Smoked Lox

fishrman · March 14, 2012, 11:19:46 AM

My wife got a hankering for lox and I was happy to oblige – especially since my local store had salmon fillets on sale for 3.99/lb.! (Next up – smoked salmon :) ) This sale is a good thing as I've pretty much depleted my suppy of salmon I caught up in Alaska last summer. I Decided to try Spyguys' recipe as he made it sound like a real winner.

Got one side of fillet (about 4 lbs) and cut it in half as I was going to need both dry cure and wet brine it. Mixed up the salt/sugar cure and applied liberally to the bottom of the glass pan, put the first fillet skin side down, added a ½" layer of cure on top of that, then the second fillet, and topped it with more cure. Spent a little bit of time playing in the sand (all the cure around the edges) to pack it up nice and tight on the exposed edges of the fillets. Did this at 5 pm so set my alarm for a midnight wakeup call for the next step.

Midnight comes and out of bed, downstairs, and take the fish out of the fridge. Missed a photo opp here to show the fish packed in the dry cure (I'll blame the late hour) but here's the hole the fish left in the cure:

The cure did its job and pulled out quite a bit of the moisture. From there it was a rinse and into the brine for another 8 hours. Pulled it out right on schedule, then had to freshen it:

Freshening was a 30 minute process with a slow flow of water into the bucket and occasional stirring to get some of the salt to wash out. Once done, on to the drying racks for 5 hours to get rid of some of the moisture and form that nice pellicle.

BTW, the dogs are very interested in this process, circling around like sharks waiting for something to drop. This isn't just for the salmon; it is for everything having to do with the smoker. Much to my surprise, however, one of the canines will not eat raw meat. I was making jerky last week and had some trimmings. Buddy was right there, "Please sir, may I have a taste?" and licked his chops after the fact. Abby was drooling at this point as she awaited her turn. I took a tidbit and held it out for her. She sniffed it, looked at me like I was trying to poison her, and gingerly took it between her front teeth. She closed her mouth, dropped her head and , I swear, went "Ptooey" and spit it out on the floor and looked up at me as to say "You DID try to poison me!" Well, Buddy, quick to seize an opportunity, gobbled it up before she could change her mind. Great, a dog who won't eat raw meat. But I digress; back to the lox.

This was going to be the first time I was able to use my new homebuilt mailbox cold smoke accessory. I built it following the plans of rloethen (http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=16207.0) and was ready to put it to the test. Elevated the DBS, mated up the mailbox and smoke generator, and remembered I had not yet lengthened the sensor wire that goes from the back of the generator to the chamber. No problem, I had 5 hours of salmon drying time so it was out to the garage. Cut the sensor wire to see what it had inside and found it was a pair of fine braided wires. Snipped a 2 foot section of braided speaker wire from my "I never throw anything away" supplies and pulled out the shrink tubing. I slipped a 1" piece of narrow shrink tubing over each of the small speaker wire ends where I had split the insulation, twisted the speaker wire to the sensor wire, the pulled the shrink tube over the joined bare wire and shrunk it down. I repeated for all the connections, then pulled a slightly larger piece of shrink tubing over both joined areas and shrunk it down. Took the extended cable out to the smoker, plugged it in and it worked just like the original. Still have 4 hours to go, so decided to fire up the generator and see what sort of temp the chamber would settle at before I even put the salmon in.

Ambient temp was 56F, and after letting the generator run for an hour, chamber temp as measured by the DBS is 70F and measured by my GURU probe is 73F – PERFECT for the cold smoke process. And this is with NO ice in the chamber. This design seems to work like a charm! That's where we are right now. Next up – smokin' the lox.

Flyboyandre · March 14, 2012, 12:31:05 PM

Let me know when your mail arrives! I want to see pics! :D

Smokeville · March 14, 2012, 01:32:11 PM

Hi Fishrman;

That looks great!!!!

One caution--- salmon that hasn't been heat cooked can be deadly to dogs. I discovered this just recently when I began to take salmon skin and roll it up to make dog treats to sell at our Farmers' market.

Here's the link...

http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/ClientED/salmon.aspx

It's unclear from other sites whether freezing for a period of time kills the microorganism even if it kills the parasite....

Regards,
Rich

Folks -- I didn't read Fishrman's post correctly -- I thought his pooches were enjoying raw salmon when it was really the meat jerky he gave them... my apologies!

fishrman · March 14, 2012, 01:38:35 PM

Quote from: Smokeville on March 14, 2012, 01:32:11 PM
Hi Fishrman;

That looks great!!!!

