Cold Smoking Coho Salmon

[Paddy Walsh]

I'm based in Ireland and have done almost all my smoking with either wild Atlantic salmon or farmed Atlantic salmon. I recently got some wild Alaskan coho salmon (frozen) to smoke but I am having difficulty as its a very different salmon to the Atlantic. I find the flesh much softer and chewier. We only dry salt the Atlantic salmon for 3 hours and then rinse for 5/10 minutes before drying. We smoke using beechwood chips. The Alaskan way of smoking seems much heavier than in Europe. Any people that are used to cold smoking coho salmon have any tips on how to firm up the flesh and avoid that mushy soft texture. I tried increasing my salting time to 12 hours - it had a little improvement but a long way to go. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[daveomak]

Coho should not be mushy and soft... It could be bad.....
If it was frozen in a residential freezer, the slow freezing process creates LARGE ice crystals which tear apart meat fibres... Or thawing during shipping and refreezing ....

 

[forktender]

Dave nailed it, there is something wrong with your fish. Wild King Salmon is much firmer than the Atlantic bath tub/farm raised garbage Salmon. If it was commercially flash frozen there is no way it would be mushy. Actually flash frozen Salmon is a far superior product than so-called fresh Atlantic bath tub Salmon.
I won't even eat farm raised Salmon because I know how they are raised and the things that they feed those fish/ antibiotics and growth hormones don't belong in Salmon or their food.

 

[Paddy Walsh]

Coho should not be mushy and soft... It could be bad.....
If it was frozen in a residential freezer, the slow freezing process creates LARGE ice crystals which tear apart meat fibres... Or thawing during shipping and refreezing ....

Yeah I reckon myself it could have been the freezing process of the salmon. I compared it to a wild Atlantic salmon testing both smoked and unsmoked and the coho was much softer / mushier than the Atlantic (even more so when both were smoked). I thought it may be to do with the curing/smoking process - I would still like try a different approach with the coho but I have my fear it could be the quality of the fish.

And I agree with you that the farmed fish is not in the same league as wild fish but I also believe that wild Atlantic salmon caught here in our rivers are superior to any coho, sockeye salmon I have eaten so its really a matter of opinion. I clearly wasnt making an argument for farmed fish only looking for advice on smoking coho as I haven't done much smoking with them.