With the cold front that came through I got a jump on it and prepped a little over 12.5 pounds of Salmon for Lox!!!!
I live in Texas so I have to JUMP and move as quickly and efficiently as possible to take advantage of temps that get low enough for long enough allowing me a window to cold smoke Salmon Lox. So if you are wondering "why would he do this" you now know that I don't get many cold smoking opportunities during our limited winter time.
This time around though I tried some things to get as streamlined as possible because Lox takes a number different steps and prep over a number of DAYS. Remember I'm trying to get it as efficient as possible here
One of the steps in the process is to desalinate the meat after dry curing it if too much salt and/or curing time is applied (which is the case with the approach I have used) so I was looking to eliminate that step all together and improve on some other stuff as well.
New Things Tried
Here is my list of new things I tried:
My Process:
Lessons Learned:
Conclusion:
The smoke and the things I tried were quite successful! The flavor was good while still having a little bit of room for improvement.
Once I get the citrus component dialed in and I up the salt a tiny bit I think I have a super repeatable, scalable, and much more efficient approach to take advantage of cold front that comes in at the right time and hangs around long enough for me to get this smoke done!
I hope this info helps anyone who are in my situation or anyone who simply wants to reduce time and get more precise when making Salmon Lox!
I live in Texas so I have to JUMP and move as quickly and efficiently as possible to take advantage of temps that get low enough for long enough allowing me a window to cold smoke Salmon Lox. So if you are wondering "why would he do this" you now know that I don't get many cold smoking opportunities during our limited winter time.
This time around though I tried some things to get as streamlined as possible because Lox takes a number different steps and prep over a number of DAYS. Remember I'm trying to get it as efficient as possible here
One of the steps in the process is to desalinate the meat after dry curing it if too much salt and/or curing time is applied (which is the case with the approach I have used) so I was looking to eliminate that step all together and improve on some other stuff as well.
New Things Tried
Here is my list of new things I tried:
- Figure out precise salt measurement to avoid having to desalinate
- Along with other seasoning measurements outside of the cure #1. I'm always careful to properly measure cure #1.
- Dry cure in bags rather than in a large container where the meat is laying on dry cure ingredients and covered with it as wel
- I've never read of anyone doing this and it plays into getting proper ingredient measurements
- Try out using "True Orange" and "True Lemon" crystallized orange and lemon products versus buying and zesting oranges and lemons
- I can keep this stuff in the pantry and use for a lot of stuff and don't have to make a trip to the store and then create zest for 12.5 pounds of salmon
- I can keep this stuff in the pantry and use for a lot of stuff and don't have to make a trip to the store and then create zest for 12.5 pounds of salmon
My Process:
- Salt amount = Used 1.85% of salmon weight (can probably go up to 2%)
- Did 1% sugar
- Did 1 packet (0.8gm) of True Orange and 1 packet of True Lemon
- 1 Tablespoon of White Pepper
- Cure #1 at 150ppm so 1.134gm per pound of salmon
- Put each salmon fillet in a 2 gallon bag with the the measured seasoning for the filet an massaged all over without tearing up the fillets
- Put the 3 bags of salmon fillets into a 2 gallon bag and sealed it up and put in the garage fridge
- I let cure for 48 hours and flipped at the 24 hour mark. The weight of the fish did a good job of applying pressure to help drive in the dry cure
- Rinsed the fillets of all the seasoning really well and then patted dry with paper towels
- Here is what they looked like after curing. You can tell where I roughed them up a little bit but nothing that was an issue
- I put them back in the fridge and let them dry for 48 hours. I would have done 36 BUT I just couldn't get to them to smoke until this past Sat morning so 48 hours it was.
- I smoked the dried salmon for 4 hours with 100% Alder wood and here is what it looked like after it came out
- I sliced at an angle and had 17 packs of tasty salmon lox but no sliced pics as I was busy working with all that meat and vac sealing
- When I was putting the vac sealed salmon lox in the freezer it dawned on me to take a pic so here is what you got as I was stuffing it all in the door hahaa
Lessons Learned:
- It came out really well and was fully cured all the way through and these were all big fillets over 4.25lbs a piece!
- Some of the thicker parts could have used a little more salt so I will probably up the salt to a full 2% next time
- The citrus flavors are almost non-existent so next time I will double to 4 packets total (2 true orange, 2 true lemon) for my 4lbs+ fillets to see if I can get the hint of refreshing citrus flavor that I am going for. I DO believe 100% that the crystallized citrus approach is going to work out, I just gotta figure out the measurements and man is it way faster and easier than zesting hahaha
- Using 2 gallon bags worked well and is soooooooo much more efficient than trying to find a tub or multiple tubs to cure 3 fillets or such a large amount of fish as 12lbs+. You just have to not be heavy handed to while putting the fish in and massaging the seasoning all over to avoid tearing the fillets. An easier approach would be to just cut the fillets into smaller rectangles and work it that way in the bag so I may do that next time.
- I already knew it was good but man it is nice to be reminded of how AWESOME 100% Alder is on this fish and this smoke. I don't think I will entertain deviating unless I'm going for something different like a color change in which I'll use some Cherry and probably some Alder as well
- I was able to improve on efficiency and reduce steps with trying these new things:
- No need for desalination step and time
- Using the 2 gallon bags can totally take advantage of less fridge space and eliminates the need for cumbersome and big tubs/containers to cure the salmon
- True Orange and True Lime saves a boat load of time not making a trip to the store and zesting and is readily available in my pantry for this smoke. Time is really
Conclusion:
The smoke and the things I tried were quite successful! The flavor was good while still having a little bit of room for improvement.
Once I get the citrus component dialed in and I up the salt a tiny bit I think I have a super repeatable, scalable, and much more efficient approach to take advantage of cold front that comes in at the right time and hangs around long enough for me to get this smoke done!
I hope this info helps anyone who are in my situation or anyone who simply wants to reduce time and get more precise when making Salmon Lox!
