# Salmon and wood chips



## Atl1530 (Jun 7, 2019)

I’m new to this so if I asked stupid questions be nice.

While I wait for my A–maze-N tube and pellets to get here, I thought I would try my (new to me) electric smoker on some Salmon. I have some wood chips so I might as well try using them.

My thought is that I would try to smoke the salmon at a low temp for an hour or so and then finish it on the grill.

So the question is how low of a temperature can I set my electric smoker too and still get adequate smoke from the wood chips?

Thanks


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## smokinq13 (Jun 7, 2019)

What smoker you got? And also depending on outside temperature, you could get enough smoke at lower temperatures as well. 

My question is, would you want to just finish the salmon in the smoker instead of transferring it to a grill? Smoked salmon is so good!


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## smokinq13 (Jun 7, 2019)

**let me add that what i mean by outside temperature is that if its cold out, the smoker will have to "work" harder to keep temperature meaning more smoker but if its hot outside, at lower temperatures, the smoker will not work as hard meaning less smoke


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## Atl1530 (Jun 7, 2019)

It's about 83º.
I have a MASTERBUILT SMOKEHOUSE that looks like the attachment. 

My thinking is that salmon would be easy to overcook and dry out. Also, I am cooking a bunch that I would like to vacuum pack, freeze, and cook at a later time. It seems like if the salmon were smoked but undercooked, this would be easier.


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## Atl1530 (Jun 8, 2019)

Ok, so I cooked the salmon last night.  I tried to keep the temp as low as I could while keeping the elements on and creating smoke. The salmon tasted great but was very dry. I did not put water in a pan while smoking it would this have helped?


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## Bearcarver (Jun 8, 2019)

Atl1530 said:


> Ok, so I cooked the salmon last night.  I tried to keep the temp as low as I could while keeping the elements on and creating smoke. The salmon tasted great but was very dry. I did not put water in a pan while smoking it would this have helped?




Did you do what you said??---One hour in smoker & finish on the grill?
If so I would say you dried it out on the Grill, not in that hour in the smoker.
I use an electric smoker, and I never put water in my water pan, but my Smoker is a very well insulated MES 40.

Here's how I do my Smoked Salmon:
*Smoked Salmon*

Bear


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## Atl1530 (Jun 8, 2019)

Bearcarver said:


> Did you do what you said??---One hour in smoker & finish on the grill?
> If so I would say you dried it out on the Grill, not in that hour in the smoker.
> I use an electric smoker, and I never put water in my water pan, but my Smoker is a very well insulated MES 40.
> 
> ...



 I cooked the salmon fillets until the internal temperature was 145° in the smoker. It took a while because I tried to keep my temperature low. Maybe they just dried out because of that. They still tasted great but  we're dry. 

 OMG you must  be the God of everything that is meat. What a great database of information. Thank you so much for doing all that work. That's amazing.

I think I'm using the wrong terminology when I say smoked salmon.  I'm not talking about the stuff you keep in the refrigerator and eat with crackers. I'd like to make that also but not right now. I just want to add smoked flavor to my salmon fillet's. Actually I  would like to cook them Sous Vide.   I have on order  One of those A-maze-N Pellet burner things. Can I  smoke raw salmon without heat for an hour. And then cook them later in the sous vide?


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## Bearcarver (Jun 8, 2019)

Atl1530 said:


> I cooked the salmon fillets until the internal temperature was 145° in the smoker. It took a while because I tried to keep my temperature low. Maybe they just dried out because of that. They still tasted great but  we're dry.
> 
> OMG you must  be the God of everything that is meat. What a great database of information. Thank you so much for doing all that work. That's amazing.
> 
> I think I'm using the wrong terminology when I say smoked salmon.  I'm not talking about the stuff you keep in the refrigerator and eat with crackers. I'd like to make that also but not right now. I just want to add smoked flavor to my salmon fillet's. Actually I  would like to cook them Sous Vide.   I have on order  One of those A-maze-N Pellet burner things. Can I  smoke raw salmon without heat for an hour. And then cook them later in the sous vide?





Sure, you can do that.
Sounds like what you want is "Salmon to eat for Dinner", instead of like my "Snacking Salmon" that you can pick up between your fingers.
I want mine on the Dry side, but my Step by Step Salmon wouldn't be good on a plate for Dinner.
You want to do your Dinner Salmon hotter & faster, but you can smoke it for a little while, before you bring the heat up.

Bear


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## cmayna (Jun 8, 2019)

To the OP.  Once you get your A-maze-n setup, consider a mailbox mod (there are tons of threads about this) assuming your smoker has a external chip tray on the right side.

You said you smoked the fish until IT temp of 145.  Then did you grill it?  If so, no wonder it was dry.  Even on the grill, I pull it when it reaches 145.


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## Atl1530 (Jun 8, 2019)

I've been looking at those mail box mods.  I'm sure that'll be on the to do list soon.  Besides not having to open the smoker to replace or reload the A-maze-n tube what's the advantage?


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## cmayna (Jun 9, 2019)

Separating the pellet tray from the smoker allows you to cold smoke more efficiently.


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## Atl1530 (Jun 9, 2019)

cmayna said:


> Separating the pellet tray from the smoker allows you to cold smoke more efficiently.



So it removes any source of heat. That makes sense


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## cmayna (Jun 9, 2019)

The further you separate the mailbox from your smoker via a longer connector tube, the cooler the smoke/heat will be once it enters the smoker.  Everyone's setup is different so the length and angle of the connector tube can vary to find the sweet spot.


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