# First Smoked Salmon Lox with QView



## tallbm (Feb 25, 2017)

I have successfully made my first smoked salmon lox!

I followed the instructions from this post 

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/87043/making-lox-a-picture-guide

The temperature outside was about 52 degrees when I started so I was in luck for great cold smoking conditions here in TX. The temp inside the smoker was reading 57 degrees.  I cold smoked the salmon for 4 hours using my AMNPS with 100% Alder wood.  Well I believe it was 100% Alder, Camp Chef pellets supposedly use Alder as their base pellet so their Alder bag should be all Alder.  

The temperature inside the smoker only got up to 67 degrees over the 4 hours with the heat generated by the AMNPS using my mailbox mod.  I think about 4 or 5 degrees was probably due to the outside ambient temps also rising.  Also, to help manage temperature I filled a foil pan with ice and put the ice pan on the floor inside the smoker.

I did notice a difference in the behavior of the smoke flow when doing this cold smoke... my first ever cold smoke.  The smoke didn't want to travel into the smoker as easily as it does when doing a hot smoke.  During a hot smoke the heat draft draws the smoke in nicely but with no heat the smoke wanted to linger a bit. I had fears that the pellets would generate too much heat and cause the smoker to rise in temp so I added about 3 foot worth of flexible ducting to extend the distance the smoke and heat would travel allowing the temp from the pellets to go down some.  Well the smoke did not want to easily travel in the sagging duct tube so I abandoned using the duct extension and went back to my original setup of just the mail box and 90 degree duct joint directly into the smoker hole.   It all worked out nicely with no issues at that point!

The salmon cured up and tasted amazing following all of the directions in the post I linked above.  I have now sealed it and put it in the freezer and I will go through it over the next 5 weeks for sure.

Some things to note:

I smoked 6.8 pounds of Atlantic Salmon
Salmon was farm raised salmon (chosen for the extra fat content) and was purchased from Costco
Costco farm raised Atlantic Salmon only comes WITHOUT the skin, so that was a nice surprise for making lox... no skinning needed!
Alder is not a strong smoke BUT the salmon NEEDS to mellow in the fridge 24 hours (after smoking but before slicing) for the smoke to impart the best flavor
Alder smoke flavor seems (to me) to leave a fresh almost cedar/pine type flavor
Alder pellets seem to burn a little fast.  I loaded up 1 and 1/4 rows of the pellets in the AMNPS and in 4 hours I had about an inch of unburned pellets left when I put out the smoke.  Just an observation if you decide to follow my lead.
The orange and lemon zest added to the seasoning and cure is an amazing addition that also imparts a nice fresh flavor to the fish.  I was debating on eliminating the zest from the recipe but figured I would give it a try and WOW am I glad I left it in.  Totally worth it!!! 
And now QView!!!!

Example view of my mailbox mod.  This is not the smoker I smoked the salmon in but the mailbox mod is the one I used and it was used in this exact configuration with the Gen2 MES I used to smoke the salmon:













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__ Jan 8, 2017






Loading into smoker:













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__ Feb 25, 2017


















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__ Feb 25, 2017






Smoker loaded with ice pan below:













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__ Feb 25, 2017






Finished smoking and ready for slicing, also a pic of salmon sliced up:













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__ Feb 25, 2017


















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__ Feb 25, 2017






Sealed and ready for freezing:













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__ tallbm
__ Feb 25, 2017


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## slotown (Feb 25, 2017)

That looks great!


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## tallbm (Feb 26, 2017)

Slotown said:


> That looks great!


Thanks!  It turned out amazing.  

I think I'm going to start making this a once a year smoke of mine.  All of the fish meat will come in handy for me this time of year.  Also with the TX weather I can only cold smoke something during the months of Nov - Feb.  All other months are either summer time or going into/out of summer where the temps will almost surely be between 80-105F.  I'm not going to risk fighting those temperatures for a cold smoke like this dish calls for.


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## SmokinAl (Feb 26, 2017)

Excellent looking lox!

I make a big batch every winter too & hope it lasts the whole year.

All you need now is a bagel, sliced onion & cream cheese.

Point for some awesome looking lox.

Al


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## tropics (Feb 26, 2017)

That is pretty! I use the same recipe,I never slice and vac seal,I prefer chunks that I freeze then vac seal Points

Richie


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## dirtsailor2003 (Feb 26, 2017)

Looks tasty! Bbally's recipe works great. 

Point!


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## tallbm (Feb 26, 2017)

SmokinAl said:


> Excellent looking lox!
> 
> I make a big batch every winter too & hope it lasts the whole year.
> 
> ...


Thanks! Yep bagels are on the list.  This stuff wont last me 2 months.

I also plan to make special sandwiches like Cap'n Mikes sandwiches in San Francisco.  They look amazing!


tropics said:


> That is pretty! I use the same recipe,I never slice and vac seal,I prefer chunks that I freeze then vac seal Points
> 
> Richie


Thanks!  My main goal for this stuff is a lox bagel inspired sandwich so i sliced and sealed in portions that would make one large sandwich.


dirtsailor2003 said:


> Looks tasty! Bbally's recipe works great.
> 
> Point!


Thanks as well! Yeah that recipe was great.  The de-salinization step is a good little practice to keep in mind when curing stuff.  I just used it last night to remove a ton of salt from belly bacon I'm making today.  I followed the directions of the seasoning and it was just way to salty.  6 hours of ice water soaking and I cut the salt down by at least 3 times the amount.  Made it about perfect... I think.  Lets hope it did so through the entire cut and not just the ends.


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## tallbm (Mar 3, 2017)

I made good use of some of my smoked salmon lox today.  

I made Cream Cheese, Tomato, Onion, and Lox open faced sandwiches garnished with thinly sliced lime

Read more details here

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/259431/salmon-lox-tomato-sandwiches-qview













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__ tallbm
__ Mar 3, 2017


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