I am not a fan of salmon. I do not like it at all. I've tried it every which way possible too. I am more of a whitefish type of guy. Give me halibut, flounder, sole, etc any day. However the wife loves salmon and she's always looking for a quick snack before dinner when she works out. So I thought I would try to do some salmon jerky. I have to admit though, seeing all the pictures of Cmayna's jerky results make this stuff look so good, even I want to give it a try.
I read as much as I could on the forums and picked the brain of Cmayna who seems to smoke salmon in all its various forms on a daily basis. Unfortunately I don't have a salmon pipeline like he does so I bought 3lbs of salmon fillets from Costco for $8lb. I could have saved a few bucks and bought whole salmon but I didn't want the added stress of also learning how to prep fillets from a whole fish in addition to smoking my first batch.
My knife skills leave a bit to be desired but I did my best. The wife was not pleased with the skin left on so one fillet was done skinless.
I borrowed Cmayna's dry brine recipe of a 4:1 ratio of brown sugar to non-iodized salt and added a bunch of crushed garlic into the mix as well.
Now I will let it sit in the brine for 3-4 hours then pull it from the brine, rinse it and let it air dry overnight in the fridge. I will smoke it up tomorrow in my new MES30 using my AMNPS and some apple pellets. I got some Masterbuilt silicon jerky/veggie mats to use. That should keep everything in place and let the smoke hit it up good. Right before it goes in the smoker, I want to brush a little teriyaki sauce and some sesame seeds on a few pieces to see how that comes out.
I have to thank everyone on the forums for posting so much good stuff to learn from and thanks to Cmayna for answering all my questions so quickly and clearly!
I read as much as I could on the forums and picked the brain of Cmayna who seems to smoke salmon in all its various forms on a daily basis. Unfortunately I don't have a salmon pipeline like he does so I bought 3lbs of salmon fillets from Costco for $8lb. I could have saved a few bucks and bought whole salmon but I didn't want the added stress of also learning how to prep fillets from a whole fish in addition to smoking my first batch.
My knife skills leave a bit to be desired but I did my best. The wife was not pleased with the skin left on so one fillet was done skinless.
I borrowed Cmayna's dry brine recipe of a 4:1 ratio of brown sugar to non-iodized salt and added a bunch of crushed garlic into the mix as well.
Now I will let it sit in the brine for 3-4 hours then pull it from the brine, rinse it and let it air dry overnight in the fridge. I will smoke it up tomorrow in my new MES30 using my AMNPS and some apple pellets. I got some Masterbuilt silicon jerky/veggie mats to use. That should keep everything in place and let the smoke hit it up good. Right before it goes in the smoker, I want to brush a little teriyaki sauce and some sesame seeds on a few pieces to see how that comes out.
I have to thank everyone on the forums for posting so much good stuff to learn from and thanks to Cmayna for answering all my questions so quickly and clearly!
