Honing in my salmon smoking skills

[mlrtym44]

Being station here in Japan, I have never tasted such amazing salmon. It truly is amazing. I'm looking forward to a near future TDY to Alaska so I can see the difference between it and fresh salmon there. That being said here are few picks of a couple smokes. I'm still trying different brines and haven't keyed in on a "this is exactly it" yet. I've use a couple simple brines and actually a couple store brines that were also delicious. The first pic was me it doing full. Then I cut them in portions. I think I like the later better as it is easy to cut frsh then bag and save later.

 

[SmokinAl]

It looks delicious!
Unfortunately I get my salmon at Sam's Club, but it's pretty darn good!
Al

 

[mlrtym44]

I honestly can not describe how good the salmon is here. I'm not sure if I can ever go back to anything else. I found a fish market in Hachinohe that I go to and one filleted salmon costs about 3500 Yen which is around $34 give or take on the exchange rate. this one vendor does not pack it in salt. Most others do. I'd love to find people that fish so I could just get it that way.

 

[gmc2003]

Salmon looks good. We get about 80% of ours from Costco. The other 20% are lakers from Champlain. No comparison to Alaska's.

Chris

 

[SonnyE]

I get mine 3 pounds at a time, individually wrapped, frozen, in portions.
I'm pretty sure the last stuff was Chilean farm raised. $22.98 a bag.
Anymore, I get my ration each month, smoked the whole bunch, then vacuum bag the finished Salmon and freeze it so I can dole it out over the month.
$34 for smoked, ready to eat Salmon sounds good to me. For whole fresh filet here it's around $10 a pound (or was last time I looked). So my 3 pound bag of fishsicles works for me.
The last time I bought a filet, it smelled a little fishy. Fishy fish is old fish. I've never gotten fishy fishsicles.
If you do a tour in Alaska, you'll be able to grab fresh catch, but it comes at a USA price.
I've been enjoying stretching mine by making a dip/spread with it. Makes two pieces into a quart of yummy!

 

[cmayna]

Here I am shopping for some King Salmon. By the time you tip the deck hand, etc, I'd hate to think how much I pay per pound.

mirtym44, I like what you have presented, especially smoking the bones. A couple ideas to consider when you do your next batch. Instead of cutting the whole side filet into smaller portions after you smoke, try cutting the fish before you smoke. Then when you smoke the smaller portions, you will get more smoke on the edges.

What type of brine did you use? I typically go for a simple dry brine of dark brown sugar with non iodized salt.

What type of smoker are you using and at what temps? I typically do low temps of 130, 140, 150+ until an internal temp of 140* is met.

Now get a small spoon and scrape the meat off those bones!! :)

 

[73saint]

Lucky to have fresh local salmon! I try and look for wild caught, but we rarely get lucky enough for that. When you hold a farm raised filet alongside a wild caught one, there is no comparison!

Great looking batch you've got there!