Thursday, August 25, 2011

Smoked Salmon

We are lucky enough to have Wild Run Salmon at our farmers market to provides us with fresh frozen, wild Alaskan salmon. They offer a deal when you buy in bulk, so we filled our freezer with 20 pounds of salmon! Now, we love using the salmon the way it is, but also wanted some smoked for salads, pasta, chowder and dips. Matt decided to trying smoking it himself.
Smoked Salmon
I was a little worried it wouldn't work very well in our hot smoker (as opposed to a cold smoker) and we'd end up with salmon jerky. Matt though was ever confident.
Preparing Salmon to Smoke
After being boned and cut into 2" strips, the salmon sits for two to three days in a marinade in the fridge. Matt's marinade smelled wonderful with the soy sauce, brown sugar and garlic. He used a bowl on top to keep the salmon under the marinade.
Preparing Salmon to Smoke
Then it gets rinsed off and let to sit for an hour at room temperature before hitting the smoker.
Smoking Salmon
He placed the salmon skin side down on sheets of tin foil in the smoker. Matt chose cherry wood for his smoke. Then, he was careful to keep the heat at what our smoker called the ideal temperature (between 200 - 250 F), not to hot and not too cold. We had read that it should smoke for 2 - 3 hours, but Matt took ours off after 1 1/2. It was cooked through and we didn't want it to dry out.

Matt's Salmon Brine
(this brine is great even if you're just throwing your salmon on the grill)

3/4 c soy sauce
1 c brown sugar
1 c white sugar
2 c water
1/4 c non-iodized salt (iodized salt can add an odd flavor, use kosher or pickling salt)
2 bay leaves
1 t garlic powder
1 t ground black pepper

Mix everything together and microwave a few seconds to help the sugar and salt dissolve. Let cool before adding the salmon.

Enough brine for 3 - 4 pounds of salmon.

Next week a smoked salmon, zucchini and bread cheese salad.

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8 comments:

  1. Yum! I just got back from Scotland where I consumed more than enough smoked salmon. It was so good there I'm not sure I can ever eat it in the states again!

    I will have to give your recipe a try though...gotta find something that compares!

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  2. I have achieved the salmon jerky effect once with one of Paul's beautiful freshly caught trout. He was not amused. Usually 40 minutes in our little smoker is fine!

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  3. Oh man would I love some of that right now. Looks so good.

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  4. My MIL went to Alaska one year and went salmon fishing. She shipped home nearly 100 pounds of salmon and we got a big load because we had a chest freezer to hold it. We smoked a lot of it, and it was so delicious and so fresh tasting. I missed that so much when it was gone.

    This looks fantastic.

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  5. Do you know what kind of salmon that is? Coho, pink?

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  6. Anonymous - I don't know what kind this was because we had all different kinds in the freezer. Matt says it doesn't matter for this recipe. A lot of the color here comes from the brine.

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  7. I'm so glad you posted this! I've been wondering if we might be able to smoke some salmon ourselves. It's so tough to find around here, this is a great option!

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  8. Looks awesome, it takes me back to a restaurant that made smoked salmon pancakes in a cheesy wine sauce,absolutely to die for.

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