Hi all, completed my very first smoke ever today! I had my salmon in brine before I found this thread, but followed Bear's instructions on how to smoke them. The results are fantastic!
For starters, here's the brine recipe I used that I randomly found on the Internet:
· 1 gallon water
· 1 cup kosher salt
· 1 cup white sugar
· 1 cup brown sugar
· lemon pepper to taste
· 1 (3 ouce) package dry crab and shrimp seasoning mix
· freshly ground black pepper to taste
· 4 cloves garlic, crushed or to taste
· 1 dash hot pepper sauce (optional)
· 4 lemons, sliced and crushed
· 2 oranges, sliced and crushed
· 1 line, sliced and crushed
· 1 large yellow onion, sliced
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I cut this whole recipe in half. I didn't have crab/shrimp seasoning mix, so I left that out, and I didn't have oranges, so I dumped in some OJ. I let it sit overnight, probably around 12-13 hours. This morning I took it out of the brine and rinsed it off with cold water for a few minutes:
I've never done a brine before either, so I was a bit amazed how the color and texture of the meat changed. You can see where the fold was to get it to fit in my pot, because that part is still salmon-pink.
After talking to Bear, I set my MES 40 electric smoker to 140. Once the temp was reached, I put the meat in for 1 hour. After an hour, I added 2 rows of Pitmaster's Choice pellets in my
AMNPS and smoked for 4 hours. After that I stuck the meat probe in a thick piece, cranked the temp up to 180, and waited for the internal temp of the meat to reach 140. Well, actually, it wouldn't get past 126 after about an hour and a half, so I decided to move the probe into another piece of meat and it read over 150. I think I just had it placed wrong in the first piece.
The pieces on the top rack came right off, but the ones on the second rack stuck pretty bad and I tore them up getting them off. The stuck pieces made for some great snacks during clean-up :) I know they're supposed to rest after taking them off, but being the first smoke and all, the wife and I decided to taste a sample. And then another sample. Then just a few more samples.... So now, here's all that's left:
I think my favorite pieces were the thin ones, although my wife thought I was crazy and loved all of them. The majority of the flavor seemed to be in the outer crust, and the thin ones apparently just have a higher crust to salmon meat ratio :) Either way, each piece I ate tasted better than the last and I couldn't be happier.
We were both very surprised that it was very rich and oily, almost greasy. I'm not sure if that is what happens with the fish oils after smoking, or if it is a byproduct of the brine, and I'm not sure if I should leave it on there or wipe it off. It was really tasty, but after sample #5 or 6 it started to get a little too rich. Either way, we're terrified right now that the rest of the salmon won't make it to see tomorrow....