Pellicle - It eludes me!

I don't brine salmon....  I sprinkle salt, sugar and herbs and spices on the fish.... Wrap in plastic....  let sit in the refer for up to 3 days.... rinse well, dry, and place in front of a fan for several hours..... until the surface of the fish is firm and dry..... The lemon may be messing things up.... The acid could be doing something to the proteins that are necessary to form a pellicle...  If the fish is not rinsed well, the salt layer will inhibit the pellicle formation...   Dave

Maybe this will help

T

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/newestpost/122931

I smoke a ton of salmon and have never had a batch where the pellicle did not form.  Your fish should have a smooth glossy texture to it.  The pic in Mr T's link shows it pretty good. 

I think you have a couple things working against you:

1. Could be the citrus as DaveOmak mentioned above.  I have never used a brine that had lemon in it.  Might be better off using lemon pepper.

2. Brine time- I have never brined less than 24 hours. 

3. Salt to sugar ratio.  Most brines that I have seen and used call for anywhere from a 1 to 2 to a 1 to 4 ratio of salt to sugar.

Here is a brine that I have been very happy with.  Takes a lot of patience, but worth it.

¾ - 1 cup kosher salt

1 cup white sugar

2 lb. bag dark brown sugar

Mix in XL mixing bowl

Add water until mixture is soupy…mix well!

Put fish pieces flesh side down in brine

Put plate on fish to lower all fish into brine

Cover with saran wrap

Refrigerate for 12 hours

Rotate and put back in for another 12 hours

Take fish out and rinse fish

Put fish back in bowl and pour enough Yoshida’s Gourmet sauce on the fish to cover entirely

Cover and put back in fridge for 12 hours

Rotate and refrigerate for another 12 hours

Repeat Yoshida’s process for 48 hours total

Take fish out of Yoshida’s…Do NOT rise!!

As mentioned in another post, put the fish on a cooling rack that's on a shallow baking pan and in the fridge overnight should give proper pellicle.

I would venture to say that the acid from the lemon is the culprit. I do not wet brine my fish. I use a fry brine solution, 4 to 1. 4 (sugar (white and/or brown)) - 1 (kosher salt). You can add any other dry spices that you would like. Liberally coat the fish and layer skin to skin in a leak proof container. As you layer add more brine solution between the layers. Let this sit in the fridge over night. Next day remove from brine and rinse. Place on racks in front of fan and air dry. Your pellicle should form in a hour or two. depending on the humidity. The flesh will be sticky to the touch and glossy. If you want to add lemon flavor I would add slices to the top right at the smoking stage. Hope this helps I have been using this basic brine for 25 years and have always had good results.

smokeusum said:

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Today, I went very basic in the brine; gallon of water, half a cup of kosher salt, a 1/4 cup brown sugar, on small lemon, squeezed. In the fridge for hour and a half (much smaller side than last week's) - pulled it out, rinsed it off, dried and racked it, out into the cool garage (around 60) with a fan... 3.5 hours later still NOTHING! What am I missing?

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smokeusum,

I did a test for you this morning which in my opinion solved your pellicle problem..  The brine that you used for your initial cure tested to be 52% salinity @ 60°.  The recommended salinity for brining fish is between 70% and 80% salinity @ 60°.    

Conclusion :  Your brine was too weak to form a good pellicle.  This may be a little more information than you wanted but in my mind, the problem is solved.

Note : 100% salinity @ 60° is the point that water will not dissolve any more salt.

Once again I suggest you try the following recipe and technique.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...almon-from-go-to-show-w-q-view/20#post_835384

smokeusum said:

T, I got a beautiful pellicle yesterday! Funny, yesterday's beautiful sockeye couldn't hold a candle to what I did with one I first did!

Yesterday's was nicely smoked, looked fantastic, but was bit dry and didnt possess the awesome buttery flavor of the first one.

Here's the first one:

image.jpg

• smokeusum
• Jan 20, 2013

Click to expand...

it sure does look great.