Smoking Salmon- don't read if you are hungry!!

Hi all- I have been reading y'all posts about brines- they are good, dry rubs are better- I have been a caterer for years and now cook semi-professionally. Smoked hams and turkeys, slow smoked beef and now salmon have been the biggest requests from clients.
I am going to give y'all a trade secret so treat it well- use good belly cuts or thick fillets that have a high oil content. This rub works on salmon, poultry and pork. For Beef, replace the Apple Jack with Jack Daniels. the problem is i never measure so you may have to tweak to your taste

about 1 cup Brown sugar- the dark kind
garlic powder
onion powder
fresh grated ginger (powder if you don't have fresh)
chili powder
sea salt
fresh cracked black pepper
dash of fresh lemon juice (orange or lime works too)

set aside about 1/2-3/4 cup of good Apple Jack (its like Apple Whisky sort of)  Good dark rum also works

ok Mix everything up minus the liquer. you should have a very thick sticky mess, or if you leave out the lemon you will have a sugary mess. 
Brush a little of the liquer on the salmon flesh side up. Sprinkle with sugar mix. some will soak in- this is good. let it sit in the fridge for about 1-2 hrs. Get the smoker heating up- i use Jack daniels chips or apple/cherry mix. anything else like hickory or mesquite is too strong for salmon. take the salmon out of the fridge, repeat the liquer/ sugar layers. smoke skin side down for anywhere from 1-4 hours it depends on the fish, your smokyness preference and outside temp. keep the liquer and sugar going every 45 min. it will make a nice carmel coating adding beautiful color and helps seal in juice, oil and flavor. Salmon is done when it flakes and is opaque (or you just can't stand it and snarff it while standing over the smoker!)
I literally use this rub technique for everything- salmon, pork roasts and picnic butts, cornish game hens, fabulous on caribou and moose, beef pot roasts, turkeys that smoke for like 12 hrs- Heck- i use it on pineapple and peaches then grill them! The other thing you can do with this is bake the salmon instead of smoking/grilling. Treat it the same way, just times are going to be different and put a few small pats of butter on top of the sugar in the oven.

OK-happy Kayaking. Happy Fishing. Happy Eating!

Yup, you just made me hungry.   

I'm definitely going to have to give this rub a try.

-Allen

I love rubs, use them alot doing ribs and chicken and vegis (yes vegis) But to say rubs are better then brines is comparing apples to oranges. They both have there purpose and uses. For instance, you can't make gravlox using a brine, and you can't cure a leg of pork in to a ham with a rub. So I would never say one is better then the other.

FC