My first cold smoke (Salmon)

LilSmoker · October 22, 2006, 10:15:27 AM

Hi all, today i did my much awaited cold smoked salmon, i am very happy with the result, the salmon tastes just about right to me, some of the thinner pieces were a little salty, but the majority of the fillets turned out very well indeed.

I made a brine of just salt and demerera sugar about 50/50 ratio, i brined the fillets for 16 hours as some were quite thick, i rinsed the fillets then let them dry for 2 hours, the pellicle seemed about right so i set the smoker up.
I wanted to make sure that the fish was trully cold smoked, so i did the cardboard box chamber and alluminium vent pipe set up, just for good measure i placed some ice in the bottom of the bradley cabinet, the vent pipe and collars cost about £10 and were worth every penny, it worked a treat, the temp never went over 68 F ;D
I smoked them for 4 hours with oak.

So i eagerly tested the salmon, and it is really delicious!, maybe needs fine tuning, but as it's my first attempt i am very happy with it ;)

Also because i had quite a bit of fish i decided to hot smoke a few pieces, well i must say i was blown away by how good it was, i've alway loved cold smoked salmon, and wondered why so many people chose to eat it hot smoked, well now i know hehe!, i couldn't get any pics of it, because as usual we all began "giving it a try" lol, anyway as much as i love cold smoked salmon, the hot stuff is now a firm favourite in my house ;)

Here's a few pics of todays events:

Just before going into the BS

Bye for now..........LilSmoker

manxman · October 22, 2006, 12:40:58 PM

That's great news LilSmoker, must admit I am a hot smoked salmon convert since getting my BS. ;D

manxman · October 24, 2006, 03:54:58 AM

That's a great set up you have LilSmoker. One suggestion for the future, get yourself some of the non-stick coated jerky racks. I find them a lot easier when smoking as the mesh is smaller and they are"non stick" which is useful when hot smoking. (well at least they are more non-stick then the original racks! :D )

Also with extra racks you can invert them and put them on top of each other potentially increasing the number of racks to eight. Obviously this is only suitable in certain instances but I have used eight racks when cold smoking fillets of pollack.

iceman · October 24, 2006, 08:30:30 AM

Congrats LilSmoker. Outstanding job. I'm more of a hot smoked fan myself but still crave cold smoke once in awhile. You did excellent and have set yourself up very nice. Looks like the fillets have a nice firm texture for slicing thin. Makes me hungry just looking at the pics. :P ;D

MRH · October 24, 2006, 09:32:01 AM

That looks good LilSmoker! have never had cold smoked salmon (Or any other fish) before. Do you eat it after smoking or do you have to cook it before you eat it? The smoked fish I have eaten has always been hot smoked.

Mark

icerat4 · October 24, 2006, 09:33:47 AM

I think they call that shusi

Malc · October 24, 2006, 09:59:09 AM

When you all have hot smoked salmon, do you aim for a certain internal temp, or do you pull it when it is opaque, or...? I would love to try it. I have had cold smoked before, it is not bad once in a while, but I think I would dig the hot smoked variety.

Malc

LilSmoker · October 24, 2006, 10:15:50 AM

Thanks for the compliments guys, i've already learned a great deal from all of you, and picked up a lot of tips and info at this great forum, i'm already getting good results with the BS, and now i'm wondering how i ever managed before the BS, hehe! it's a real nice piece of kit for sure.

@ manxman, good idea about the trays, i will definately order some, btw i got my Foodsaver, i got the 475, i'm well pleased with it, i also got some bags and rolls from one of the links you gave me the other day:
http://www.culinaryinnovations.co.uk/osb/showitem.cfm/Category/14/
i only had to wait 2 days for them to arrive, so i will definately be using them again.

@ iceman, i must say although i've always loved cold smoked salmon, after trying it hot smoked on sunday, it will now be a regular thing at my place, it is trully delicious!, next time i do salmon i'm gonna buy extra and do half cold smoked, and the other half hot, mmmmm! now i'm getting hungry ;D

@ MRH yeah you can eat cold smoked salmon just as it is, no cooking because it's been cured etc, i like it with cream cheese and crackers, in a sandwich, or sometimes with scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast.
Cold smoked salmon is very popular in the u.k., lots of people look at it as a luxury because it can be expensive over here, but now i have a BS i will be eating even more of it hehe!

Thanks again guys, bye for now...........LilSmoker ;)

TomG · October 24, 2006, 03:01:51 PM

LilSmoker in case it got lost in "the white crud" thread, here's my tech for cold smoking salmon. Hope it helps.

