Smoked Salmon Help :)

[mrwinky]

So I’ve got a friend who went out to the coast here, and has brought back 200+ pounds of salmon from there trip.. He has offered to give me 30-40 pounds frozen tonight. Well I need to have this smoked prior to this Thursday... I’ve done 2 -4 pounds at a time before but now with such a large amount I was hoping to get some advice from people here J

Brine

Currently using 1 gallon water, ½ cup Kosher Salt, ½ cup Brown sugar, ½ cup Soy Sauce, Garlic powder and onion powder.

Any ideas for a new one thats not as salty? And how much brine would I require for 40 pounds, I’m looking to brine it in my cooler since I don’t have enough containers to do this in lol

Smoking

I’ve used Alder and Apple with great results, but the last 2 pounds I did was done really quick, 1 hour ish on my Great outdoors Smokey Mountain Big block, I have a hard time to get smoke going and keep the temps down in it. Any suggestions?

So here is a list of what I want to do with this salmon, chime in on what I should change J

Tonight pick up salmon, its frozen currently, try thawing it in the bath tub in time to brine it tonight

Mix brine up in cooler, add salmon, let brine over night,

Get up really earlier tomorrow and remove fish from brine, rinse , pat dry and put on racks in my garage.

After work Fire up the smoker, (dry chips) wait till smoke forms and put in salmon, and have heat down low.

Let smoke hopefully 4-6 hours, remove, leave in fridge over night,

Vacuum Seal and put in freezer, and pack a bunch for my weekend golf trip....

Feel free to advice on things to change do different please

Winky

 

[melonhead3215]

The one thing I can see that I would change is how long you are letting the fish brine. Fish doesnt take as long as beef or pork does and if you let it soak in the brine it may become to salty. If you dont want the brine as salty just add more brown sugar to the mix. That should keep the salt from becoming to overbearing. Good luck on all that salmon and welcome to SMF. Please Qview

 

[rstr hunter]

I think you'd be OK as proposed but I'd let it in the brine for 2 days.  I always leave mine that long and have had great results and I do about 30-40 lb a year.  As far as amounts I'd guess 1 gal for 10# of filets.  You should be within one gallon either way.  That's where I'd start. 

 

[jaxgatorz]

Is it  " fresh" salmon?? If so i wouldn't brine a darn thang

 

[bbally]

Lets just skip the whole brining thing to that wonderful gift altogether, shall we?  The brine is really for 30 minutes only and only used to set protein density.

If you have cure 1, please follow the link below or click on the picture.

Properly curing salmon 

 

[nwdave]

Uh, what bbally said about brine.......short time only, if at all. 

If my salmon is fresh caught, I never brine. 

How long was it frozen before reaching you?  Virtually all salmon caught up north in Alaska get the quick freeze on the boat before heading for the lower 48.  Otherwise the meat quality would rapidly deteriorate to fertilizer status.  If it's been less than 15 days, we kinda sorta say fresh caught on Salmon who got to fly in on Alaska Airlines.  Another very important consideration is what type of salmon are you processing?  If it's sockeye, I usually fillet and smoke.  If it's coho, I usually steak (generally, no more than 3/4 inch thick if I'm doing fillets and steaks together) and smoke.  It's all good and depends on your personal preference.  My wood preference is alder of course (I'd be kicked out of the Pacific Northwest if I used anything else.)

I salute you for taking on such a large smoke in such a short time.  I hoard my salmon for when company comes.  When I smoke salmon, they walk away stuffed.  I might smoke several meat groups at the same time but always seems to be the salmon that disappears first.  Just don't understand.  Got a friend who sells salmon off his boat, commercially of course.  Can't ask for better than that.

 

[mrwinky]

Ok so I picked up the salmon last night from him, I got 3 Fillets that were flash frozen on Sunday (caught on sunday too) 2 King Salmon fillets at 10 pounds each (they where 30" long almost 2 inches thick!!!!) and a white/albino King Salmon 10 pound fillet.. Not sure about smoking the white one, I defrosted one last night in the fridge and will hack and slash this thing tonight.. And brine or not brine before I smoke it Wed night before my trip.

 

[Bearcarver]

Mr. W,

If you're gonna pack some for a trip, you want the kind that's really smoked, not the kind you eat for dinner.

Next time you have time to make really good hard smoked Salmon, try the link below.

The snacking kind of Salmon:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/fo...ked-salmon-with-recipe-instructions-and-qview

Bearecarver