Kippered Salmon round 2

[bellevueduck]

Told my friend about my minor success doing the 1st batch of Kippered Salmon.

He brought over 2 nice filets of Coho he caught in BC last season. Vacuum packed and in very good shape. I'm starting the bring process today and will smoke tomorrow or possibly Sat AM.

Will do 2 batches a bit different and to make sure I have a success on one of them.
Will do a better baste than last time. Myers Rum/Brown sugar.

Stay tuned: may have some questions

The current plan is:
Cut into 6-8 oz portions
Brine for 6 Hours
Overnight dry for pellicle forming
Smoking tomorrow AM

 

[bellevueduck]

Status:
Ended up brining for 20 hours
took Dave's advice and set up indoor fan..
Suggestions on how long? 5 Hours?

Would like to start smoking at noon

 

[pc farmer]

As soon as the surface is dry you can start smoking

 

[bellevueduck]

Thanks....

I did a good job with paper towels to dry them off
the fan is low but very direct so I'll be looking at sticky dry in a few hours.

So far our indoor cats are not interested..

 

[pc farmer]

What smoker you using?

 

[bellevueduck]

Traeger Silverton The Costco model

Have had it since August. Have done 7 briskets lots of whole chicks...getting it down
Have lots of diff types of pellets but will do mesquite/apple.
Seems that the apple pellets toned down the mesquite a bit and added a sweet taste.
Going to do the Myers Rum/Brown sugar basting
My previous thread was 1st time.. Taste of fish was excellent.
Using similar process but a bit more knowledgeable this time around

 

[bellevueduck]

Update : Got Pellicle?

Going on 3 Hours of fan blowing over the salmon
So difficult with my limited experience to tell if there pellicle forming.

It's dry and firm to touch. I guess you could say alittle tacky in some places on
some of the pieces.

I'll call it at noon or if there is another test of pellicle and it's there
will then switch over to the smoker.

 

[pc farmer]

Just dry to the touch.

 

[bellevueduck]

Been going for about 1 hour
did the myers run/brown sugar
temp of the traeger is about 160. can't get it much lower
as you can see ice cubes tray in there.
have door proped open but traeger will keep smoke mode between 160-180
Using a combo of alder/apple... previously I said mesquite

 

[bellevueduck]

Finished Product
Sure looks good.

First taste was very salty and heavy smoke. Possible my blend of Alder/Apple was off
Possibly brine it too long(turned out to be 20 hours overnight) 1 cup of salt 1 cup brnsugar 1 cup water

Cut the thinnest piece possible that are not in the picture.
Will try a thicker piece with a few others for a critique.

 

[bellevueduck]

Overall reviews were too salty.
W only tried the thinnest piece so perhaps some of the thicker pieces might taste better

Glaze turned out good and very visually appealing.
A bit too much smoke but I can fix that. more applewood less alder
Since this was my friends salmon have to redo it today/tomorrow.

So asking for opinions on how to not make it as salty

Brine was 1 cup kosher salt 1 cup water 1/2 1/2 white and brown sugar
Brine time was 20 hours...

will redo today but only after collecting some smokeguru's opinions

 

[fivetricks]

Brine time was too long. Salmon is a thin cut. I do a 4:1 dry brine on mine for about 8-9 hours max.

Idk how that translates to a wet brine, but I would guess it would be even less time with a wet brine. Shoot for 8 hours next time. Beats having to soak your fish to reduce the saltiness.

 

[crazymoon]

BVD, Looks good too bad about the salt. Less brine time OR just less salt for the 20 hour time will do the trick. I have one brine recipe that says 1/2 cup of salt for 4 hours,I use 4 tablespoons and do overnight, it comes our just right.

 

[daveomak]

Overall reviews were too salty.
So asking for opinions on how to not make it as salty
Brine was 1 cup kosher salt 1 cup water 1/2 1/2 white and brown sugar
Brine time was 20 hours...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Use the recipe we talked about in the PM.... Don't use a brine.... You can't adjust how much salt the meat takes in...

 

[bellevueduck]

You were right. Brine was too long, and no more wet brine. Switched to Dry Brine for Round #3...

Taste was pretty good. Not salty at all more fish taste.....less smoke...so moving on the scale the other way
to more of a baked salmon...will try again but I believe I have the parameters and process down.

My Traeger Silverton will not go below 180 on the smoke cycle so I won't be able to
do what I want on on the very low temp smoke. OmakDave suggested opening up the top
but Traeger will keep the temp at the 180smoke temp setting.

So anyone have ideas of a low even smoke and then finishing it off in the traeger at 180?

Otherwise back to the deli to buy their smoked kippered samon and I will do my own
version of dry brine/smoked baked salmon at 180

 

[disco]

Sorry it was too salty but I have learned from your efforts. Thanks!

 

[bellevueduck]

This is my learning curve.... which is OK with me.

Glad you could learn from it.

 

[fivetricks]

Not sure what it's worth to you, but if you installed some sort of rheostat or a PID unit in front of the power wire for the trager, you could run it at whatever temp you prefer.