Smoked Coho Salmon (Silvers)

[Scotty Dog]

Just a few pictures and explanation that might help with questions on smoking.  I followed the smoking and brine guidelines of Kummok and others on this site.  Here are some helpful twist to all the great advice I learned here.  When making the brine I mixed 1/2 gallon of hot water in a large pan over the stove.  I did not bring the solution to a boil.  I added the spice, salt, and sugar to the hot water and stirred until it all turned to solution.  I removed the pan from the heat and poured the solution into a three gallon stainless cooking/steamer pot and placed it in a large ice chest.  I packed ice around the container and chilled the solution.  I added a half gallon of chilled white wine and the soy sauce to the mix.  I placed the cut fish in the brine for 12 hours.  I pulled the fish out of the ice cold brine and set it on the inverted Bradley racks to dry.  The fish was out for 4 - 6 hours with a slow fan blowing air over the fish at room temp of 65 Degrees.  I smoked the fish for 6 - 7 hours.  Thicker cuts were on single rack to cook longer than thin cuts or tail sections.  The following Brine was not too sweet or salty.

1/2 gallon water
1.5 bottles white wine
2 pounds Dark Brown Sugar
1 cup Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
4 cups Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Garlic Powder
3 Tbsp cayenne pepper

[Keymaster]

Super Job!!! I just partook in the last of my smoked salmon last weekend :o

[Scotty Dog]

I glazed the left rack with Organic Blue Agave nectar.

[Habanero Smoker]

Your salmon looks great!

Heating a brine is the way to go. It helps infuse the flavors of the spices. What I generally will do is to mix the ingredients into half the liquid, in the case 1 quart. Heat and stir until all the salt and sugar is dissolved (I may even simmer awhile), then remove from heat; transfer brine to another container and add ice that will be equivalent to 1 quart of water (2 pounds). That helps to chill the brine a little quicker.

[pmmpete]

Habanero Smoker, I like your strategy of making your brine by mixing the salt and spices with hot water, using half of the water you ultimately want in the brine, and then adding the other half of the water in the form of ice, at the rate of 8.328 pounds of ice for a gallon of water.  The hot water will more quickly dissolve the salt and any sugar in the recipe, and the ice will help you chill the brine down to slightly above freezing before you add the fish.  I'll be curious to see if the hot water seems to make the brine more flavorful by "infusing the flavors of the spices."

[Habanero Smoker]

You will be surprised at the difference. I make Cornell chicken for a party I annually hold, and last year I over heard "complaints" that the chicken wasn't as good as previous years. Last year I tried to take some short cuts and didn't heat/simmer the brine, and there was a noticeable difference in the outcome.

[tsquared]

Looks good SD--lots of coho around now. I've been busy catching but haven't fired up the smoker for fish in several weeks-- it's time!
T2

[Scotty Dog]

Went out tonight for an hour and caught four shakers and one keeper.  Having a blast getting the fish.  I just Vac sealed my batch and placed it in the freezer.  It was the best smoked fish I have had.  6 - 7 hours of Apple smoke the low and slow way.

[tsquared]

"Went out tonight for an hour and caught four shakers and one keeper. " It's weird how sometimes you can find the clipped fish right away and other times you have to wade through the wild. I knew you guys in WA. were in for a stellar coho season because mid-July a huge body of coho slid off the banks off the west coast of the island and followed a mass of krill down here to Sooke. I haven't seen  coho numbers like this since commercial fishing in the '80's when we would see them on the edge of the continental shelf.These fish in July would appear on the surface finning and jumping in schools 3 or 4 MILES long. From our boat you could see hundreds of them feeding on surface krill.We caught and released more than 30 salmon in 2 hours. When I cleaned the ones we kept they were still immature and I realized they were going to go back out to open water for a couple more months when the krill disappeared. My thought then? oh boy September is going to be fun when all these fish they start to come back through 2 or 3 pounds heavier!  ;D
T2

[hybridcx]

just curious how you guys that do salmon in a Bradley if you smoke with a bowel of water or no? and what temps you guys use? i have been using our smoker for a lot of things but just did my first batch of coho in it and it was OK but not like the product my little chief produced for us the last 10 years or so.it just didn't take the smoke flavor as well. but I rolled smoke for 4 hours of the process.  I am tempted to put therm in little chief to see how hot it gets too. we did a lot of tuna this summer in the Bradley though and it turned out great.. just need to dial in the salmon some more.. thanks for any help. this salmon look's good.

[Scotty Dog]

I use a water bowl to catch the spent pucks.  I also used smoke for six hours.  I started to sample the fish after four hours and checked it every hour and also rotated the racks front to back and top to bottom.