Hello fellow smokers. I did another amazing smoked salmon a couple weekends ago. Sorry it's taken so long to post the QView (you know... work, life, family, yada yada). So, here we go...
I made up my basic water, salt, brown sugar brine the night before and refrigerated it overnight. In the morning I brined the salmon pieces for 90 minutes.
After the 90-minute brine, they went under the fan for a few hours to form the perfect pellicle. The one thing I've learned (and will never forget) is that the pellicle is critical. Here they are just out of the brine starting to form the pellicle.
I had them under the fan (on the highest setting) for a few hours. It is hard to see from these pics, but an absolutely perfect pellicle formed. (can you tell I was proud that?)
See for yourselves:
I have a Char-Griller smoker with the side fire box. I was using cherry wood chunks for this smoke. I really like using cherry on salmon lately. So, around noon they were ready for the smoker.
Now, the hard part with my rig and my location is keeping the smoke chamber temp down. The smoker chamber temp should stay down to around 140*. Otherwise the fat in the flesh starts to render. This means CONSTANTLY monitoring my wood burn. Even with the intake vents almost completely closed, I burn 1-2 chunks at a time or it will get too hot. I even had the smoker in the shade of my big patio umbrella. Did I mention it was a nice, sunny 70* day that Saturday?
Now for the money shots. Beautiful smoked salmon. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any fillets at the store where the flesh didn't have some sort of broken flesh. The broken flesh did produce a few little "white spots" of rendered fat. Being a perfectionist, I was disappointed about that, but the rest of the final product (taste, texture, etc) was excellent. The family loved it.
Wow!! Just posting the QView had got me all hungry again. All I can think about now is planning my next smoke.
Happy smoking everyone.
I made up my basic water, salt, brown sugar brine the night before and refrigerated it overnight. In the morning I brined the salmon pieces for 90 minutes.
After the 90-minute brine, they went under the fan for a few hours to form the perfect pellicle. The one thing I've learned (and will never forget) is that the pellicle is critical. Here they are just out of the brine starting to form the pellicle.
I had them under the fan (on the highest setting) for a few hours. It is hard to see from these pics, but an absolutely perfect pellicle formed. (can you tell I was proud that?)
I have a Char-Griller smoker with the side fire box. I was using cherry wood chunks for this smoke. I really like using cherry on salmon lately. So, around noon they were ready for the smoker.
Now, the hard part with my rig and my location is keeping the smoke chamber temp down. The smoker chamber temp should stay down to around 140*. Otherwise the fat in the flesh starts to render. This means CONSTANTLY monitoring my wood burn. Even with the intake vents almost completely closed, I burn 1-2 chunks at a time or it will get too hot. I even had the smoker in the shade of my big patio umbrella. Did I mention it was a nice, sunny 70* day that Saturday?
Now for the money shots. Beautiful smoked salmon. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any fillets at the store where the flesh didn't have some sort of broken flesh. The broken flesh did produce a few little "white spots" of rendered fat. Being a perfectionist, I was disappointed about that, but the rest of the final product (taste, texture, etc) was excellent. The family loved it.
Wow!! Just posting the QView had got me all hungry again. All I can think about now is planning my next smoke.
