Smoked Salmon

“Did you catch this…” is a limiting question when you consider home-smoked salmon is amazing and during the sockeye season, fresh salmon is bountiful in the round for $8.00 per pound.

Good smoked salmon is about freshness, fat content, preparation, and species in that order.

A brine of 6% kosher salt and 10% brown sugar for 10 hours and tempered 2 hours lets the flavors of smoke and salmon shine through. The only mistakes you can make are ’overcooked’ or ‘too salty’. Wiping fillets before tempering helps with the latter.

Chinook and sockeye taste different and provide the consistently best results. Coho is less fatty with a meatier bite. Pink is fine if properly cared for when caught. My curiosity with chum remains low. I have smoked white king several times and feel those rare fish are best reserved for other preparations like planking, parchment, or broiling.

Green or seasoned alder produces great results. I smoke poultry with wild cherry and venison with vine maple--I would not use these for salmon though curious to try cedar.

If freshness is the most important thing, bleed your fish, remove all protective slime, and never wash the fillets.  Frozen works great if you caught and cared for it. If purchased from the market, fresh is better and a simple matter of timing. Buying whole fish provides backbones and belies for stock and bait. Spending a little time making gift salmon pretty is worth it and keeps your knife skills sharp.

Let the portions cool, brush with neutral oil (avocado), pack freeze and enjoy. Once smoked, we have refrozen vacuum-sealed salmon two or three times with no noticeable effect. 

Everything mentioned here applies to sturgeon and might be even a little better.