First Smoked Salmon (with qview)

[im1986]

Today a friend gave me a 13# chinook salmon. It was kinda spawned out, but i figure it would be a good fish to start with on the smoker. 

So i brought it home, cut it into fillets, made a brine out of water, salt, brown sugar, and soy sauce. 

My questions are:

1. how long to brine?

2. how long to hot smoke it?

3. what temps should i hot smoke it at?  

Now for the pictures. 

Here is the whole fish.

Cut into fillets 

And into the brine

Thanks guys. 

 

[im1986]

Well i cooked up a small slice of this salmon, and the meat on it is terrable. I have decided not use it for smoking. I think the fish was just too spawned out.

I am going to pick up some salmon from safeway tomorrow.

 

[SmokinAl]

I do all my salmon fishing at Sam's!  

 

[africanmeat]

sorry it is a nice fish ,what did you put in the brine?

 

[tjohnson]

Do they just get nasty after they spawn?

I suppose they are near death, and this may be why the meat is bad

TJ

 

[frosty]

Al, you crack me up. 

  I think I heard somewhere that obtaining Salmon after the spawn is not a good thing due to several different changes, AND the death thing CAN't be good.  Let the bears have them.

 

[im1986]

Yes, they get real nasty after spawn. I knew this one was real borderline. The meat turns sour and is totally un-eatable.

 

[im1986]

I do all my salmon fishing at Sam's!  :cool:

We don't have a same club up here, Walmart is the closest thing to same, however our safeway is the best for meats.

 

[steamaway]

Would have been more fun catching him then smoking him! 

 

[im1986]

Would have been more fun catching him then smoking him! 

Yes it would of....

 

[im1986]

Well, here we go. Smoked Salmon Take 2. 

I bought 2 nice salmon fillets at safeway, cut them in half, and they have been in the brine for 24 hours. I got the smoker all ready, and I am going to attempt a cold smoke. 

How long should i cold smoke them? 

Here is the qview. 

Ready for the brine

Ready for the smoker

In the smoker

 

[im1986]

Well here is the finished salmon, 

I hot smoked it for about 2 hours at 170, then turned the heat up to 200 for the final 10 min. Tastes great, a little on the salty side. I think 24 hours in the brine is too long for my taste, next time i'm going to try 12 hours and cold smoking it. 

 

[rbranstner]

Well here is the finished salmon, 

I hot smoked it for about 2 hours at 170, then turned the heat up to 200 for the final 10 min. Tastes great, a little on the salty side. I think 24 hours in the brine is too long for my taste, next time i'm going to try 12 hours and cold smoking it. 

The salmon looks good from here. I am the same was as Al I do all of my salmon fishing at Sam's Club

. If the salmon was to salty you might want to try cutting back on the amount of salt in your brine especially since I see you have soy sauce in there as well. If you want a good brine to try or at least to look at some of the volumes of ingredients just do a quick search and you will find quite a few. Bearcarvers salmon brine is suppose to be really good if you want to search for that.
 

 

[SmokinAl]

We don't use a brine, just EVOO & cajun seasoning.

 

[steamaway]

I'm giving it my first crack at Salmon tomorrow. Think i'm going brineless. 

 

[owlcreeksmoker4]

I'm with Al on this one as I never use brine on my fish, too delicate a meat in my opinion. just a good rub always does the job for me

 

[im1986]

yes I think that I am going to go brineless as well next time.

I found a recipe that calls for a 1 hour marinade soak, seems pretty yummy. I'm going to give that a shot next time.