Thread: salmon goin in the smoker

A 0600 this morning my batterys were dead so no pix of salmon being filleted, but everyone has seen that before.
So made a brine with 4 liters water 1 1/2 cup of sea salt and 1 1/2 cup of brown sugar and put the cut up salmon in for 8 hours, rinsed off with water and now it will set the pelicule and later tonite I will start the smoke.
Those are norwegian salmon and about 3kg each which was about half of what they were supposed to weigh when I ordered them, but they are top grade prime salmon tho.

You certainly like your food.

How do you make smoke ?

Just a thought, could you use weed to smoke em ?

Nice looking smoker BG. Looks like an old timer. How long do you smoke them for and what type of wood shavings do you use, or is that secret?

These threads just make me hungrey, Great Job.....

Where is the "enable smell" function in Windows Vista?

Originally Posted by Nawty

Just a thought, could you use weed to smoke em ?

You could use all sorts in the brine.

I have tried sweet tamarind, but it is like Alder in the USA and I don't really care for it and it is touchy to use as you can get to much very easy, I have also tried Mango wood, but not enough to have formed an opinion, will experiment some more.
But I have been using Apple, Cherry, Maple, Hickory wood in chip form from the USA, and have some Mesquite in chunks, it is all good but my favorite that I have used for years is Apple and Cherry wood, it has the best flavor.
But I would like to find a local wood that is good as the stuff from USA is spendy.
I used a lot of different woods living around the country like I did in the US and all hard wood is good, including Birch and most kind of Oak.
But as far as liking food, I like the flavor of smoked meats and fish, Smoked cheese, I have been around it when ever at home because I was raised on a ranch and we made our own, I have usually had a smoker where ever I was and I do like to cook and smoke different foods, Bacon is one of the easiest to do and I like good bacon and hate that shit they sell in stores, especially here but even in the stores in the states and you can not get good bacon or ham unless you find a small specialty butcher shop.
They soak the pork in water brine and add liquid smoke flavor and come up with more weight than they started with, I dry cure mine and that removes water, and then smoke it so I lose about 30% of the weight I started with, but my bacon will last and theirs will rot in your fridge in a few days.
Plus I don't drink or ram around and fucking with my smoke house is something to do, friends show up and eat some and take some home and it keeps me busy doing something enjoyable to me.
Ask peterpan, he has been here and knows what we do.

PS Johnny, no it is not to old, I had it built at a stainless steel shop here in town for a cost of 5k, best fucking money I ever spent here.

Originally Posted by blackgang

But I would like to find a local wood that is good as the stuff from USA is spendy.

A friend of mine uses lime wood. Tastes pretty good to me.

Salmon looks good. Nice and red so likely not farm stuff. Where did you get it?

All sorts of wood one can use here.

I got it from my supplier in BKK and it was this years catch too from the looks of it and it is Norway fish, thet have salmon fro a lot of different places. this was the cheapest too at 220 a KG.
They were whole head off fish but I filleted them and I use the harps and I like the tips best anyway so have no waste.
I think next time I buy the fillets tho, I getting lazy and have no fillet box like when we was commercial fishing.

Thanks for the tip about the wood nort.

Thanks BG. Yes I can see now the stainless now. I was thinking it looked like hardwood.
I use local Mallee wood shavings here. This is a very hardy plant that grows in the dry and desert areas. Is from the Eucalypt family, tough and hard and slow burning. Some of the sawdust from Thai Eucalypt plantations might be worth a try.

^ Lime wood sounds interesting. That salmon looks dam fine, too. Now I want sashimi.

I don't think Sashimi would have been to good from frozen salmon, I have made it on the boat with fresh out of the water gill hooked kokanee shakers, and it not to bad.
BTW Johnny, that was in for 15 hours, mostly at 120F and then up to 135F for an hour.

^ Lots of folks prefer fresh frozen and thawed sashimi now as the freezing apparently kills various bacteria. I buy some lightly smoked salmon from the kimchee market and have frozen and thawed it for sashimi. It's good. Not as tasty as from the boat tho.

Frozen over night might be OK, I do that a lot when I have fish and after they been frozen and thawed they take the brine better, I prefer to brine fish as the salt cures em and the sugar locks in the needed moisture during smoking.
Boy these fish just out of the smoker were sure fat little bastards,, if they was Kings they would weigh 40 kilo.

^ I'll take a kilo, please.

Originally Posted by Norton

Salmon looks good. Nice and red so likely not farm stuff. Where did you get it?

Yes Norton, they were as shiny as a new dime, no where close to being Tule, but the fattest little bastards I ever saw, so they were getting ready to go up some stream pretty soon.
I just had my first piece, Sunee ate some still warm for her breakfast before she left for school, but I been feeling shitty all day so didn't eat much, but the piece I just ate was fat dripping all over the place and so damn rich I pobly gained a pound with that small piece i ate.

They look bloody beautiful. Those flaps are the delish down near the fins.

On the fish I mean.

Those fish are in such prime shape that everything is good, I like tips best because they are richer, you see then there too but every piece of these fish is a rich as a meter of bulls ass.
infact the bellys are so rich that Sunee didnt eat hers and left em and I ate em later. wish I would have bought 12 of them fish, but my freezer is full.

Originally Posted by blackgang

every piece of these fish is a rich as a meter of bulls ass.

Yes, you don't see many skinny bears in the summer time do you?

No, you sure do not, after the sockeye [REDS] start up the bears get so fat they kind of waddle around, just dont seem to want to fight as much as they did earlier in the year,

I hope you don't mind me adding some salmon pictures of my Lachs that I made last year. I think they call it braising a Lox. Our Teaky from Norway should know what its called. Anyway here it is:


I took a nice fresh (not fish farm) salmon filet, middle part if possible.




Mix about 1 1/2 Tabelsppon of sugar and 2 Tabelspoon of salt (ocean salt) together. Put some in a plate and lay the salom skin down on it.




Do the same on the top and add white pepper, and lemon juice.




Get some dill cut it up and lay on top.







Put some plastic foil on top and something heavy to press down on the salmon. Place in the fridge for about 2 day. During those 2 days remove any excess water and keep turning the salmon.




After 2 days the salmon is ready to eat. My recommendation is take some baquette with a little butter, cut very thin slice of salmon, and put on top.

Gravlaks is very good, I have had it on bagels with cream cheese, we usually had some at home when we had a good silver [ Coho] salmon to make it but to fat a fish is not good to use, I mostly will make kippered salmon instead of lox as you can use a fish with a little more fat, but you have to lightly smoke at a temp below 90*F
Thanks for adding as it makes life more interesting and people like to try new things.

certain times I can get fresh salmon here from my supplier but have to order a week aheab of delivery.