Cold Smoking Salmon, Fresh vs Frozen?

[gooden123]

Hi all,

Well my plan is to cold smoke sockeye salmon using a pretty basic brine containing dq pink salt. My only question is that my salmon is fresh, wild and never frozen. I have been under the impression that you want it flash frozen at least to kill the harmful stuff and to help the drying process. Can I accomplish almost the same thing if I stick it in my freezer for say a week? Or should I just leave it fresh? Thanks in advance!

 

[cmayna]

Personally, I'd prefer to freeze it first for at least a couple weeks plus before thawing and smoking, just to help get rid of any surviving critter.   Since all of my smoked salmon is more like finger foods and not a dinner entrée, I really don't mind if its already been frozen.  Besides with the amount of Salmon the wife and I catch, there's no way I could mentally think of smoking fresh fish, when I have two freezers full of fish waiting for the smoker.

 

[gooden123]

Thank you so much for your fast reply. Yes I'm basically following bbally's lox recipe so this would be a finger food too. Do I need to do anything special before freezing it or just put the fillets in there wrapped in butcher paper (skin is still on but I'll remove that and tail/belly too before brining). And should I just thaw it in the refrigerator?

 

[cmayna]

Do you have a vacuum sealer?  It will help preserve all meats while frozen.  Yes, I always give the fish 2 whole days in the fridge to thaw.  Tues eve I put out 8# of salmon in the mini fridge to thaw so I could smoke it today, which I did of course.

 

[SmokinAl]

When using bballys recipe, I always freeze the lox after it's done for at least 1 week below 10 degrees.

This will kill any parasites that may still be present.

Al

 

[gooden123]

Yes I have a vacuum sealer. This coming week is when I have the time and weather to do this so I kind of don't want to wait 2 weeks. If freezing after is as safe I'll do that. One more question. Do you freeze the finished fillets whole or slice first SmokinAl?