Offset smoker w/salmon

[flyingsalmon]

Hi & greetings from Wine country, California!
I’m new here. I am curious about any tips for using an offset smoker to smoke salmon.
I have a large Texas pit crafters offset smoker. My total cooking space is around 2000 square inches. Are use everything from full logs, half logs, Split logs and chips when I smoke. I’ve had a lot of success smoking trout. I generally use Aldar, apple, cherry and sometimes even hickory as a (base fire) when smoking. Since I use logs and would split it so much trickier endeavor keeping my fire and heat exactly where I want it. I’m wondering if anyone here has any tips in terms of types of wood, amount of wood or temperature recommendations for smoking salmon. This not a set & forget type of smoker so any tips & recommendations are greatly appreciated.
Flying Salmon

 

[SmokinAl]

If your smoking salmon for dinner, then it only takes about 30-45 minutes at 225, until it gets flaky. We like to coat it with EVOO & dust it with Cajun seasoning. I like to use mesquite for salmon.
Good stuff!
Al

 

[BigW.]

I usually do a hot smoke similar to Al. Quick and easy for dinner. There are others here that do a brine for a more traditional smoked salmon. Such as:

Final Smoked Salmon with recipe, instructions, and Qview

Smoked Salmon (Final Recipe) The experiments are completed. The best recipe I found is all that’s left. The following is my results from smoking 8 batches of Salmon caught in Upstate New York. I experimented with many different ways to see what worked best for me. My variations included cold...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

Smoked salmon nuggets

I have been wanting to try these. Glad I finally did. I had about 2-3lbs of belly and tail trim from a recent batch of lox. So I did a little research and came up with this brine: 3/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup kosher salt 1Tbs garlic powder 1Tbs onion powder 1tsp cayenne pepper I cut my...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

Good Luck.

 

[flyingsalmon]

Thanks for responses. I’m smoking large amount of fish and everything I smoke is always pre-brined for usually between 8 and 12 hours. My smoker is large enough to accommodate 24 trout. So my questions posted earlier are more specific to what temperatures folks around here like to cook salmon at. I’ve been fiddling around with 170 to 185 ..190. I’m curious if anyone has tried smoking salmon above or at 200? Of course, I want to avoid the dread albinum

 

[forktender]

Thanks for responses. I’m smoking large amount of fish and everything I smoke is always pre-brined for usually between 8 and 12 hours. My smoker is large enough to accommodate 24 trout. So my questions posted earlier are more specific to what temperatures folks around here like to cook salmon at. I’ve been fiddling around with 170 to 185 ..190. I’m curious if anyone has tried smoking salmon above or at 200? Of course, I want to avoid the dread albinum

If you don't want albinum to form on your salmon you need to start your fish out at a temp lower than 150* for the first hour or two. Then you can increase the temp up to 200* no hotter, or you still have a chance of getting the dreaded nasty ooze's. I use a combo of peach or pear and applewood the whole alder thing escapes me, I'm not an Inuit Eskimo so why would I use alder? They use it because it is there not because it's better than other woods. (So use what you like and what is local to you).
I prefer mild smoke flavor on my fish which is why I use the wood that I do. I've used fig and persimmon wood and if I ever get my hands on more I would never use another wood on my salmon ever again it was amazing. I know a number of commercial fish smokers on the Norcal coast that use nothing but sugar maple and grapevine to smoke their salmon. Man seeing that you live in the wine country you might want to stop buy a few of the vineyards burn piles to load up on trimmings if there is anything left after the fires this year. I live on the delta about 30 minutes southeast of you I used to travel through on hwy 29 every weekend on my way to the lake. I'd stop at every brush pile I saw at the wineries until I had a truck bed full, its damn good stuff to smoke fish, fowl and beef with try it you'll like it I bet.

 

[flyingsalmon]

Awesome response. One side of my family owns a winery in town that has two facilities plus of food & wine pairing room. So I actually have an overflow of used wine barrels and other woods soaked in wine at my disposal. Today my smoke went very well it never went above 200 and never had any albumin whatsoever. I posted a picture of one of my salmon pieces. I like smoking with Alder as a base and cherry & Apple accents. i’ve been searching for Sugar Maple Wood but have yet to find any. total brine time was 12 hours, air drying time was 6 1/2 hours and smoke time was five hours.

 

[flyingsalmon]

 

[forktender]

Man, I'm surprised that farmed fish didn't squirt out a bunch of albumin it normally does.

 

[flyingsalmon]

Hey Fork tender ,
Low & slow .... In fact, very low and slow and as well the right type of glaze helps to seal in the smoke without spiking the heat. I hate albumin.

 

[daspyknows]

I plan on doing salmon when my friend sees his fisherman friend this winter.