Smoked my first salmon ever and boy was it a learning experience. Not knowing what to do I it the search button and liked what I saw. Tons of great salmon smokes there. Was gonna try and stick to AKhap's method, however, it did not work out quite the way I wanted.
Picked up a couple flash frozen fillets from trader joes, got them all defrosted and used his brine for 90 min. After the brine the fish was put on the counter under a fan for the pellicle formation.
Had to pick up the parents from the airport so that gave it a good 3-4 hours of rest. Fish after pellicle formed.
Up to this point all was well. Warmed up the MES 30 to 150 with cherry and loaded the fish. This is where things took a turn. First being not a lot of smoke. This was the first time I have used this at such a low temp. I now know I need the AMNPS
. I was also suddenly hit with a time constraint, never good when smoking, no ones fault but my own. I steadily increased the temp to a final temp of around 180 to get it done. Pulled fish with an IT of 140.
All in all it was a good learning experience plus the final product although not done how I wanted, was still the best smoked salmon I had ever eaten. AKhap's brine put a great flavor to the fish just by itself, not too salty at all. This site has been such a huge help to me when hitting the brick wall and not knowing what to do so thanks to all those that have posted their methods. I will be ordering the AMNPS and will try again when I can just focus on the fish.
Phil
Picked up a couple flash frozen fillets from trader joes, got them all defrosted and used his brine for 90 min. After the brine the fish was put on the counter under a fan for the pellicle formation.
Had to pick up the parents from the airport so that gave it a good 3-4 hours of rest. Fish after pellicle formed.
Up to this point all was well. Warmed up the MES 30 to 150 with cherry and loaded the fish. This is where things took a turn. First being not a lot of smoke. This was the first time I have used this at such a low temp. I now know I need the AMNPS
All in all it was a good learning experience plus the final product although not done how I wanted, was still the best smoked salmon I had ever eaten. AKhap's brine put a great flavor to the fish just by itself, not too salty at all. This site has been such a huge help to me when hitting the brick wall and not knowing what to do so thanks to all those that have posted their methods. I will be ordering the AMNPS and will try again when I can just focus on the fish.
Phil
