HOMEMADE LOX WITH RECIPE & STEPS, PLENTY OF Q-VIEW

[SmokinAl]

Al Great write up! Glad to see you did the step by step BBailies doesn't show the steps any more. POINTS
Richie

Thanks Richie,
I changed BBallys recipe some, mostly the time frames for the drying periods, & keeping the lox covered during the drying times. It seemed to make a much more tender end product.
Al

 

[73saint]

I have always followed this recipe with 5lbs of salmon, but today I picked up half of that (2.5) in wild sockeye salmon. I know Als recipe says cut the cure in half for less fish, but what about the pickling salt bath and the regular salt that goes into the dry cure mix? Should I cut those as well? Or just plan to soak longer?

 

[73saint]

I have always followed this recipe with 5lbs of salmon, but today I picked up half of that (2.5) in wild sockeye salmon. I know Als recipe says cut the cure in half for less fish, but what about the pickling salt bath and the regular salt that goes into the dry cure mix? Should I cut those as well? Or just plan to soak longer?

I just went back to the store and got enough to make a 5lb batch. All good, sorry to drag up an old thread for nada...

 

[SmokinAl]

I have always followed this recipe with 5lbs of salmon, but today I picked up half of that (2.5) in wild sockeye salmon. I know Als recipe says cut the cure in half for less fish, but what about the pickling salt bath and the regular salt that goes into the dry cure mix? Should I cut those as well? Or just plan to soak longer?

You would cut all the ingredients in half if you would have only used 2 1/2 pounds of salmon. But no need to do that now!
Al

 

[Mario Trettenero]

You would cut all the ingredients in half if you would have only used 2 1/2 pounds of salmon. But no need to do that now!
Al

Hey Al,

Quick question for you - have you ever vacuum sealed frozen unsliced Lox then slice it after freezing for an extended period of time?

I have 30 lbs of King salmon I'm about to create Lox with and I’m going to use your recipe - thanks

I cold smoke a lot of kings every year and I’ll cut and trim the fillets into half pound pieces, vacuum seal them then freeze them. I’ll pull, thaw and slice them as required - could I use this for the Lox?

 

[cmayna]

Not speaking for Al, but that is the way I do my smoked lox. Cold smoke & freeze. When ready to eat, thaw and then slice.

 

[Mario Trettenero]

Not speaking for Al, but that is the way I do my smoked lox. Cold smoke & freeze. When ready to eat, thaw and then slice.

Thank you, makes sense I think it would store a lot fresher leaving each piece intact then slicing when desired. I know it works well for my cold smoke process but everybody does it a bit different and at the end of the day that’s ok.

 

[SmokinAl]

Hey Al,

Quick question for you - have you ever vacuum sealed frozen unsliced Lox then slice it after freezing for an extended period of time?

I have 30 lbs of King salmon I'm about to create Lox with and I’m going to use your recipe - thanks

I cold smoke a lot of kings every year and I’ll cut and trim the fillets into half pound pieces, vacuum seal them then freeze them. I’ll pull, thaw and slice them as required - could I use this for the Lox?

Not speaking for Al, but that is the way I do my smoked lox. Cold smoke & freeze. When ready to eat, thaw and then slice.

Thank you, makes sense I think it would store a lot fresher leaving each piece intact then slicing when desired. I know it works well for my cold smoke process but everybody does it a bit different and at the end of the day that’s ok.

Well if Craig says it works, then I would say it works. Personally for me I just slice it all at once, bag it in 6 oz. portions & freeze it. After it's frozen I vacuum the bags. This way the fish won't get crushed. Also when you thaw it out just prick a few holes in the plastic or when it thaws it will vacuum up tight around the lox. I think if I was making that much lox I would freeze it in pieces & then thaw & slice when ready to eat. It's hard enough to slice 5 lbs., can't imagine standing there and slicing 30#.
Al

 

[Mario Trettenero]

Well if Craig says it works, then I would say it works. Personally for me I just slice it all at once, bag it in 6 oz. portions & freeze it. After it's frozen I vacuum the bags. This way the fish won't get crushed. Also when you thaw it out just prick a few holes in the plastic or when it thaws it will vacuum up tight around the lox. I think if I was making that much lox I would freeze it in pieces & then thaw & slice when ready to eat. It's hard enough to slice 5 lbs., can't imagine standing there and slicing 30#.
Al

Thanks Al - very much appreciated

Mario

 

[SmokinAl]

