Cold smoking salmon first time... thoughts?

[Bcp2011]

Hi all - so I tried cold smoking salmon for mother’s day today and it turned out... unexpected. I did roughly 24 hours of dry brine, 2 tsp of salt/sugar mix for every pound of salmon. After that did a quick rinse and popped it back in the fridge for about 10 hours for pellicle formation. After that I smoked it in my Weber charcoal grill for about 12 hours.

The end product was way too dry - wasn’t quite jerky but it felt half way there vs the good smoked salmon I’ve hard (admittedly it was from Russ and daughters...). The interior parts were a little moist but the exterior parts were not. I’m not sure whether it tasted like that because it was dry or because it was a little cooked from the smoking pellets. I should’ve taken the temp inside the smoker but i put the salmon in at around midnight and just went straight to bed.

Any thoughts on what could’ve gone wrong? I would love to learn how to smoke salmon at home as we all love it and don’t want to pay 40 bucks a lb for the good stuff!!

 

[Murray]

I’ve only done salmon twice and it was a warm smoke. Internal Temperature is the key to success. At 145F the salmon was a bit to soft for my liking, at 150-155F it was perfect. The larger pieces took about 7 hours at a cooking temperature of 120F to start and 180F to finish, increasing the smoker temperature as the smoke progressed. Your mistake is you left it unattended and weren’t checking the fish for doneness. For a true cold smoke there is no way your salmon should be over cooked in 12 hours, too much heat.

 

[gmc2003]

Are you trying to make Lox or cooked smoke salmon? More info needed.

Chris

 

[atomicsmoke]

Cold smoked...so temps should have been monitored.

It's probably (partially) cooked. Cold smoked salmon does not get a crust.

 

[Bcp2011]

I was trying for cold smoked salmon (the non-cooked stuff that's oily and moist and delicious!).

I used a full A-maze-N pellet smoker for smoke and lit one end of it and it lasted an advertised 12 hours. I didn't think it would generate much heat in my Weber Kettle Grill but maybe that was an incorrect assumption.

I don't have another apparatus at my disposal to smoke as I live in a high rise in Chicago, so what are some ways in which I can cool down the smoker? I've seen articles talking about putting ice, etc. in the smoker, would that work better? Just might be a pain to change it every few hours. Also, the day temps are going higher vs. lower, so that won't help either. Anyway, would appreciate any advice. Thanks all!!

 

[atomicsmoke]

Freeze water in a few 2L plastic bottles of pop. That will keep things cool.

Go with shorter smokes so you keep things under control. Repeat as much as needed.

 

[Braz]

Without a thermometer you are kind of flying blind when it comes to cold smoking. Also, in my opinion you don't need anything like a 12 hour smoke to make lox. Take a read through SmokinAl's lox method for a good tutorial. https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/homemade-lox-with-recipe-steps-plenty-of-q-view.106029/

 

[Bcp2011]

Thanks! That is indeed a wonderful tutorial. It seems like the recipe is all over the place on the web, so not sure what's good or not so I went with that's easiest. Will try again!

 

[daveomak]

The moist, oily smoked salmon you are speaking of is called Kippered Salmon...
A good pellicle is formed in front of a fan... Cold smoked for about an hour < 70F... Then hot smoked at ~180-200 for an hour or longer until the internal temperature of the fish is ~125F... It is brined in a 50:50 salt, sugar brine and I add cure#1 due to the possibility of botulism....

........Pellicle formation.......

 

[Bcp2011]

Sorry it's not. It's just the stuff you find in most super markets. I didn't realize that cold smoked salmon could cause so much confusion so my apologies for that.

https://specsonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/000000484147.jpg

 

[SmokinAl]

Without a thermometer you are kind of flying blind when it comes to cold smoking. Also, in my opinion you don't need anything like a 12 hour smoke to make lox. Take a read through SmokinAl's lox method for a good tutorial. https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/homemade-lox-with-recipe-steps-plenty-of-q-view.106029/

As said above I think if you follow my tutorial you will get the results your looking for.
If you have any questions, just PM me.
Al