Smoked salmon

By Ron Published: January 1, 2016

• Yield: 5 lbs smoked salmon

Hot smoked salmon is one of my favorite treats. It's easy to put together, tastes great on its own, and can be an important component …

Ingredients

• 5 lbs salmon filet skin on
• 4 cups water cold, clean
• 1/3 cup Kosher Salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup maple syrup real

Instructions

1. Mix together the water, salt, sugar, and syrup to form a brine. Be sure to mix thoroughly to dissolve the salt and sugar. Place your fish in a non-reactive dish and cover with brine. Let fish sit in the brine for about 24 hours for standard thickness fillets. If you have particularly thick or thin fillets, you may need to adjust the time a little to accommodate. Be careful not to leave it in the brine too long or the fish may become too salty. Remove the fish from the brine and wipe clean with a paper towel. At this point leave the fish in, uncovered, in your refrigerator for 4 hours with the meat exposed to the air. This is intended to start drying the fish and it should encourage the formation of a pellicle which is the glazed look fish gets while left in the open air. This can also be done with a fan or in the breeze on a cool day, but the refrigerator works well for this too and usually there aren’t hungry critters in the refrigerator just waiting to swipe your fish. Once the pellicle has formed, you are ready for smoking. The pellicle is an important step which allows the smoke adhere to the sticky surface. Prepare your smoker using your favorite smoking woods such as fruit, hickory, oak, etc.. For this purpose, you do not want a hot fire. Try to keep it between 150-200 degrees. You want to avoid leaching the liquid out of the meat which is caused by too much heat and can result in a dry product. Smoke the salmon for 4 to 6 hours. Experiment with the time until you get the results you prefer. Cool on racks for an hour, then your fish is ready to enjoy.
   

• Cuisine: American

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