Quick smoker question

[jessekf]

I am most of the way through my first Salmon Smoke.. used a recipe I found on here and it looks GREAT. I have hit it with 4 hours of smoke and now 1 hour of heat, but I was wonder.. does it matter when I use the smoke? Does it matter if its the first 4 hours or the last 4 hours? 2 Hours to start and then 2 hours to finish?

Thanks,
I know this has been covered before but in my rushed search I didnt see the specific answer.
Jesse

[KyNola]

In most cases it is preferable to smoke first as there is a theory that meat won't absorb smoke once the IT of the meat reaches 140 degrees.  At 140, salmon would be considered "done" in many camps.

[standles]

Yeah what he said  ;D

I think KyNola lives in front of the keyboard LOL!

[pmmpete]

Check out "Smoking Fish at Home - Safely," Pacific Northwest Extension Publication 238, which is available at various places on the internet, and "Smoking Fish at Home," by Chuck Crapo at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Marine Advisory Program, which is available at http://www.uaf.edu/files/ces/publications-db/hec/FNH-00325.pdf . These publications recommend that you bring smoked fish to an internal temperature of 160 to kill the various organisms which can cause food poisoning.  I generally hit fish with about two hours of smoke, starting at a moderate temperature such as 130 so you don't get "curds" forming due to heating the fish up too high too quickly, and then ramp up the temperature during and after the smoking.  It takes some trial and error for each kind and thickness of fish to figure out a time and temperature schedule which will get the fish up to an internal temperature of 160 about the time it is reaching the degree of dryness and flakiness which you like.

I've never experimented to see if fish absorbs smoke better in the early stages of the drying process than it does later in the process, when the fish is starting to dry out.