Hi there,
I just did my first cold smoked Sablefish and it turned out amazing thanks to this forum!
I was wondering if anyone out there pre-cools your salt before putting it on the fish to reduce risk of Botulism? I took room temperature salt, lined a plastic container, added my cold fish, then covered the fish with remaining salt before putting it in the fridge for 48hours.
Is this good practice or should I have chilled my salt before putting it on the fish? Maybe I'm overthinking it.
Other than this, the fish was at 38 degree fridge temps the whole time before smoking for an hour (Smoker temps never got above 77 degrees F during the cold smoke).
The delicate fish has a nice smoke flavor throughout.
My technique was as follows:
Rinse fish (3 lbs, skin on - I might remove the skin next time)
Cover with salt and place in fridge for 48 hours (did not put any weight on the fish, no sugar, just kosher salt)
Rinsed the fish and put it in 37 degree water in the fridge for 2 hours to desalinate (tasting along the way)
Dried on racks in my fridge for 4 hours (maybe a little too long as the pellicle started to get less sticky towards the end)
Smoked on cold smoke for 1 hour
Rested in fridge for 12 hours before gentle vacuum sealing
Delicious!
Thanks for your help,
Aras
I just did my first cold smoked Sablefish and it turned out amazing thanks to this forum!
I was wondering if anyone out there pre-cools your salt before putting it on the fish to reduce risk of Botulism? I took room temperature salt, lined a plastic container, added my cold fish, then covered the fish with remaining salt before putting it in the fridge for 48hours.
Is this good practice or should I have chilled my salt before putting it on the fish? Maybe I'm overthinking it.
Other than this, the fish was at 38 degree fridge temps the whole time before smoking for an hour (Smoker temps never got above 77 degrees F during the cold smoke).
The delicate fish has a nice smoke flavor throughout.
My technique was as follows:
Rinse fish (3 lbs, skin on - I might remove the skin next time)
Cover with salt and place in fridge for 48 hours (did not put any weight on the fish, no sugar, just kosher salt)
Rinsed the fish and put it in 37 degree water in the fridge for 2 hours to desalinate (tasting along the way)
Dried on racks in my fridge for 4 hours (maybe a little too long as the pellicle started to get less sticky towards the end)
Smoked on cold smoke for 1 hour
Rested in fridge for 12 hours before gentle vacuum sealing
Delicious!
Thanks for your help,
Aras