You don’t have to brine salmon before smoking it. You can just toss it in the smoker, I guess, but brining adds a lot of good things to the fish. It pulls out some of the liquid and gives the fish good color and flavor.
How long should I brine my salmon before smoking? Allow at least 3 hours and up to 8 hours for the brining solution to soak into the fish. Keep in mind that whole salmon filets can be very thick, and you want the brine to work all the way through the flesh
Dry brining fish is neater, faster and more efficient. For a batch, I use two cups of salt and two cups of brown or white sugar. I grind about four tablespoons of whole cloves and a big handful of bay leaves and mix this in with the sugar and salt. Dump it in a bowl and then dredge the washed fillets.
When ready to cook, remove the salmon pieces from the brine, discarding the brine. Rinse the salmon pieces under cold water and pat dry.
Directions
Mix 1 cup brown sugar and kosher salt together in a small bowl. Spread a thin layer of the brown sugar mixture in the bottom of a 9-inch baking pan. Arrange 2 to 3 salmon fillets on top; cover with some of the brown sugar mixture. Repeat layers until all the salmon fillets are coated.
This Hot Smoked Salmon recipe will be the first of my ‘How to smoke fish/meat/veggies’ posts, and this quick and easy recipe for salmon with no brine makes a fantastic start!
The brine-to-fish ratio should be 3 parts brine to 1 part fish. For example, 10 pounds of fish will require 30 pounds of brine (approximately 4 gallons; 1 gal- lon of brine weighs about 8 pounds). Once the fish has been brined, it is usually dried before smoking.
Brining too long can result in meat that tastes overly salty and has a spongy texture. If you’re not ready to roast the bird after 18 hours, remove it from the brine, rinse it, pat it dry and refrigerate for up to two days. As for what to add to the brine? The minimum is salt and water, but many cooks don’t stop there.
The white stuff on salmon is called albumin.
As the meat cooks, the coagulated albumin gets squeezed out and appears in the form of the weird, slimy, white substance that you are probably familiar with (and weirded out by).
This is a brine recipe that I use to prepare the salmon for cold smoking.
A salt water brine gives smoked salmon its distinctive salty flavor. Offset this saltiness for a milder taste. Prior to smoking, salmon is covered with a sugar and salt brine.
8 days seems too long from a meat spoilage and freshness standpoint, not salinity. When in the brine it’s just osmosis/diffusion slowly wicking moisture out. At some point it pretty much equalizes out without much further increase.
Sprinkle salt evenly all over both fillets. Press salt into the flesh and skin to ensure it adheres well. Place salted salmon fillets in a glass container, such as a small glass baking dish, lined with paper towels. Cover container and refrigerate overnight, or up to 36 hours.
The first and most important step before you smoke fish is to brine it for at least 2 hours and preferably 6 to 10 hours. Brining fish before smoking it prevents it from drying out. Soaking it in a brine made with a combination of water and seasoning will also infuse it with flavor.
The traditional brine is made from a ratio of 1 cup of salt to 1 gallon of water. This is based on table salt. One cup of table salt weighs in at 10 ounces. So we want 10 ounces of salt (by weight) per gallon of water.
brine, salt water, particularly a highly concentrated water solution of common salt (sodium chloride). Natural brines occur underground, in salt lakes, or as seawater and are commercially important sources of common salt and other salts, such as chlorides and sulfates of magnesium and potassium.
Coarse salt is best for brining, with Kosher salt being at the top of the list for its purity. The Diamond Crystal brand is a top pick for being precise and consistent in texture. The crystals are also large and not as salty, so you won’t over-salt.
Never use regular table salt for curing salmon – your fish will be WAY to salty!! You want to use coarse kosher salt. Make sure the salt does not contain iodine. Buy coarse kosher salt.
We have used both and see no difference. The iodized will give smoked salmon a redder color which to us looks better. So we usually go half and half with iodized and non-iodized or sea salt. If you get a strong metallic flavor it could be because you brined your fish in a metal container.
After your salmon is cured and dried, it’s time to hot smoke that fish. Smoke your salmon for 3-4 hours, at 225 degrees Fahrenheit until it reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit.
Hickory, oak or applewood chips are ideal for smoking salmon and will all lend a slightly different flavour to the fish, so it’s worth experimenting. Rubbing the salmon fillets with oil before cooking gives the smoke something to stick to and intensifies the flavour.
How to Smoke Salmon
How to Smoke Salmon
Cold smoked trout is a delicious treat that can be enjoyed on its own or in recipes. You can use this method to smoke other small to medium fish (salmon, whitefish, grayling) as well. This is a combination of first cold smoking, then hot smoking the trout.
Adding sugar to brine will help with browning
The sugar will help ensure perfect browning of the meat’s skin while adding a sweet flavor. The site notes that sugar does not change the texture.
The amount of time will depend on the type of brine you use; however, do not brine any longer than two days and always keep the turkey and brine refrigerated (at 40°F or less).
Do you have to cook immediately after brining? No, you don’t have to cook meat immediately after removing it from the brine. In fact, most cooking methods (but especially smoking, grilling and roasting) benefit from a brief period of air-drying
White-fleshed king salmon don’t have the genetic ability to break down their food and store the red-orange carotene in their muscle cells. The marbled flesh color sometimes found in king salmon comes from their limited ability to metabolize carotene, causing the flesh to take on a marbled look.
The white worms we occasionally spot in salmon fillets are parasites called roundworms. Though these worms are more noticeable in salmon due to the contrast in color, they can be found in many white fish too — they’re just camouflaged. But we shouldn’t be freaking out.
Here’s the main difference: smoked salmon is cured and then smoked, whereas lox is only cured, typically in a salt brine and typically for longer periods of time, but not smoked.
As the name suggests, cold-smoking is done at temperatures no higher than 100 degrees, and more often between 65 and 85 degrees. The smoking time can be only a few minutes in duration, as in the case of smoked mozzarella, or several days (or even weeks or months) in the case of hams.
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