1st time smoked salmon

[Nitty]

I kept it very basic. Rubbed with salt and brown sugar. Refrigerated for an hour. soaked up the moisture with a paper towel. Smoked at 225 for about 1 1/2 hr. I was worried it was going to be too salty and it was. I was able to eat it and liked it but less salt would have been better. The recipe I followed said 2-4 lb fish but didn't give a range for the salt/sugar so when I only had 2 lb fish I should have backed down the salt/sugar and didn't. I did enjoy it, just a little salty. With the leftovers I made a butter/garlic pasta to try and mask the salt a bit which helped and it was really good. Also, I only have hickory pellets at the moment so that's what I used. I've personally never had anything off my pellet smoker that I felt was too strong so the hickory on fish worked for me. I use pit boss pellets in the hopper and a tube with 100% hickory in the box. 1st pic is a fresh filet and one with the salt/sugar applied. 2nd pic is after refrigerating and soaking up the moisture. 3rd pic is right off the smoker.

 

[gmc2003]

Looks good, I use a wet brine for hot smoking and a dry brine for cold. If you think it's going to be to salty before you smoke the salmon. Then you can always give it a cold water soak for an hour or two.

Point for sure
Chris

 

[cmayna]

Nitty,
Looks good from here. What was the ratio of salt vs brown sugar? I use a 4/1 ratio of dark brown sugar / non iodized salt, but I smoke at a lower temp (125 to 160).

 

[Nitty]

Looks good, I use a wet brine for hot smoking and a dry brine for cold. If you think it's going to be to salty before you smoke the salmon. Then you can always give it a cold water soak for an hour or two.

Point for sure
Chris

Good to know.

Nitty,
Looks good from here. What was the ratio of salt vs brown sugar? I use a 4/1 ratio of dark brown sugar / non iodized salt, but I smoke at a lower temp.

It was 1 tbsp salt and 2 tbsp brown sugar. And it was called for on 2-4 lbs of fish which I only had 2 lb so I guess I should have cut it back.

 

[cmayna]

Yup, no harm in experimenting. Just make notes so when you do it again, you can go back to see what you did.

 

[millerbuilds]

I have had that issue in the past, If I am hot smoking, I will either wet brine or not brine at all and use a very small amount of salt in my rub. If I wet brine, I do not add any salt to the rub.

- Jason