Decided to give smoked salmon a try after reading through a few threads. Followed Mr T's "Smoked Salmon From Go to Show" w/Q-View. If you're thinking about trying smoked salmon this is the guide you want to follow. Everything went smooth and it was really pretty easy to do. Oh and also it tasted amazing.
Doubled his brine recipe bc I had ~4 lbs of salmon to start with. I put it all in a 2.5 gallon baggie but Id recommend splitting it into two 1 gallon baggies like his post shows.
So I brined them for ~24 hrs, rinsed off with water, patted dry and laid them out to form that pellicle. Took about 2 hours for me with no fan.
And here are finished pics. Put the salmon on the smoker cold so it slowly climbed to 200* and took ~50 min to get to an IT of 140*. After that I closed the bottom vents of my WSM and let it finish there for 30 min, IT hit 149* and held. Smoked these with 2.2 oz of cherry wood bc I didnt have any alder. I'll use a little more wood next time, probably 3 oz.
The salmon was fantastic. Things said around the table were "I like it more with every bite I take" and "I'd order that in a restaurant!" Really was pretty easy to do and it turned out great. Only thing Id change is adding a little extra wood and I also held back on the cayenne pepper (brine called for a full tblspn but i shorted it) bc I didnt want it to be super spicy. It'll be even better next time with a little kick.
Thanks for lookin and bonus pics of a friends pup that came over. Lab/dachsund.
Doubled his brine recipe bc I had ~4 lbs of salmon to start with. I put it all in a 2.5 gallon baggie but Id recommend splitting it into two 1 gallon baggies like his post shows.
So I brined them for ~24 hrs, rinsed off with water, patted dry and laid them out to form that pellicle. Took about 2 hours for me with no fan.
And here are finished pics. Put the salmon on the smoker cold so it slowly climbed to 200* and took ~50 min to get to an IT of 140*. After that I closed the bottom vents of my WSM and let it finish there for 30 min, IT hit 149* and held. Smoked these with 2.2 oz of cherry wood bc I didnt have any alder. I'll use a little more wood next time, probably 3 oz.
The salmon was fantastic. Things said around the table were "I like it more with every bite I take" and "I'd order that in a restaurant!" Really was pretty easy to do and it turned out great. Only thing Id change is adding a little extra wood and I also held back on the cayenne pepper (brine called for a full tblspn but i shorted it) bc I didnt want it to be super spicy. It'll be even better next time with a little kick.
Thanks for lookin and bonus pics of a friends pup that came over. Lab/dachsund.