Intro and question about smoking salmon

[canuck]

Hi All,
I recently built a 42" pompeii with help using many of your plans and posts, especially Dinos, so thanks for your help! The oven just needs a proper roof and rock veneer, which I plan to do this spring.

I have been using it for pizza and roasting a few chickens, seems to work great so far. I had trouble sourcing insulation for a reasonable price in Canada, ended up using thermo gold 12.

I was wondering if anyone out there has used it for smoking salmon, and if so, what was their technique. I'm planning ti get it up to around 200 degrees, then put a metal pan in it with chips nect to the coals. Anyone try this?

Thanks

[fornax hominus]

Re: Intro and question about smoking salmon

I have smoked tomatoes /peppers in mine many times @260 f but I shut the door on a good fire in the evening and used the heat the next day ..the coals come back to life and smolder the chips [I just put them on the charcoal that has been swept to one side ] you have a lot better chance of maintaining the temp you want on the cooling cycle than trying to just bring it up to 200f .

[Laurentius]

Re: Intro and question about smoking salmon

Do you want to bake or smoke the fish? If you`re at 200 degree you`re baking the fish, fish is very delicate and doesn`t require a very high heat to cook a maximum temperature of 140 degrees is good for Hot Smoking of salmon. Now if all you want is a smoked flavored fish thats another story.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Intro and question about smoking salmon

Now if all you want is a smoked flavored fish thats another story.

I have smoked many scrumptious pork shoulders in my offset smoker and have now attempted two pulled pork burns using a coasting 230F oven with a basket of lump oak burning at one end and a cracked door. The smoke flavor is not bad, but the meat texture suffers in that once fully cooked to 'pulling' resistance, the meat is mushy and closer to boiled than smoked. I believe this is because in an offset smoker, the constant draw of warm smoke over the meat removes the proper amount of moisture from the pork and my oven doesn't provide this.

I love smoking salmon in my smoker and after my disappointing WFO pulled pork results, won't be doing it in the WFO. I think Laurentius nailed it.

John

[canuck]

Re: Intro and question about smoking salmon

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I ended up using similar method as Fornax, and started smoking below 200 degrees on the cooling cycle. I put the door on for the first batch, and caused the heat to come up too much & overcook them. The second time was sucessfull with the door off the whole time.

[Laurentius]

Re: Intro and question about smoking salmon

Hi John,

The pulled pork is do-able and has been done in the WFO, the key for me is when its cycling down from full saturation maybe around the third or fourth day, when the oven is about 185-90. I build a fire outside and transfer coal into the back of the oven so as not to bring up the oven temperature, throw some water soaked cherry chunks on until they start smoking, place my pork on a rack, seal the door for an hour or so, open the door to reignite the cherry chunks until the start smoking, seal again and let it go for another hour. The I take the meat off the grill, seal it up in foil, leave the door off until the oven has cooled down to about 150, place in a pan and seal oven, cook over night (6 to 8hrs). I`m a Early Bird, get up at 2am, so I put it in around 7-8pm. Give it a try

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Intro and question about smoking salmon

Cherry wood sounds really good. I've got orange wood and oak, so I'll mix the two and give it a go.

[Wiley]

Re: Intro and question about smoking salmon

Many years ago I was a commercial salmon fisherman here in the Puget Sound. Like others have said if you use your WFO you will be hot smoking the salmon and will need to can it afterward if you wish to keep it for any length of time (although you can get away with refrigeration if only for a few days). If you are trying to create something akin to lox you will need to cold smoke the salmon.

When we did this we used an old refrigerator (old enough that the interior was enameled steel rather than plastic like more modern refrigerators) and created racks for hanging the fillets. We produced a product that we were very proud of and gave away for Christmas gifts to family and close friends. We used alder for our smoking wood as it is more traditional here in the Northwest.

Even with cold smoking you will need to refrigerate the salmon but it will last for much longer (not that it did; it was eaten well before any possibility of problems). To smoke it so that it will last without refrigeration you will end up with a product much like jerky.

We had a lot of fun doing this and one year with another fisherman friend we smoked 50 "silver bright" dogs (chum). Chum, even silver bright, never fetched the same price as silver salmon or king but smoked up beautifully.

For those who do not know, in the ocean chum look very similar to silver salmon. The size of their eye and thickness of where the tail joins the body are easy ways to distinguish between the two. When the chum head to spawn they stop eating and their bodies change becoming stripped and their heads morphing so the lower jaw projects well ahead of the upper. Those fish where this is very pronounced are referred to as alligators. For some reason some fish turn quicker than others (even those returning to the same stream) and keep their ocean characteristics (firmer flesh and silver bright skin). The fish buyers never paid more regardless and we fishermen always suspected that they sold the silver bright chum as silvers to the public who couldn't tell the fish apart.

Hope this helps, Happy Holidays

Wiley