Salmon Brine for Smoking
Salmon Brine for Smoking
Author: Reposted creator Mark Elkins Newark, CA Find Mark's recipe and more at the West Coast's #1 Online Fishing Resource - Fishsniffer.com
Ingredients
- Here we go:
- In a 5 gal. bucket lined with a household garbage bag: 1 cup "Non-Iodized" salt.
- It is very important that you use this salt only as any other will ruin your fish.
- You can get this salt right next to the regular salt at your market,
- it comes in a red box(regular salt comes in a blue box). 2 gal cold water
- 2 lbs. dark brown sugar
- 1 bottle red or white wine
- 1 32 oz bottle Teriyaki sauce
- 6 oz each of garlic and onion powder
- 4 oz of pickling spice
- 1 oz each of cinnamon and mace
- 1 large bottle of Italian seasoning
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients and let stand 1 hour. Marinate fish in brine for 12 - 24 hours stirring or agitating every 2 hrs or so. I usually go for 24 hours. Remove fish from brine and rinse brine off thoroughly in cold running water. Let fish air dry for at least 1 hour, you want the flesh to get a "tacky" surface on it.
- Place fish in smoker(do not use a barbeque!). Distribute fish on the racks evenly to make sure there is plenty of space between pieces.
- Fill chip pan with a 50/50 mix of apple and alder chips
- (you can get these at Big 5 Sporting Goods).
- A pan of chips usually will take 1 hour to burn out, replace chips as they burn out for the first 5 hours then every 4 - 6 hours for the rest of the smoking time.
- A filet of salmon will take between 8 and 24 hours to smoke depending on size of the filet and the desired amount of doneness. A 10 lb salmon will yield 2 3.5 lb fillets that will take at least 12 hours to smoke for a soft texture. I will smoke this salmon for 24 hours to get a hard smoked texture that I like.