Smoked Salmon Time! – How to make the Best Smoked Salmon

OK folks, for those of you who have watched an episode or two of the Simpsons you are going to remember Homer “You don’t make friends with salad”. So, with this recipe, while the salads are tossed, all your friends are going to be raving about your Smoked Salmon. So here we go its Smoked Salmon Time!

The Ingredients

This smoked salmon recipe is easy to do you are going to need the following ingredients:

• salmon (four, 5 pound coho makes a good batch)
• brown sugar (1 bag ~7 cups)
• coarse salt (2 cups)
• maple syrup (2 cups)

The Gear

I make my smoked salmon on a Bradley Digital Smoker. The Bradley digital smoker is great because it allows for precise timing, and temperature control through the smoking process. All kinds of other smokers can be used all you have to do is maintain the smoke and temperature closely and your smoked salmon will turn out amazing! For more information on the Bradley Digital Smoker, check out this FishinBC.COM article:

FishinBC.COM Article: Bradley Digital Smoker Review

To make the smoked salmon you will also need:

• smoker of your choice
• fillet knives and cutting board
• large plastic bin with lid to hold the salmon (~10L capacity)
• measuring cups
• basting brush
• paper towels

Timelines for Smoked Salmon

Before we get into the details I will explain that smoking salmon takes a long time it is best to do it over a weekend. Most of the time is spent waiting but what you will need to do is first thaw the fish if it is previously frozen, then fillet and prepare it, then brine it, and then smoke it. When I make a batch of smoked salmon I usually take the salmon out of the freezer on a Friday, let it thaw overnight, then Saturday morning I will process (takes an hour or two), and put it into the brine overnight, and then Sunday morning I will take it out of the brine and smoke if for 6 hours, then package it and put everything away Sunday evening.

Prepping the Salmon for Smoking

The first thing you want to do is give your salmon a good washing with cold water. When it is clean take a sharp fillet knife and cut the fillets off each side. At this time you can optionally pluck out the pin bones, or, you can leave them in, its your choice. If you are going to pluck the pin bones you can use pliers or special pin bone fish tweezers. In the preparation phase, you also have the option to skin the fillets. Some people will skin theirs while others will leave the skin on. Again, this comes down to personal preference. I like to remove the skin on mine. If you do leave the skin on, you will find that it is really easy to remove the skin after the process so it is no big deal either way. By removing the skin in advance you might get a slightly better curing, especially on thick fillets. Once you have your fillets how you like them, cut the fillets into small strips. In this case, the size of the strips or chunks is up to you. I like to cut mine into pieces that are about 5 inches long, generally I will cut a coho fillet into 3 equal size pieces. This makes for a perfect size piece to serve.

Salt and Brown Sugar Cure

The salt cure process has several purposes, first it will draw out some of the water from the cells of the fish, this will firm it up and aid in preservation. Salt, and sugar, will be transferred to the fish, the salt will be the main preserving feature, and the sugar will give it the delicious taste. Salmon in particular works very well with sugar it gives a great taste. The sugar is also important because it balances against the salty taste.

My salt cure is simple I take a full bag of brown sugar (approx. 7-8 cups) and put it into a large bowl or an ice cream container would be ideal. Then I add 2 cups of coarse, canning salt (non-iodized salt must be used or the flavor will be affected). These are the two primary ingredients and then I mix it all up. At this point you have the opportunity to spice up your smoked salmon however you want. There are all sorts of personal secret ingredients, you can add garlic, onion salts, mustard flavors, chili peppers, the list goes on and on. What I do find is that smoked salmon in general is absolutely delicious and the little extra flavors may add a bit but really, anything will do. For simplicity I have smoked mine up with just a plain mixture of brown sugar and salt.

Once you have your cure made up take your large, plastic container, and put in a layer of cure at the bottom, just enough to cover the bottom. Then add a layer of salmon, a layer of cure, another layer of salmon, cure, etc until you have used all the salmon and all the cure. If you need more containers, or more cure, then make more to ensure you take care of all your salmon.

Put the covers on the containers, and put them into your fridge for the curing to occur. It will take a minimum of 8hrs for salmon curing but you can cure the salmon for overnight for convenience. Thick fillets from large Chinook might require 24 hrs. I do not recommend going much longer than 24hrs, it should not be necessary and the longer the fish cures, the more salty it gets. One note, smoking salmon is about timelines and so you have to fit it into your available schedule. I generally put mine in overnight and then resume the smoking the next morning. If you can’t do yours the next morning, and need to wait a few more hours because you are busy with the family or something has come up, that is fine, smoked salmon that is in the brine will wait, just try and keep it to within 24hrs or so.

