# Well, I muffed it



## richtee (Dec 12, 2007)

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


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## t-bone tim (Dec 12, 2007)

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


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## richtee (Dec 12, 2007)

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.


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## vlap (Dec 12, 2007)

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 ;)


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## pescadero (Dec 12, 2007)

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


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## geek with fire (Dec 12, 2007)

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 ;->


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## podevil (Dec 12, 2007)

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

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	












Podevil


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## desertlites (Dec 12, 2007)

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


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## navionjim (Dec 12, 2007)

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


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## bbq bubba (Dec 12, 2007)

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


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## teacup13 (Dec 12, 2007)

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


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## linbru (Dec 12, 2007)

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.


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## zapper (Dec 12, 2007)

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


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## teacup13 (Dec 12, 2007)

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


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## bbq bubba (Dec 12, 2007)

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


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## richtee (Dec 12, 2007)

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!


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## richtee (Dec 13, 2007)

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!


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## pescadero (Dec 13, 2007)

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


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## white cloud (Dec 13, 2007)

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


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## homebrew & bbq (Dec 13, 2007)

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


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## teacup13 (Dec 13, 2007)

this is just off the top of my head and my basic recipe

3 cups light or dark brown sugar
1 cup pickling salt or kosher salt
2 TBL garlic powder
1 TBL onion powder
1 TBL fresh black pepper
1 TBL italian seasoning(rubbed to bring out natural oils(
1 TBL lemon pepper

i cant remember if i put anything else in it at the moment, usually this is a base. i add as i go, the most important part is the 3:1 ratio because now a days we dont need to add so much salt for preservation purposes


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## richtee (Dec 13, 2007)

Amazingly enough, the thicker chunks are just FINE! The thin cuts lost their texture and will have to go into a pate' or maybe the fish chowah idea! Never made that...hmmm. At any rate, I pulled the new salmon out at midnight after brining for 4 hours, nuked a small chunk, and it will be fine. As long as I manage not to put pine in the smoker, or something as stupid as I did with the first batch. ;{)

Thanks again folks!


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## squeezy (Dec 13, 2007)

Please clarify for me what it is you are doing here ... are you cold or hot smoking?


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## richtee (Dec 13, 2007)

Hot, Paul.


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## squeezy (Dec 13, 2007)

Then why brine it? ... I just sprinkle a little salt on to taste, smoke it for an hour to hour and a half. It's moist, tender and flakey.
Try it!


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## richtee (Dec 13, 2007)

For the spices... I like to incorporate onion, bay leaf and pepper flavor thru the meat. Plus, after brining, during a rest and air dry, you develop that nice seal <pellicle?> that holds it together, as well as keeping flavors in a bit better than if you don't.

Plus brining gives a bit more preservative benefits

If I were serving it hot immediately, I'd probably do as you suggested, but it's for the weekend


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## pescadero (Dec 13, 2007)

HB:

I never thought of this.  It would be killer and dilute the salt.  Excellent idea.

Man, I love the stuff.  Can taste it right now!!

Skipper


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## pescadero (Dec 13, 2007)

Right On!!


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## emtee (Dec 13, 2007)

I've done the exact same thing, and I too tried to rescue the offending finned fillet... with little luck. So all I did with the rest of the batch was slice it quite thinly and use it on crackers (unsalted) with cream cheese spread. The cheese cuts the salt taste in your mouth and the thin fish slice also keeps you from getting too much salt. My crappy batch was made for a party, so I made them up ahead of time to prevent my guests from piling too much fish on the cracker. Hey, maybe not the best solution for us connoisseurs, but your guests will never know the difference.

However, if you didn't make your batch for a party, yer screwed ol boy! Store the results in the uh-oh file and move on.


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## navionjim (Dec 13, 2007)

Yo Rich:
This is the brine I've used for years:

2 cups soy sauce.
1 cup white wine
1 cup apple juice
1/3 cup non-iodized salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 TBS Black pepper
1 TBS Onion Powder
1 TBS Garlic Powder
1 TBS Tabasco Sauce

Brine for 12 hours if smoking and canning, or 24 hours if hard smoking. Alder is the best wood smoke too. 

Jimbo


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## navionjim (Dec 13, 2007)

OH! You'll want to rinse the brine off and allow it to form a pelicle prior to smoking, but I bet you figured that out already.
Jimbo


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## richtee (Dec 13, 2007)

Hmm like the sound of that...well, 'ceptin' the Tabasco. Ugh.. never could seem to appreciate that stuff. Pellicle well formed on the new stuff. Looked like my driveway...a sheer glaze...heh.


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## squeezy (Dec 13, 2007)

I understand ... I have never cooked fish to be consumed later ... perhaps I'll give that a try sometime.
What method do you use to reheat or do you reheat?


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## pescadero (Dec 14, 2007)

Good Call, Jimbo.  Mine is a little different, but yours is great.

You can tell we are Oregon Brothers.  
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





Skipper


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## richtee (Dec 14, 2007)

Served cold, typically topped with a "squeezy" <heh!> of lemon juice and sprinkled with capers. Hearty crackers on the side complete the wonderful snack/appertif


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## navionjim (Jan 14, 2008)

You can tell we are Oregon Brothers. 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





Skipper[/quote]


Ditto on that Skip! I'm finally catching up on some of the post I missed and came across several of yours. Cool deal on the new oyster farm! I'll make it up to see ya once the weather clears a little. Things are still a bit raw down here for the wife and the funeral and all that. Once things normalize a bit we Will be coming back home for a visit.
Cheers!
Jimbo


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## white cloud (Jan 14, 2008)

Salmon  chowder sounds good to me with alot of potatoes, mushrooms, onions and black pepper


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## oldgrandman (Jan 16, 2008)

Sounds good, only I'd add wild leeks, or green onion. And maybe a drip or two of worchestershire to it.

I just posted my smoked trout recipe, it was originally meant for salmon.
Having a wide range of trout available to catch and cook, I prefer trout for smoking.


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