One caution--- salmon that hasn't been heat cooked can be deadly to dogs. I discovered this just recently when I began to take salmon skin and roll it up to make dog treats to sell at our Farmers' market.

Here's the link...

http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/ClientED/salmon.aspx

It's unclear from other sites whether freezing for a period of time kills the microorganism even if it kills the parasite....

Regards,
Rich

Rich, I am aware of the dangers of giving dogs salmon or trout that is uncooked and that is something I'd never do. Thanks a lot for bringing it up and posting the links since some folks may not have heard this. You may have just saved someone's best friend's life!

Tom

Smokeville · March 14, 2012, 02:30:29 PM

Sorry, Tom, I didn't mean to appear to jump on you -- in fact I didn't read your post closely enough to see you were talking about jerky (I just re-read it).

But you are right, it is a good warning anyway, and I certainly am glad I found out before I ended up hurting someone's companion.

BTW, and not to hijack your thread, but I have a vet friend who is a professor at a local vet school. Next semester, she teaches pet nutrition and will let her class do a research project on the nutritional value of these dog treats. Since they are dried salmon skin, plus some flesh, I am curious about how much pollution is in them. My daughter can feed a bowl like this to her large dog over several weeks.

fishrman · March 14, 2012, 04:42:46 PM

No worries, Rich, I didn't take it that way ;)

For the smoke I used 4 alder pucks as I was not sure how much smoke flavor I wanted to impart to the fish since lox is a mild flavor. The recipe called for 1-3 hours of smoke, so I chose to go on the lower end of the spectrum. An hour and 20 minutes of smoking, and the finished product:

Then it was into the fridge until my wife got home, about two hours. Just enough time to put a little chill on the fish. Then it was time to break out the knife and have a taste

After the slicing, it was cream cheese on bagels, salmon and capers to finish. Wow.

This recipe is a definite keeper. I think the smoke time was just right as there was a definite smokiness in the flavor, but not overpowering. It was a bit raw having just come out of the smoker, and I cannot wait until tomorrow morning to have a breakfast of this after it has had a chance to mellow overnight.

Flyboyandre · March 14, 2012, 05:34:55 PM

Absolutely fantastic!

KyNola · March 14, 2012, 07:10:07 PM

Love me some Lox. Nice job!

SouthernSmoked · March 14, 2012, 08:47:07 PM

Quote from: KyNola on March 14, 2012, 07:10:07 PM
Love me some Lox. Nice job!

Ditto!!!

mikecorn.1 · March 14, 2012, 08:50:07 PM

Boy, that came out looking outstanding.

Keymaster · March 15, 2012, 04:55:48 AM

Looks Perfect, Nice Job!!

fishrman · March 15, 2012, 10:52:17 AM

Thanks everyone! And this morning it was, as expected, even better. I'm going to vacuum pack and put the second smoked lox fillet in the freezer and see how it fares. Hopefully well as then I'll be able to keep a supply on hand at all times for times when guests come visit, parties, and just to have available when the desire hits.

Oh, and since I had the DBS configured for cold smoking, I did a 3 lb. batch of smoked almonds right after the Lox. They came out great too ;). So lined up on my countertop in their respective containers right now are snack sticks, jerky and smoked almonds. Sounds like it is time to put together a couple of sample packs for the kids!

viper125 · March 15, 2012, 11:10:13 AM

So "LOX" is a raw cured and smoked fish? Did I say raw? I have never heard or tasted it. But i dont like sushi I expect this is close? Does look pretty though. Is this smoked long enough to cook?

JZ · March 15, 2012, 11:12:48 AM

Very Nice job. It looks delicious.

fishrman · March 15, 2012, 11:14:12 AM

Quote from: viper125 on March 15, 2012, 11:10:13 AM
So "LOX" is a raw cured and smoked fish? Did I say raw? I have never heard or tasted it. But i dont like sushi I expect this is close? Does look pretty though. Is this smoked long enough to cook?

Viper, the Lox is "chemically" cooked by the curing/brining, not by heat. You are cold smoking (I never got above 70F) so definitely not cooked with the smoking. This is nothing like sushi/sashimi, the texture is MUCH firmer, and the flavor is more intense since you've taken a lot of the moisture out and added smoke. Really, really, really good. If you like sushi, I'd definitely recommend giving this a try.

Tom

Smoked Lox

Keymaster