Thanks Al - very much appreciated

Mario

No problem. Let me know how your lox turns out & if you think there Is a difference in the flavor between slicing first & then freezing, versus cutting into chunks & Freezing, then thawing & slicing. I’m thinking that since the fish is intact it would retain. More of the moisture. So if you slice it then after thawing it out it would taste fresher than if it was sliced frozen &and thawed. Gonna have to look into this. Keep me posted!
Al

 

[Mario Trettenero]

No problem. Let me know how your lox turns out & if you think there Is a difference in the flavor between slicing first & then freezing, versus cutting into chunks & Freezing, then thawing & slicing. I’m thinking that since the fish is intact it would retain. More of the moisture. So if you slice it then after thawing it out it would taste fresher than if it was sliced frozen &and thawed. Gonna have to look into this. Keep me posted!
Al

Will do - thanks

 

[Smoking Allowed]

Saving for later since I'm not sure how to bookmark this.

 

[cmayna]

Saving for later since I'm not sure how to bookmark this.

Now that you have joined this thread, you will be notified via email when another person chimes in. Also go to your icon upper right and left of the mail envelope. You will see a list of threads you are participating in.

 

[cmayna]

To SmokinAl and all, I've recently been cold smoking a bunch of Albacore and first sliced it before I froze it. I then tried smoking and freezing it. Then thaw out and slice. Much more oilier and tastier this way.

 

[MeatCharter]

Beautiful stuff. This inspired me to give it a try.

I got a stupid deal on Atlantic Salmon on Amazon. I got 10 packages (12 oz each) on a Cedar Plank for $21.80. It's skin on, so I'll have to take that off prior, but I'll struggle through it.

A few questions....

1. I don't have any pickling salt. Is that vital or can I just use kosher for the initial step?
2. Do you see any hurdles with doing 7 different pieces of salmon instead of 2 big ones?
3. Any harm in vacuum sealing whole and then freezing? Is it better to slice everything first? I would think there would be less surface area and it would freeze better whole.

 

[tallbm]

Beautiful stuff. This inspired me to give it a try.

I got a stupid deal on Atlantic Salmon on Amazon. I got 10 packages (12 oz each) on a Cedar Plank for $21.80. It's skin on, so I'll have to take that off prior, but I'll struggle through it.

A few questions....

1. I don't have any pickling salt. Is that vital or can I just use kosher for the initial step?
2. Do you see any hurdles with doing 7 different pieces of salmon instead of 2 big ones?
3. Any harm in vacuum sealing whole and then freezing? Is it better to slice everything first? I would think there would be less surface area and it would freeze better whole.

I have some insight and answers for you :D

Great deal on that sale, is it still going?
***Also I have experimented with doing skin on cure and smoke for my lox. I just made sure it hat enough days (1/4 inch of salt and cure to travel every 24 hours).
I smoked with skin on AND I discovered that slicing nice and thin while it was still attached to the skin was EASIER!!!
Also at the end you just run the knife along the skin and remove all the thin slices at once!!! I then went and fried up that skin like bacon. So many wins all around :D

1. I use Kosher salt and I also use the proper amount cure #1 which is important for safety and flavor

2. Only hurdles I see is you have to have more space. If you use 1 gallon ziplock bags for each one you can easily measure out the cure for each and seal them up. Then you just need enough fridge space and smoker rack space to handle them all at once :D

3. I don't think it would be much of an issue to vac seal whole and freeze and slice later BUT I have run into cases where freezing some meats makes them more "tender" so that would affect slicing. When stuff freezes in a normal freezer micro ice crystals of water freeze kind of tenderizing the meat. So when it defrosts those bits of water seem to want to run out leaving the meat more susceptible to tearing. I was curious about this and did a little searching and came across this info. I'm not sure how scientifically accurate it all is but it made sense with what I was doing and seeing with some of my frozen vac sealed sandwich meats.
I prefer slicing everything 1st and then freezing in vac seal bags. This allows for better portion management and not having to fool with refreezing again later.
Again I think you can get away with either approach but I never did the whole fillet and slice later.

I hope this info helps and others can provide some other good insights and answers :D

 

[MeatCharter]

I have some insight and answers for you :D

Great deal on that sale, is it still going?
***Also I have experimented with doing skin on cure and smoke for my lox. I just made sure it hat enough days (1/4 inch of salt and cure to travel every 24 hours).
I smoked with skin on AND I discovered that slicing nice and thin while it was still attached to the skin was EASIER!!!
Also at the end you just run the knife along the skin and remove all the thin slices at once!!! I then went and fried up that skin like bacon. So many wins all around :D

1. I use Kosher salt and I also use the proper amount cure #1 which is important for safety and flavor

2. Only hurdles I see is you have to have more space. If you use 1 gallon ziplock bags for each one you can easily measure out the cure for each and seal them up. Then you just need enough fridge space and smoker rack space to handle them all at once :D

