Well, I muffed it

[richtee]

Think I left the salmon in the brine too long. Salty as all get-out. Dammit. Still lightly smoked, any hope of a short soak in water to remove some salt, then hit the smoke for another hour?

Grrrr

 

[t-bone tim]

Richtee , that's too bad

, sounds like your thought might do the trick ?? maybe if it's still too salty after that , you could use it to make a nice smoked salmon dip of some sort to use during the holiday season ??

I know it's not what you wanted ,but it would keep it from being a total loss and be a nice touch to the season and any party / gathering ... just a thought for ya

 

[richtee]

Yeah... it would work for a pate' allrighty. BUT.. I 'membered a trick my Ma used before when she "hit with the salt" on some dishes. She'd slice up a pototo or two and toss 'em in the mix. And it works to, for liquid dishes, like sauces and soup. Nothing to lose, so I dropped 'em in cold water with some sliced potatoes. Gonna hit happy hour and hopefully adjust 'tude, and come back to decent salmon fillets.

 

[vlap]

If the potato trick doesn't work for fish (it does for sauces, soups and stocks) I would try making some dip or the pate. The additional ingrediants might cut the saltiness enough to make it right. All is not lost. A little creativity and you may decide to over brine again next time ;)

 

[pescadero]

Rich:

Soaking will help, but it is going to require a considerable amount of time. 2-3 hours won't cut it. Overnight probably would. Problem then, is you will have severely altered the texture and you start getting seperation in the fibers. It will end up less salty but of inferior texture. Then too, it will need to be run through the smoker again(modestly) to impart at least some fresh flavor.

This process will restore some quality, but overall you will be less than happy. As you can imagine, anything that has been first moist, then wet, then hot and dry, and then soaked and then hot and dry again, is going to become less than desirable.

My suggestion is that you use it in some dish that allows for considerable dillution, due to it being blended with a fairly large volume of other
ingredients.

Then chalk it up to a learning experience.

Sorry it happened. Let us know what you end up doing and how it worked. Maybe we can all learn something from this. Sorry that it has to be at your expense.

Good luck my friend.

Skip

 

[geek with fire]

Or, cut him up in strips, dip the pieces in beer batter , and deep fat fry him in really high temp oil. Frying fixes all problems....might cause a couple more though ;->

 

[podevil]

I was going to suggest the potato thing..My mother used to do the same thing....There was always a solution with her!

Podevil

 

[desertlites]

sorry to hear rich,tis easy to add,hard to take away-Maw used to do the potato thing-hope tis not a total loss

 

[navionjim]

Rich,
long ago I bought some smoked salmon in Alaska, it was really cheap from a local cannery. It tasted great when I sampled it but upon getting the 20 pounds home and trying it again it was way too salty. I tried soaking it too but as Skip mentioned it changed the texture, so what I did was to soak it for a day changing the water a couple of times and then canned it in 1/2 pint jars. 110 minutes at 10 psi. Still not the best but better than it was. If you have a lot of fish you might consider it.
Jimbo

 

[bbq bubba]

Hey bro...........no such thing as oversalted, smoked fish, it just require's more beer to wash down!!!

 

[teacup13]

shred the smoked salmon, mix really well with cream cheese and a little fresh dill, a touch of lemon juice

spread on bread or crackers

as for making it less salty, soaking it wont do it much good, after a too much soaking in plain water it will turn to mush

in the east coast of canada, they have salt cod, i believe they soak it in milk but i could be wrong

 

[linbru]

My wife said to soak it in milk for 8 hours and if the texture isn't desirable then make a salmon patty adding crackers and egg and grill them.

 

[zapper]

Salmon patties or spread would be my first attempts. Maybe try making a stuffing for some mushroom caps and smoke them too. Smoked salmon potato pancakes? Salmon and rice stuffed sausage?


In hind sight. I will try to cook a small sample of what ever I brine to test for saltiness before the big commit to the smoker. I have been lucky so far, and I do call it luck

 

[teacup13]

i always taste my brine b4 i put the fish in, if its too salty then the fish will be of course

i usually dry brine mine so i generally dont get too much salt flavor

 

[bbq bubba]

You could repost that dry brine if ya got it, i lost the one i had, think it was your's!

 

[richtee]

Well...it's well after happy hour. I sampled the soggy stuff. Not REAL soggy, but as Skip says... onto the smoker AGAIN. at least I discovered it before it was DONE. Salt has been much muted... texture is wet. but STILL firm. Had wife spend another $30 just in case. Grin. We'll see...so far... MIGHT work.
Thanks for the support!

- A Knight in Kneed!

 

[richtee]

well, back onto the ECB with a crapload of lump for an hour. early retuens on the thin stuff... not bad. less salty, lost some firmness, but as it was not finished, that helped. Brined the new fillet, will wash by midnight...LOL! Honestly, i'm pretty happy with the flavor, but probably lost the texture. Pate' is good too...

When life hands ya lemons... grin!

Again...thanks folks! I love this place!

 

[pescadero]

Rich:

Glad you salvaged it.

Good news is that most of us who do a lot of Salmon, have a trustworthy, reliable recipe. We don't have to taste, or to worry, we just do it. We know we will be happy with the results.

After you experiment and tune your recipe and methods, you'll get there too. Most of us went through this in the beginning.

Knowing you, you will have it wired in no time.

Skip

 

[white cloud]

Make yourself some nice pizza dough and crumble the salmon up and tossit on like anchovies

 

[homebrew & bbq]

If you're rescue isn't completely successful, you might think about a salmon chowder.