Smoking Salmon

I smoked some salmon today.

This is the cure I used:

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/6 cup coarse salt

For the rub I used:

3/4 teaspoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 tablespoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Note: There was too much rub, but I put the rest into a container for next time.

Time needed:

Prep time: 30 minutes

Curing in the fridge: 3 hours

Second Rub and air drying: 1 hour

Smoking: 35 minutes

Resting: 20 minutes

Total time: approx.: 5 1/2 hours plus.

I used Cherry wood chips for the smoke.

A few weeks ago, we bought a whole frozen sockeye salmon at Safeway. It was 50% off. We paid $10.00. We cut off 4 steaks (I used my reciprocating saw and a new blade) and barbequed them. They tasted great. Then I cut off a chunk to make lox and put it into the freezer. The rest, the part with tail, I kept in the freezer for smoking.

Yesterday, I thawed the frozen salmon pieces and filleted them. It is difficult to fillet the back part of the fish, but I cut along the backbone and then carefully sliced the fillet from the ribs. This has to be done very carefully, because the meat of salmon is quite delicate and bruises easily.

The Cure: I put a piece of plastic wrap onto the counter and sprinkled a third of the salmon cure onto the wrap, then I put one fillet skin-side-down onto the wrap. After sprinkling another third of the cure onto the fillet I laid the second fillet onto the first fillet skin-side-down. Then I sprinkled the rest of the cure onto the exposed meat of the top fillet. Once that was done, I wrapped the whole package tightly with the plastic wrap.

I laid the two wrapped fillets into a flat glass baking dish and put a couple of full soup cans on top of the fillets to weigh them down. This is important. I put everything into the refrigerator and let it sit for 3 hours to cure.

The second Dry Rub: Once it was cured, I removed the fish from the fridge, unwrapped the fillets and thoroughly rinsed them under cold water. There was quite a bit of the cure-mixture in the pan. It was like a thick syrup. After patting the fillets dry with a paper towel I rubbed one fillet with the dry rub mixture. I sprinkled just a little bit onto the second filet to get a different taste.

Then I air-dried the fillets on a rack for a little over one hour to let the pellicle form. They looked slightly glazed after this was done. 

The Smoking: While I waited for the fillets to air-dry I preheated my Electric Smoker to 170 F. That took 20 minutes. Then I put 2 pieces of aluminum foil onto the rack and put the prepared fillets skin-side-down on top of the foil. The foil is there to keep the fillets from sticking to the rack.

I used a meat probe which I inserted into the thickest part of one fillet. It took 35 minutes for the temperature inside the fillet to reach 148 F. That’s when I removed them from the Smoker.

Note: It was supposed to take about 45 minutes for the temperature to get to 140 F, but these fillets were quite thin, only about 3/4 inch thick. The temperature was already 137 F after 25 minutes.

Let the fillets rest: I put the fillets onto a baking sheet and erected a little aluminum foil tent over them. I left them like that for 20 minutes. Then I refrigerated them.

Conclusion: I’d like to write that the smoked salmon tasted delicious, but I’m not a liar. The fillet that I rubbed with the dry rub just before smoking was salty and too spicy. Even after scraping off the rub before eating didn’t help much. The other fillet was not quite as salty but still no gourmet meal. We found the pieces too dry. It is possible that I should have removed the fillets from the smoker when the meat thermometer read 140 F, or perhaps I should have left it in the brine only for 20 minutes, the way another recipe I read suggested, but I don’t think it would have changed much. Could it be that sockeye salmon is not greasy enough for smoking? I don’t know. I doubt we’ll ever smoke salmon again. We would rather cut the fish into steaks and barbeque them. They taste much better. Actually, my wife said, “I like sockeye salmon best from the can.” She might just be right.

They looked so nice and appetizing on the plate.

I had looked forward to eating my own smoked salmon. Now I have. This Sunday meal was memorable only in a negative way.

I’ve also started making lox today from another piece of the same salmon, but that is another recipe and I will write about it in a few days when the lox will be ready to be consumed. Hopefully, that won’t be a disaster like the smoked salmon.  

Update: April 8, 2013.
We ate a small piece of the smoked salmon today and it tasted much better. If I make it again, I will not leave it in the brine for 3 hours and I won't use the second rub before smoking the salmon. In addition, we'll wait until the next day to eat it.