Ok so here goes. On fathers day I made some smoked salmon using the recipe and instructions in this post: http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/90289/smoked-fish#post_595006 I also used mesquite wood chips, soaked in water for an hour or so, ones I got from walmart of all places.
It turned out excellent and everyone loved it. So to bring to a party today I thought, why not try again?
Here are the pics of the fish going into the brine mixture:
Now I brined for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Maybe too long, but I wanted them to be a bit more salty then they were during the last attempt. Here are the pics of the pellicle forming:
After about an hour, maybe an hour and fifteen minutes, I decided they were ready for smoking. Now I don't have a real smoker per se, but I have been using my weber kettle with much success. It's charcoal of course so getting the temps where I want them to be is challenging. Typically I end up on with an average of about 250 degrees. Here are the pics going into the weber:
Now the directions say to leave them on for about an hour. Since I constantly fight with the temps, and because I had to add some more charcoal midway (after running to the store because I was out) I decided to leave them on for about two hours, making sure I achieved a minimum of 140 degrees internally on the thickest part of each cut. Here are the pics when they were done:
As you can see I got a bit excited to try them prior to taking my final pics. So that end piece was my tester (couldn't risk bringing bad tasting food to a party lol) and it turned out excellent. My only complaint is that the outer skin as it were is a little tougher than I would have liked. I assume this to be my fault of longer brining and longer smoking. But it still tastes great! The last pic is what I am bringing to the party.
It turned out excellent and everyone loved it. So to bring to a party today I thought, why not try again?
Here are the pics of the fish going into the brine mixture:
Now I brined for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Maybe too long, but I wanted them to be a bit more salty then they were during the last attempt. Here are the pics of the pellicle forming:
After about an hour, maybe an hour and fifteen minutes, I decided they were ready for smoking. Now I don't have a real smoker per se, but I have been using my weber kettle with much success. It's charcoal of course so getting the temps where I want them to be is challenging. Typically I end up on with an average of about 250 degrees. Here are the pics going into the weber:
Now the directions say to leave them on for about an hour. Since I constantly fight with the temps, and because I had to add some more charcoal midway (after running to the store because I was out) I decided to leave them on for about two hours, making sure I achieved a minimum of 140 degrees internally on the thickest part of each cut. Here are the pics when they were done:
As you can see I got a bit excited to try them prior to taking my final pics. So that end piece was my tester (couldn't risk bringing bad tasting food to a party lol) and it turned out excellent. My only complaint is that the outer skin as it were is a little tougher than I would have liked. I assume this to be my fault of longer brining and longer smoking. But it still tastes great! The last pic is what I am bringing to the party.
