in the freezer too long or the fish were too close to spawning when they were caught and after brining they were mushy even after brining. After smoking them they were inedible. The texture almost made me sick and they took on a terrible taste that I have never experienced before. It was a shame to do all that work only to have to chuck them. I know it wasn't the technique because I had some fish that were ocean caught and had only been in the freezer for a couple of weeks in the same batch and the same brine and they turned out perfect.