Newbie wants to smoke salmon

[zayas]

Hello everyone,

I'm living in Japan and a couple of friends and I are having a BBQ. We want to do a smoked salmon, but I have some questions:

1) my friends aren't in to brining or marinating the fish (they're Japanese, so they like their fish as plain as possible). So would skipping this step be detrimental to the smoking process?

2) we most-likely won't be smoking in a smoker, but on a grill instead. What's the best way to go about this? We will be using wood chips.

3) do we need to remove the skin of the fish before smoking?

Those are all the things I can think of for now. Any help or suggestions are much appreciated! Thanks!

 

[jjwdiver]

Zayas,  Here is what I do when I want to enjoy some salmon but want it soon.  No marinade, no hassle and on a Weber Kettle charcoal grill.  I take the salmon and squeeze on some lemon (because I enjoy that taste), then I prepare the grill with about 15 charcoal briquettes in the chiminey starter, another 30 lined up around the edge of the grill 3 wide. I add on chips, chunks, pellets or whatever I have on top of the row of charcoal. Once the coals are ready in the chiminey, I spread them out on one end of the row of coals and partially on top of that same end. This allows them to start the heat process and then slowly burn at a low steady heat with smoke.

I place the salmon of whatever fish skin down on a small piece of foil. The foil has the edges rolled up to form a tray to hold in any oils that are created so they dont flame up on the grill.  This process cooks the fish and adds smoke. Not a true "smoked" fish, but it gets the flavors and cooks it thoroughly so I can enjoy a meal the evening.

Good luck!

John

 

[bajajohn]

The best advise I can give you, is don't over cook the salmon.  Its done at 135 to 140 degrees.  I would cook it indirect.  I would coat the salmon with a little soy sauce.  Putting it in foil skin side down.  Hope this helps.  John

 

[zayas]

Hey guys, thanks for the advice. Unfortunately it didn't turn out too well. We bought the salmon the day of, so no chance to marinade. It wasn't even seasoned. We didn't have a grill, so we used the cardboard box method. We smoked it for about an hour and a half, and it didn't come out overbooked. However, it barely had a smoke flavor and just tasted like plain fish. Hardly anybody ate it (bunch of people said it looked delicious, but as soon as they tasted it, they didn't say anything, hahah).

I'll expand on this post later, but for now, I'm gonna practice smoking and make up for it next time. Thanks for your advice, everyone. I'll try to to make the next smoke something that they won't forget!

 

[austinl]

     Sounds like a little more preparation and at least a small kettle grill would go miles; er kilometers, haha.  I had some friends from the  Philippines while I was in the Army whom had that same attitude about fish but once I got them to actually try a "western" take on cooking and preparing foods they are familiar with (like fish) I got a good response.  I never expected them to do it themselves but if I got some smiles and responses I considered it a success.  

     Anyway, I made a simple marinate that gave the surface of the fish some flavor but didn't distract from the fish flavor and I believe some nice indirect mellow smoke like apple or pecan really tied it all together.  To make enough for a 2-3 pound filet I used 1 cup of any medium-bodied white wine, 1/2 cup of a very flavorful soy sauce, 1/2 cup brown sugar, a few cloves of minced garlic, and a hand-full sized piece of ginger root that was pealed and sliced into thin pieces.  

     If you let the filet of a fatty fish (like salmon) marinate in that mixture for at least 4 hours and reserve a small amount to mop the fish with a couple times during cooking I think you will have a good balance between boring plain fish and familiar bbq preparation.  If you can keep the heat down under 250F it should have enough time to absorb some smoke flavor and not be dry.

 

[austinl]

Correction: I also added a tablespoon or two of sesame oil to that marinade.