After the Cure

Once the salmon has cured overnight, remove the container from the fridge and you will notice a thick brown sugar water mixture in there because the water has been drawn out of the salmon. At this point what you need to do is rinse each piece under cold water to wash off the extra external salt. You do not want to have lots of coarse salt on the salmon fillets that will make it way too salty to go ahead with the rinsing. Lay out all the pieces onto paper towel and give them a pat down to dry. After that, you need to dry the fish on racks preferably in cool place, or under a fan, for 2 hours. This process forms a pellicle, a sort of rubbery outer skin on each piece and this helps to keep the fish moist through the smoking, and, the smoke will also adhere.

A tip, if you are using a Bradley Smoker, is to lay down some paper towels on your kitchen table, then put your Bradley Smoker trays on top of those, but put the trays upside down. This will create a one inch air gap underneath and that will make for the best air flow and drying process. The trays can go into the smoker upside down just fine so this is a great move! At this time you also have the option to spray your trays with a non stick cooking spray, oil, butter, or, to just put the salmon on straight. The spray is not mandatory the fish might stick a bit but generally they do not stick too bad. So it is your choice. Go ahead and put your fish fillets on top of the upside down trays, and, you should also check your pieces for any residual water. If there are surface cracks with water pockets, use your paper towel to blot that dry. Leave the fish on the trays for about 2 hours to dry. If you have a ceiling fan or any fan put that on the fish to help the drying process.

Smoking Time!

Now that you have had your salmon air drying for 2 hours it is time to spark up the smoker! You can use many kinds of smoking chips for making smoked salmon. Fruit tree woods are recommended for salmon, as is alder. Some woods like mesquite and hickory are not recommended for salmon because of their strong flavors, these are best reserved for smoking ribs.

With the fish in the smoker now, you want to run a three stage smoking process, two hours at low (approx. 110-120F), the next two hours slightly higher (approx. 140F) and the last two hours at 170F. This three stage process will ensure that you do not rapidly overheat your smoked salmon. When salmon overheats you will see some yellow substance oozing out of the fish and this ideally would stay inside it contributes to the flavor and moisture of the fish. By raising the heat slowly over 6 hours, the fish should not overheat too much, and the moisture will stay inside. It is inevitable that you will find some of the yellow on the surface but that is usually to be expected.

The Secret Ingredient

The secret ingredient for this recipe is a little bit of maple syrup. This is optional but it gives the smoked salmon just a little extra kick. After about 5 hours in the smoker take each rack out one by one and baste on with a basting brush, a little bit of maple syrup! MMMmmmmm! This will ensure you are getting rave reviews for your delicious smoked salmon!

Time to Serve your Delicious Smoked Salmon

After the salmon is done you can bring the racks into the house and it is ready to eat! For storage, transfer it into containers and store it in the fridge for a couple of weeks. You can also put it into zip lock or vacuum sealer bags and freeze it longer term.

Great Smoked Salmon Meals

Smoked salmon is great on its own or served with cheese, crackers, and sweet pickles. But that is only the tip of the iceberg for what you can do with smoked salmon. One of the greatest uses for smoked salmon is to blend it into an alfredo pasta sauce, absolutely delicious. Also try smoked salmon with sushi, and smoked salmon into some wraps with a few veggies and some cream cheese.

Smoked Salmon Video

Here is a short video that shows all the steps to making delicious smoked salmon.

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Notes on Quality

The quality of your smoked salmon is to a degree related to the quality of the salmon you start with, but, having said that, smoked salmon is a very forgiving process. It works great with fresh caught salmon and the finest being the sockeye salmon. But smoking is also a great way to use some softer salmon like pinks, or if you are away from the ocean and catching river fish, those will be great in the smoker too. If you are not a pro at filleting, and the fillets do not look perfect, that is also OK, the smoked salmon will taste delicious none the less and your friends and family will all enjoy the opportunity to have some delicious smoked salmon. Smoking is also a great way to use up some older fish if you find you have a fish or two left in the bottom of your freezer, as long as they are not freezer-burnt, smoke them up and they will be great.

Your Turn

I hope that this article helps you with smoked salmon. If you have any questions about the process leave a comment down below and we will get back to you with an answer. Also let me know if you have any particular recommendations for smoking based on your salmon smoking experiences. And let us know some of your favorite meals to cook up that include smoked salmon.