First go at Smoked Salmon - UPDATED w/ Q-View

[jnagel32]

I have never smoked salmon before.  This is my plan with some questions as well:

Tonight I will put the filets in the brine and leave them overnight.  Should I leave them on the counter or place them in the fridge? 

Tomorrow morning I will take them out of the brine and let them sit on the racks for around 2 hours so they form a pellicle.  Is that enough time for it to form? 

I will put them in the smoker with alder chips and I plan on smoking them for around 5 hours.  Do you guys typically soak your chips or just put them in the smoker dry(I have a MES 30)?  I was also told to smoke them around the 120°-160° mark.  I have never smoked anything at that low of a temp in my MES before.  Is the MES even capable of smoking at that low of a temp?

Here is the brine that I am going to use...

1 cup salt with no iodine added

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup honey

3 table spoons vanilla

3 table spoons Worcestershire sauce

4 cups of water

4 cups of apple juice

Do you guys have any other suggestions?

 

[daveomak]

I have never smoked salmon before.  This is my plan with some questions as well:

Tonight I will put the filets in the brine and leave them overnight.  Should I leave them on the counter or place them

in the fridge? 

Tomorrow morning I will take them out of the brine and let them sit on the racks for around 2 hours so they form a pellicle. Rinse and dry with paper towels and put in front of a fan until the meat surface is dry... Is that enough time for it to form? 

I will put them in the smoker with alder chips and I plan on smoking them for around 5 hours.  Do you guys typically soak your chips or just put them in the smoker dry(I have a MES 30)?  I was also told to smoke them around the 120°-160° mark.  I have never smoked anything at that low of a temp in my MES before.  Is the MES even capable of smoking at that low of a temp?  If you have the smoker set at about 160-170 and the chips don't smoke, light them and then blow out the fire... they should then continue to smoke... or temporarily turn up the heat until they smoke and turn the heat down...  The AMNPS would be a great addition to your smoker....  It makes the smoke and the controller guards the temps....

Here is the brine that I am going to use...

1 cup salt with no iodine added

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup honey

3 table spoons vanilla  (don't know what vanilla would do to the flavor, never used it)

3 table spoons Worcestershire sauce

4 cups of water

4 cups of apple juice

Do you guys have any other suggestions?  

Purely for safety reasons, you could consider adding cure #1 to the brine...

Since bacon is safe at less than 120 Ppm, You could add the cure for the salmon the same...

Weigh the fish and brine mix... Say it weighs 10#'s... x 454 (grams/lb) = 4540 gms. x .000120 (Ppm) =  0.55 gms. nitrite / .0625 (6.25% nitrite in cure #1) = 8.8 gms cure #1 added to the brine and fish.....(1.5 tsp)  

Personally, I have never used cure #1 when brining salmon.. I could be lucky or the salt was adequate to stop bacterial growth... I do not know....

 Dave 

 

[smokinhusker]

Dave gave you some dead on answers! Since you are intending to low and slow smoke the salmon, I too would suggest cure #1. 

In reference to his answer about the MES and getting smoke at lower temps, he had a good answer, the only thing I might add is that you pull the chip loader out for more air circulation to keep them smoking. MES is pretty air tight. 

 

[jnagel32]

So I smoked two batches of salmon today.  I went with the brine that I mentioned earlier in the thread.  I couldn't get all of the salmon in the brine so the first batch was in there all night and the second batch was in there 4 hours.  I ended up playing around with the temperature a little bit and ended up smoking it at 200° for 4 hours.  I think it turned out pretty well.  I also thawed out some lake trout that I caught earlier this year and brined it for 4 hours.  It is in the smoker now.

Here is the first batch in the brine.

Here is the first batch after the pellicle formed.

Second Batch with pellicle formed.

First batch smoked.

Second batch smoked.

 

[mneeley490]

So I guess I have to ask, why the vanilla? What did it do for the finished product?

 

[jnagel32]

I got the recipe for the brine off of a guy I worked with in Alaska.  Everyone up there just raved about his smoked salmon and that he made the best.  So I got his recipe and this was my first go at it.  As, far as the finished product, it turned out great.  Great flavor to it.  Took me a little bit to get the smoke right with the temps, but the second batch came out very good.  I can't really comment on the vanilla.  I don't have any standard to compare the taste to.  Maybe the next time I smoke some I will leave the vanilla out and see what kind of difference it makes...