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Salmon candy has become my new favorite road food. Sweet, smoky, meaty, fatty. And while it looks like regular smoked salmon, it’s not. So what on earth is candied salmon?
Well, I first heard about candied salmon decades ago, when it was called squaw candy, but it’s no longer called that for obvious reasons. Salmon candy is basically heavily smoked strips of salmon, originally smoked so long they were basically salmon jerky. Nowadays it’s usually lacquered with something sweet, such as brown sugar, maple or birch syrup, or even molasses. The idea is to combine fatty-savory-smoky-sweet in one bite.
Strips from the belly of the salmon are best, but regular fillet strips are good, too — and you can do this to salmon collars as well.
Don’t get me wrong: I love my recipe for smoked salmon. I really do. But it’s for large pieces of salmon, meant to be eaten as a meal, or crumbled into salads or whatever. It isn’t something you can wrap in a paper towel, stick in your pocket and carry with you when you are picking blueberries or wandering around, or maybe fishing for more salmon.
For that you need to change things up a bit. First is the dry cure. My regular smoked salmon uses a brine cure, which keeps the fish supple and moist. Salmon candy needs to be heavily cured and heavily smoked to keep in less-than-ideal conditions.
While it isn’t strictly jerky, although if you want to make a true salmon jerky this is my recipe, the heavy cure and smoke has let me carry salmon candy on multi-day road trips and on fishing boats with a minimal amount of refrigeration.
How minimal? I’ve eaten it at room temperature after it had been in my pack while fishing all day, or in the late afternoon on a long drive. But I fish in cool places, so the salmon probably never got about 65°F. I wouldn’t let it get actually hot and eat it.
Remember, this is an Alaskan invention and it rarely gets hot in Alaska.
If you want something truly hardy, you will need to cut the strips thinner and smoke them harder to get them jerky-like.
What salmon to use? Well, any, really. This is a great use of chum or pink salmon, and it is also excellent with large trout or char. If you want to order salmon from Alaska, try Yakobi Fisheries — I have fished commercially with them and can highly recommend their fish.
Consider my candied salmon a hybrid, hardier than regular smoked salmon, and not quite as austere as the traditional salmon candy made by the native Alaskans. Whatever you call it, it’s damn good.
Smoked Salmon Candy
Ingredients
- 5 pounds skin-on salmon pieces, cut into 1- to 2-inch thick strips
- 1 pound kosher salt
- 1 pound brown sugar
- 1 cup maple syrup or birch syrup
Instructions
- Mix the salt and brown sugar together. Find a lidded container large enough to hold the salmon; a big plastic tub works well. Lay down a layer of the salt/sugar mixture about 1/4 inch deep. Put a layer of salmon down on this, skin side up. Cover the salmon with more salt/sugar mixture. If you need a second layer of salmon, make sure the layer of salt and sugar between them is thick enough so that the pieces of salmon are not touching. Basically you are burying the salmon in salt and sugar. Cover and let cure in the fridge at least 30 minutes, and up to 3 hours. The longer the cure the saltier it will be; I cure for 2 hours.
- Remove the salmon from the cure, which will get wet, and briefly rinse the fish under cold water. Pat dry with a paper towel and set the salmon on a drying rack skin side down. Let this dry in a breezy place for 2 hours, or in the fridge, uncovered, overnight. I put the racks under a ceiling fan near an open window with another fan blowing at the fish from the side. You are doing this to form a pellicle on the salmon, which helps it smoke properly. Don't skip this step!
- Traditionally salmon candy is cold smoked for several days. If you can do this, go for it. Regardless, you want to bring the temperature up gradually over the course of an hour or so and let it sit at around 165°F to 200°F for at least 3 hours, and up to 6 hours if you like your salmon candy harder and smokier.
- Every 90 minutes to 2 hours, paint the salmon with the maple syrup. This also helps to remove any albumen -- the icky white stuff -- that can form between the fish flakes if your smoker gets a little too hot too fast.
- When the salmon looks good and lacquered, typically about 3 to 4 hours, remove it to the drying racks again and paint it one last time with the maple syrup. Allow to cool to room temperature before storing. Salmon candy will last a week in the fridge, longer if vacuum sealed. It freezes well, too.
