Salmon - Home Smoking

For the record, I bought two slabs of salmon from Cashwise meat counter. They were on sale, $3 off a pound. So, they weren't cheap. It was about $47 dollars for two slabs.

My hubby ended up cutting one slab into manageable portions, and there was the extra portion that wasn't going to fit, so I cooked it on the grill the next day. Anyways, this was soaked in a salt brine for a day and then, he placed it into the smoker that he uses.

The aluminum smoker is one that Sears used to sell. Sears is not in business anymore, as far as I know. It's an electric smoker, with a pan that rests on a burner and contains that wood chips that you place into it.

Since we have oak, maple and apple trees in our yard, occasionally he cuts a branch up for using in the smoker. The smoke from those branches, creates a very tasty flavor in the fish.

The fish actually sits on the shelf, and the heat from the smoker and the smoke cooks the fish slowly and turns it into a fish jerky. The skin is not eaten, but keeps the fish from falling apart.

I'm sure the cats will help us eat our discarded skin later when the actual salmon meat is consumed.

The smoking process will be after the salmon soaks up the salt brine for a couple days.

When it is smoking, he will cover the salmon with three things: sliced onion, brown sugar and black peppercorns cracked.

It's an electric grill, so it plugs in.

Due to cold garage, he used the house oven, set at 180 degrees to bring temp of fish to 160 degrees.

He said it 'took forever' for the meat to reach 160 degrees. Almost a few hours. I went to bed at 9 p.m., and he fell into bed at midnight...

The meat, now that it is done, is a lightly salty, ham-like flavor. There is a slight fish odor, but the flavor is very good.