3. I don't think it would be much of an issue to vac seal whole and freeze and slice later BUT I have run into cases where freezing some meats makes them more "tender" so that would affect slicing. When stuff freezes in a normal freezer micro ice crystals of water freeze kind of tenderizing the meat. So when it defrosts those bits of water seem to want to run out leaving the meat more susceptible to tearing. I was curious about this and did a little searching and came across this info. I'm not sure how scientifically accurate it all is but it made sense with what I was doing and seeing with some of my frozen vac sealed sandwich meats.
I prefer slicing everything 1st and then freezing in vac seal bags. This allows for better portion management and not having to fool with refreezing again later.
Again I think you can get away with either approach but I never did the whole fillet and slice later.

I hope this info helps and others can provide some other good insights and answers :D

On the deal, so basically Amazon changes prices. Right now the salmon I got for $2.18 is showing as $7.49. But they change it and seems like it drops later in the day. I scooped some when it was at $4.40 before, but then yesterday it dropped for $2.18 so I got the max in the order which was 10x. I got a 90 day free subscription to Amazon Fresh (free delivery on $35+ orders), I think they are just running 30 days now.

Here's link to exact product:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CP6GXK9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_fresh_asin_image_o00?ie=UTF8&almBrandId=QW1hem9uIEZyZXNo&fpw=alm&th=1

That's great to know about the skin. I'll leave it attached until I smoke and slice it after!

1. I was more asking about the soaking the fish step. Not the cure itself. "To 1 gallon of water add 2 cu. of pickling salt. Put salmon in a food safe plastic container and add salt water & enough ice to cool the salmon down to under 40 degrees for 30 minutes."

I don't have pickling salt. I guess I can just do regular kosher salt. Not sure the reason for this exact step. Maybe just to get the fishiness slime off? Just to rinse it?

2. Got it!

3. Makes sense. Maybe I'll test it both ways.

Appreciate your help!!

 

[tallbm]

On the deal, so basically Amazon changes prices. Right now the salmon I got for $2.18 is showing as $7.49. But they change it and seems like it drops later in the day. I scooped some when it was at $4.40 before, but then yesterday it dropped for $2.18 so I got the max in the order which was 10x. I got a 90 day free subscription to Amazon Fresh (free delivery on $35+ orders), I think they are just running 30 days now.

Here's link to exact product:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CP6GXK9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_fresh_asin_image_o00?ie=UTF8&almBrandId=QW1hem9uIEZyZXNo&fpw=alm&th=1

That's great to know about the skin. I'll leave it attached until I smoke and slice it after!

1. I was more asking about the soaking the fish step. Not the cure itself. "To 1 gallon of water add 2 cu. of pickling salt. Put salmon in a food safe plastic container and add salt water & enough ice to cool the salmon down to under 40 degrees for 30 minutes."

I don't have pickling salt. I guess I can just do regular kosher salt. Not sure the reason for this exact step. Maybe just to get the fishiness slime off? Just to rinse it?

2. Got it!

3. Makes sense. Maybe I'll test it both ways.

Appreciate your help!!

Oh I have no clue about that soaking fish step. I don't do that at all. My salmon fillets come from the fresh counter or are fresh packed. I never tried with the frozen fillets which I don't care for because yeah they are often way more fishy.

I have the link open and will check it. I would LOVE to score fresh salmon at $2-something a pound or hell under $6 a pound is a great deal for me.

 

[MeatCharter]

Did anyone do % conversions?

1.5 cups of Kosher salt (Mortons) is 361.5 grams. 5 lbs of fish is 2267.96 grams.

That means this has 15.93% salt. That seems really high. Other recipes call for 2.5-3%? Is my salt much heavier or something?

 

[tallbm]

Did anyone do % conversions?

1.5 cups of Kosher salt (Mortons) is 361.5 grams. 5 lbs of fish is 2267.96 grams.

That means this has 15.93% salt. That seems really high. Other recipes call for 2.5-3%? Is my salt much heavier or something?

I use https://forums.egullet.org/cure-calculator/
and I don't like going over 1.65% salt.

Now if you are doing some kind of wet equilibrium cure then you want the total weight of water + meat to calculate your salt, cure #1, and sugar off of it.
I don't think you were talking an wet cure.

I dry cure my salmon in gallon bags (no water, no rinsing, or pickling salt, etc.). So I use that calculator and just use the weight of the fish since no water is involved.
I still go 1.65% salt because 2% is too salty for me and 3 % is waaaaay too salty.