Notes
Tips
Smoke likes Fat. Smoke adheres better to fat than lean meat, so bellies and collars are better for this. Vary the thickness. Very thin strips will dry harder and be more like jerky... and will keep longer. I eat mine fairly quickly, so I leave the strips thicker, at about 2 inches wide.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this in my Little Chief smoker and smoked it for 7 hours. Absolutely fantastic!! My new favorite way to smoke salmon. I will have to make sure I never lose this recipe.
Can you use this recipe in a brinkmann smoker with a water pan?
Absolutely. I used to have one. Keep the temps relatively cool in the chamber, about 180 to 200 degrees or so.
Any other fish this might work on for those of use in the flyover country? I’m in Oklahoma. have about 60lbs of paddlefish in my freezer from spring. We have plenty of channel and blue cat as well as most freshwater game species like Florida Bass and Saugeye??
Try it with catfish and a good cane or sorghum syrup. Not sure if paddlefish is fatty, but if it is, that’s a perfect choice. Lemme know how it works out!
Brett, I’ve never dealt with spawned salmon, but they are pretty lean by that time, so as mentioned above, the smoky flavor isn’t going to adhere to the filets as well as if it were a fatter fish. I would imagine spawned salmon aren’t good for much except maybe patties, where it’s easier to blend in more fat.
I made this today and it was quite delicious. Though I found that it wasn’t as sweet as I was expecting anyways. Still delicious, will make again.
OK, thank you very much i am really looking forward to trying this
Jesse: After the first 90 minutes.
I am going to try this recipe. would you recommend putting the syrup on before starting smoking then every 90 minutes after or smoke it as is then paint with syrup after 90 minutes?
Brad-
Any word on that pike? I’ve never smoked pike but wanted to give it a shot. That sweetness would be very interesting with the pike.
Thanks
I made this using skinless king salmon. It did not fall apart and it was delicious. I am trying this with northern pike today. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I have smoked salmon for about 20 years. Farmed salmon is a waste of time. The better quality of salmon the better product. I brine for 24 to 48 hours. Smoke a minimum of 3 pans of alder or alder/cherry. Normally a minimum 5 hours will suffice.
Chris: I go about 45 minutes to an hour with no syrup, then I lacquer it up!
Would you recommend beginning the smoke with the first 90 minute period without the syrup, or do you start the smoke process with the fish already lacquered up?
I tried this recipe with farm raised salmon and with a wet brine using the same ingredients and it was great. I have also used a mix of pecan and cherry and that also worked out well…bottom line is that when you add sugar and maple syrup to salmon it is hard to mess things up. If using the wet brine be sure to dry the salmon very well; I put the filets on cooling racks and blow on them with an electric fan for a few hours.
I made this with some Prince William Silver bellies for a duck hunting trip to ND. It lasted about 10 minutes. Great recipe. Thanks!!
Ryan: Smoke goes the whole time.
Hoof: Why on God’s green acre would you ever even buy one of those nasty packets?! No wonder it was disgusting. This recipe is for fresh or thawed salmon only.
I tried this recipe with the salmon from the packets in the grocery store – the Starkist variety sold next to the tuna packets. First off, the salmon did not ‘cure’ and there was no slurry. Oh well, I ran it under cold water (which washed most of the salmon flakes away) to wash off the brine. Taking what remained I pushed it together to form a large patty to place on my homemade smoker (less than $40 thanks to Alton Brown). Firing up my smoker I smoked my salmon for about 8 hours. The patty was dry, hard and salty. I may need to make some modifications – like less salt and less sugar as the brine is too strong.
I was just curious if you have the smoke on the entire time in a Bradley or if you cook for a certain time and smoke for only a portion of it?
We make a very similar candy all summer long. Kings (Chinook) are our favorite, but Silvers (Coho) do just fine. Next summer, we plan on trying Humpies (Pinks) because of the higher fat content. We found that Reds (Sockeye) are too dry with this process – not enough fat. The skin is removed prior to applying the dry brine/cure, as we have found a preferance for the less “fishy” taste. After 12 hours, they are rinsed and air dried to develop a glossy shine. I’m sure there is a more technical term. Prior to our current smoker, the Big Chief was just fine, we just needed more racks to process the Alaskan size appetite for the Salmon Candy of our family and friends. Be willing and adventurous with additions until you find what works for your tastes. It’s well worth the effort!
Can you do this with some liquid smoke (for the smoky flavour) in a dehydrator?