Per Kummok the salmon was bleed, gilled, gutted, and iced within 10 mins. of being boated. Once home I filleted, cut into strips and pulled the pins. Being lazy, I don't bother to scale or skin salmon. I use a combination of Spyguys lox and Kummok's dry smoking techniques starting with a dry brine similar to the one Jeb uses, 1 part salt to 2 parts brown sugar with whatever else happens to be near. This time I threw in a little powdered onion, some allspice, a few bay leafs and some salt free Old Bay Seasoning. Ended up with about 3 lbs of dry mix. Coated all the pieces of salmon, layered them in a large plastic storage container, with liberal amounts of dry mix between the layers, and put the whole mess into the refrigerator. As you know, after about 6 hours the mix has pulled fluid from the fish and the container starts to fill with a thick brown "liquor". I don't try to time brining, every 6 hrs or so, I move the strips around in the gunk. For me brining is done when I push my finger into the meat and it pushes back. This batch took 36 hrs. to reach that degree of resilience. Lightly rinse then rack.

Dry in front of a fan, in cool space until a non sticky pellicle forms. 4 hrs for this batch.

I use a remote box to cold smoke at 65-75* with 10 bisquettes and 2 metal pucks(approx. 3.5 hrs). Now here's the neat part, at this point if you pull the fish, you essentially have Spyguy's lox. Normally I plan on doing half the load lox style, and then leave the rest in the oven to finish in a dryer style.

1 hr @ 100*
1 hr @125*
2 hrs @ 140*
½ hr @ 170*

To date I've done about 15 batches using this recipe and have never had "boogers". 8)

Drying

Non sticky pellicle and ready to smoke

Smoking

Finished product, lox on the left

Kummok · October 24, 2006, 04:41:46 PM

No offense meant LilSmoker, but your finished product still looks like bait to me. I'm certain that it appeals to Lox eaters, but I'm not one of those (yet!). I'd give it a try if served to me but I prefer my salmon done to look more like TomG's, and even "done-ier" (new word!)

IF I was to give this stuff a try, LS/TG, how do you recommend it be served (besides with a good stout or porter!)? I don't think much of cream cheese, so that's out, but, after trying sushi at a respectable place (Sushi-On-The-Rock, SoCal), I discovered that I actually DO like it, with all the accessories, as long as the fish has been properly treated after being caught.

Chez Bubba · October 24, 2006, 05:58:12 PM

Quote from: Kummok on October 24, 2006, 04:41:46 PM
No offense meant LilSmoker, but your finished product still looks like bait to me.

Well all I can say is, I've been fishing with Kummok, & if anybody knows bait, it's him. He's a master. ;) ;D ;D ;D

Kirk

tsquared · October 24, 2006, 06:36:16 PM

Kummok--try very thinly sliced cold smoked on your favourite type of cracker smeared with a little spicy red pepper jelly, along with a few thin pieces of mild onion, or a slice of avocado. Give a couple of grinds of black pepper on top and wash it down with 15 year old Glenfiddich(or a nice IPA). You'll be in heaven, man!! BTW--I never thought I'd see the day--Kummok, liking sushi!! :D
T2

pipsqueek · October 24, 2006, 08:17:27 PM

Tom G, what sort of salmon are you smoking? Those are some thick steaks!
I smoke sockey here in BC, get it from the local indigenous guys for $10 a fish. I cold smoke it lox style, the red sockey meat looks great lox style.

TomG · October 24, 2006, 09:47:32 PM

Pip, that was a 35lb King I caught last month 12 miles off the Golden Gate. In fact it was the only salmon we've boxed since then. 5 times out and not even a scratched bait for our efforts. >:( FYI, fresh, local King(Chinook) is going for $22/lb at the fishmongers.

manxman · October 24, 2006, 10:27:50 PM

Quote@ manxman, good idea about the trays, i will definately order some, btw i got my Foodsaver, i got the 475, i'm well pleased with it, i also got some bags and rolls from one of the links you gave me the other day:
http://www.culinaryinnovations.co.uk/osb/showitem.cfm/Category/14/
i only had to wait 2 days for them to arrive, so i will definately be using them again.

Glad they came up trumps for you LilSmoker, always a bit worrying when you recommend a supplier to someone else in case they stuff up. That happened when I recommended the sausagemaking.org website to a forum member.

I love both hot and cold smoked salmon out of the BS, I was the reverse of kummock when I first arrived on the forum and thought hot smoked salmon was sacriligous compared to the cold smoked variety I was used too! :-[

But that is the point, cold smoking was generally more prevalent on this side of the pond whilst hot smoking was more prevalent on the other side, however I think the barriers are dropping, albeit slowly in some cases! ;D ;)