Making Room for this years Salmon

....deep breath in.... ah the smell of alder smoke in the air.

So long as I had a few more extensive chores around the house and yard I figured it was time to make some room for this years fish.   I scrounged through the deep freeze and corralled all the late run silvers and a couple pieces of King, and found enough for two batches of salmon for the smoker.  It's pretty much cleaning me out of salmon with the exception of the kings i caught so far this year, but man does the fish smell good!   

For silvers and Kings I do a hot (160 to 170 deg) smoke salmon, primarily over alder, with the breeze blowing out there this batch was around 5 to 6 hours.  Samples are settling in really well with a Scottish Ale right now. 

Second batch goes in later tonight or tomorrow morning depending on timing.

Now I REALLY gotta go find the silvers - I have space for them!

Also - I haven't done cold smoked Sockeye in quite a few years - anyone got tips to share on how to get best results?

That looks tasty I'm going to do the same thing this weekend

Nothing beats the smell of a smoker full of fish. Well, aside from eating it.

I'm getting ready to crank up the smoker in a day or two. Just got back from the Copper with a load of dipped sockeye. Most are getting frozen, but I pulled out a half dozen to smoke. Hot smoking with alder and hickory. Haven't tried cold smoking yet, maybe this winter.

Enjoy your fish!

Nice!  Martin and I got a pretty good recipe for cold smoke.  He has it down much better since I don't have a cold smoker.  I'll have to get it for ya!  That cold smoke is addictive!

Oh yeah - that'd be the fish we had back in October King fishing?  Love to get that recipe!

Yup...I was just contemplating about thawing and smoking my last years batch...mostly reds. Gave away most of my copper reds so I will have a huge empty space in my freezer.  I've never done cold smoked before so I'm also interested in this process. 

I use 2 methods for cold smoke, a dry salt sugar brine, which gives a drier, firmer product, or a wet brine which is easier  and gives a slightly more moist, silkier product. I use a Bradley with a secondary smoke chamber in order to keep the temp down below 90 degrees, which is key for cold smoke. I pull the Bradley smoke generator out of the side of the Bradley box and stick it in the remote smoke chamber, connecting the 2 with a piece of dryer hose. 2 hours with alder and then continue without the smoke until it feels firm enough. With cold smoke salmon, it's all about the curing process, the smoke part is relatively straight forward, as long as you can control the temp. I can dig out specific instructions, if you want.
T2

I use 2 methods for cold smoke, a dry salt sugar brine, which gives a drier, firmer product, or a wet brine which is easier  and gives a slightly more moist, silkier product. I use a Bradley with a secondary smoke chamber in order to keep the temp down below 90 degrees, which is key for cold smoke. I pull the Bradley smoke generator out of the side of the Bradley box and stick it in the remote smoke chamber, connecting the 2 with a piece of dryer hose. 2 hours with alder and then continue without the smoke until it feels firm enough. With cold smoke salmon, it's all about the curing process, the smoke part is relatively straight forward, as long as you can control the temp. I can dig out specific instructions, if you want.
T2

I'd love to see more on your brine and prep method.  Thanks.  I have known a few people with the ability to get consistently clear, translucent salmon strips from their cold smoker.  One key for this is to use super-fresh salmon, so I am saving my cold smoke process for Sockeye season.  The slightly firmer flesh should hold up better for salmon strips.

I have used both brining and dry-salt curing before.  My family tends to prefer the dry method, with less sugar in the brine, but generally with a top-glaze brushed on just before hot smoking .   Years ago I did a great batch of cold-smoked sockeye using a brine and air-dry prep method, but have lost my notes!

For food safety reasons, I hot smoke fish and bring it to an internal temperature of at least 145 degrees for half an hour.  When fish is cold smoked, dangerous bacteria may develop in the fish during the smoking process.  For some information about regulations and recommendations about the internal temperature to which smoked fish should be brought, see my posting on the Bradley Smoker forum at http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=30863.msg364765#msg364765 .

Oh yeah - that'd be the fish we had back in October King fishing?  Love to get that recipe!

It' a dry cure.  3 days in cure, an hour or two of resh water rinse, 3 days drying and 3 days cold smoke I think is the general duideline.  I know Martin mixed up the sugar salt ratio whivh I think started out at one to one but is now mor elike 3 parts sugar to one part salt. 

I will say he did up some silvers for me and they were every bit as good as the reds.  The sugar "candies" the fish and helps with the translucent look.  I recall in my fish processing days where we sold cold smoked kings for something ridiculous like $40 per pound and the chums at $25 and you could not tell the difference.