# Smoked Salmon and also some Cheese for the holidays (Lots of Qview)



## rbranstner (Nov 27, 2011)

I  had a request to smoke  up a bunch of salmon for my mother in law and her friends so  they could have  some for the Holidays. My MIL brought over 6 big fillets from Sam's and I ran out and picked up two for my freezer and I also decided to pick up some cheese while I was at Sam's. figured if I smoked it now it would be ready for Xmas snacks. I did my normal rub of brown sugar and salt  for 12 hours then rinsed the salmon of and let them dry and then added a bit of brown sugar, garlic powder and pepper on them and then put them in the smoker at around 150 degrees until they reached  145 degrees internal temp. I did kick the temps up to around 180 for the last 45 minutes because it was getting late and I wanted  to go to  bed. I was using my A-Maze-N-Pellet-Smoker filled  with  cherry pellet.

The 8 fillets of salmon that we "caught" at Sam's Club.








All rubbed down  and ready to rest in the fridge over night.







All rinsed and dried a bit and rubbed with brown sugar, garlic powder and pepper and waiting to go  into the smoker.







Sorry no pictures  of the salmon in the smoker but here they are all finished and cooling off out in the garage. Once  they were  cool I vacuum sealed  them all up.







No here is the question I have for you guys and I want your opinions. Once I rinse and dry my salmon do you think it is better to let it dry and form  the pellicle before I  put the brown sugar, garlic powder and pepper on or do I put those on and then let it dry before it goes into the  smoker? I have tried  it both ways and I still can't figure out which is better. The issue I have is once I put that brown sugar on it there is  a ton of liquid from the sugar so it never really gets try. This time I let them dry then I put the ingredients on it and then I let it rest for another hour to  see  if the sugar would dry out a bit but it really didn't at all. Please post your opinion  on this as I am curious what everyone else  does.

Here is the cheese. I did a true  cold smoke for 3 hours with cherry dust loaded up in my A-Maze-N-Smoker since my pellet smoker was in use for the salmon.







All loaded up and ready to  go  into the smoker.







And here it is 3 hours later. They took on a bit of color.







All packaged up and ready to rest for a  few  weeks in the fridge. We will eat these over Xmas.







Here is a shot of the two smokers running side by side. Man I am sure glad that I poured that cement slab this fall.







Thanks for looking and if you could give me your opinions on what you thing about adding the brown sugar I would really appreciate it.


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## Bearcarver (Nov 27, 2011)

All looks really great, Ross!!

Mighty Tasty!!!!

As for your Brown Sugar question----You and I have both tried it both ways---LOL

I went back to just putting the Brown Sugar in my brine, and not putting anything but dry stuff on it after it has been rinsed and dried---only dry seasonings after that (like pepper & garlic powder type things), for the same reason you're wondering about---to keep my pellicle dry & tacky.

Bear


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## SmokinAl (Nov 27, 2011)

I have only made salmon 2 ways, cured & cold smoked for lox, or hot smoked for a dinner meal. I guess I will have to try Bear's way as a snack food.


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## rbranstner (Nov 27, 2011)

SmokinAl said:


> I have only made salmon 2 ways, cured & cold smoked for lox, or hot smoked for a dinner meal. I guess I will have to try Bear's way as a snack food.


Yea I have been meaning to try Bears recipe one day but I just keep going back to my old trusty recipe. I am going  to make some lox though this winter. That stuff looks so awesome!




Bearcarver said:


> All looks really great, Ross!!
> 
> Mighty Tasty!!!!
> 
> ...


I probably don't need to add the brown sugar to mine either as I have quite a bit of brown sugar in the rub but I like the little hint of sweet flavor that it gets when I add the brown sugar so I keep doing it. Some day I am going to give your recipe a test run.


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## smokin - k (Nov 29, 2011)

Great job Ross...! Looks awesome! Smokin - K


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## africanmeat (Nov 29, 2011)

Ross this salmon looks great like AL i made only lox and hot smoke i will have to do this way also one day the  cheese looks good as well ,


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## owlcreeksmoker4 (Nov 29, 2011)

Some great lookin grub my friend. love the cheese, color was great


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## smokenjoe46 (Nov 30, 2011)

Great looking salmon and cheese. I never smoked cheese, but will try some soon. Can you mix things up in the smoker? Like salmon and turkey breast? Or salmon and cheese?


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## tjohnson (Dec 11, 2011)

Sorry Ross...I missed this one!

Awesome Looking Cheese and Salmon

How'd it all turn out?

I'm waiting for some "Wild Salmon", and going to do a side by side comparison with "Farmed Salmon"

Todd


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