Hot smoked salmon - do you need the brine?

[weekendsmoker]

Hi all,

Going to do some atlantic salmon this weekend but if I am going to hot smoke and then eat the salmon righ away that night, do I need to brine it with the salt/brn sugar solution for 14 hrs?  Or can I just put it in, hot smoke and eat?  Also, would love to know how to use maple syurp with the salmon if anyone has does this.  Thanks.

Jason.

[Habanero Smoker]

You don't have to brine when hot smoking salmon, but it has a tendency to become dry if you do not brine.

[Ontrack]

Jason, I asked this same question a while back. The first salmon I did was Kummock's recipe with the brine, but I only used about 1/4 of the brown sugar that was called for in the brine because I did not want any sweet taste at all. Because of that, or either I didn't rinse the brine off long enough, my salmon was way too salty. I was told by those who know that the brine is more for taste and moistness, and not for preservation. The last 2 batches I did were slightly dry rubbed with salt, pepper, and lemon pepper and then basted while cooking a few times with a butter, onion powder, and garlic powder baste. Moist and delicious, and my preferrred way to do a small  batch of salmon that will be eaten in 24-36 hours. According to my notes, I cooked @ 120 for 1-1/2 hours, then raised temp to 160 until done, with 2 hours of smoke.

[Stickbowcrafter]

If you have some time to brine or marinate overnight, here's a good Asian style recipe I love to use for salmon:

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=5848.0

-Brian