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I smoke a lot of salmon, and I am proud of this recipe, although it would be the height of arrogance to say that what I do is the end-all, be-all of salmon smoking recipes. Lots of people smoke their salmon in lots of ways, and many of them are good. But I’ve been smoking fish for many years, and I’ve developed a system that works well.
Keep in mind this is a hot-smoking recipe. Cold smoking, which is the kind of slice-able smoked fish you get in fancy boxes from Scotland is an entirely different thing.
Almost everyone in Salmon Country hot smokes their fish. If you’re unfamiliar with hot-smoked fish, think about those golden smoked whitefish you see in delicatessens; those are hot smoked.
How do you eat it? Well, you can just eat it plain, or you can flake it and make it into a smoked salmon salad, you can pound it with butter and make salmon rillettes, serve it in deviled eggs, tossed with pasta… you get the point.
Here’s what you need to get started:
- A smoker. I’ve uses a Traeger and a Bradley. Both are good. No matter what smoker you use, you will need to be able to a) know your smoking chamber’s temperature, and b) control the heat, at least in a rough sense.
- Wood. The only downside to a Traeger smoker is that you need to use their wood pellets. As a guy who used a Brinkmann wood-fired BBQ for years, fueling it with scraps of almond and other fruit woods, buying wood can be annoying, but you get better precision with this method. I prefer to use alder wood for my salmon, but apple, cherry, oak or maple work fine.
- Salt. Buy a box of kosher salt from the supermarket. Do not use regular table salt, as it contains iodide and anti-caking agents that will give your salmon an “off” flavor. I use Diamond Crystal, which is cut finer than Morton’s.
- Something sweet — salmon love sweet. I prefer to sweeten my smoked salmon with birch syrup; It’s just like maple syrup, only tapped from birch trees instead. Super cool stuff. But maple syrup is just as good. Just use real maple syrup, OK? Not the imitation crap. Honey works, too.
- A large plastic container. Buy the big, flat ones from the supermarket. They stack easily in a normal fridge, so you can have two different brines going. And they clean easily and are pretty cheap.
- A wire rack. You need to rest your brined fish on a rack with plenty of air circulation to form the all-important pellicle (more on that in a bit), and you will use it to rest the smoked fish before storing it.
- A basting brush. You probably already have this in your kitchen, but if not, pick one up. Get the flat kind, like you use to paint detail on window trim.
When you are ready to start, you will need smallish pieces of salmon about 1/4 to 1/2 pound each. Any salmonid fish will work with this recipe. I’ve done it with king salmon, sockeye, coho, and pink salmon, dolly varden, plus kokanee, steelhead and Lahontan trout.
There is no reason it would not work with chum salmon or any other char or trout species. And yes, it works with farmed Atlantic salmon, but I never eat the stuff.
I prefer to smoke salmon with its skin on, but I’ve done it with skinless pieces and it works fine.
Smoked Salmon
Note that my salmon cure is very simple. Feel free to add things if you like. I've added bay leaves, chiles, thyme, garlic and minced onion. All are fine, but subtle. And since I often use smoked salmon as a base for another dish, I want mine to remain simple and clean-tasting.
Ingredients
- 5 pounds salmon, trout or char
- Birch or maple syrup for basting
BRINE
- 1 quart cool water
- 1/3 cup Diamond Crystal kosher salt, about 2 ounces of any kosher salt
- 1 cup brown sugar
Instructions
- Mix together the brine ingredients and place your fish in a non-reactive container (plastic or glass), cover and put in the refrigerator. This curing process eliminates some of the moisture from the inside of the fish while at the same time infusing it with salt, which will help preserve the salmon.
- You will need to cure your salmon at least 4 hours, even for thin fillets from trout or pink salmon. In my experience, large trout or char, as well as pink, sockeye and silver salmon need 8 hours. A really thick piece of king salmon might need as much as 36 hours in the brine. Never go more than 48 hours, however, or your fish will be too salty. Double the brine if it's not enough to cover the fish.
- Take your fish out of the brine, rinse it briefly under cold running water, and pat it dry. Set the fillets on your cooling rack, skin side down. Ideally you'd do this right under a ceiling fan set on high, or outside in a cool, breezy place. By "cool" I mean 60°F or cooler. Let the fish dry for 2 to 4 hours (or up to overnight in the fridge). You want the surface of the fish to develop a shiny skin called a pellicle. This is one step many beginning smokers fail to do, but drying your cured, brined fish in a cool, breezy place is vital to properly smoking it. The pellicle, which is a thin, lacquer-like layer on top of the fish, seals it and offers a sticky surface for the smoke to adhere to. Don't worry, the salt in the brine will protect your fish from spoilage. Once you have your pellicle, you can refrigerate your fish for a few hours and smoke it later if you'd like.
- Start by slicking the skin of your fish with some oil, so it won't stick to the smoker rack. Know that even though this is hot smoking, you still do not want high temperatures. Start with a small fire and work your way up as you go. It is important to bring the temperature up gradually or you will get that white albumin "bleed" on the meat. I can control my heat with my smoker, so I start the process between 140°F and 150°F for up to an hour, then finish at 175°F for a final hour or two. NOTE: What my smoker is set at is not necessarily what the actual temperature is. Smoking is an art, not a science. To keep temperatures mild, always put water in your drip pan to keep the temperature down. If your smoker is very hot, like a Traeger can get, put ice in the tray.
- After an hour in the smoker, baste the fish with birch or maple syrup, or honey; do this every hour. This is a good way to brush away any albumin that might form. In most cases, you will get a little. You just don't want a ton of it. Even if you can't control your temperature this precisely, you get the general idea. You goal should be an internal temperature of about 130°F to 140°F. (Incidentally, yes, I keep the smoke on the whole time. I don't find this to be too much smoke, but if you want a lighter smoke, finish the salmon without smoke or in a 200°F oven.)
- You must be careful about your heat. Other than failing to dry your salmon long enough, the single biggest problem in smoking salmon is too high heat. If you've ever seen salmon "bleed" a white, creamy substance, that's a protein called albumin. If you see lots of it, you've screwed up; a little is normal. Here's what happens: If you cook a piece of salmon at too high a heat, the muscle fibers in the meat contract so violently that they extrude albumin, which immediately congeals on the surface of the fish. It's ugly, and it also means your salmon will be drier than it could have been. You prevent this with a solidly formed pellicle, and by keeping your heat gentle. If you let your heat get away from you and you do get a white mess on your salmon, all is not lost. Just flake it out and make salmon salad with it: The mayonnaise in the salad will mask any dryness.
- Once your fish is smoked, let it rest on the cooling rack for an hour before you put it in the fridge. Once refrigerated and wrapped in plastic, smoked fish will keep for 10 days. If you vacuum-seal it, the fish will keep for up to 3 weeks. Or freeze your fish for up to a year.
Notes
One last piece of advice: Try to fill up your smoker with fish. This process takes a while to do, and your smoker doesn't care if its full or half-empty, so you might as well make a big batch.
And keep in mind this recipe is for basic smoked salmon. Other options are smoked salmon candy, a great snack, and, once you have your smoked salmon, you can use it in smoked salmon dip on crackers.
Nutrition
Serving: 113g | Calories: 132kcal | Protein: 21.3g | Fat: 4.9g | Saturated Fat: 1.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2.3g | Cholesterol: 26.7mg | Potassium: 198.7mg | Vitamin A: 100IU | Calcium: 10mg | Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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This was amazing. I didn’t have time to brine for as long and did so for an hour and then dryed it for another hour and it came out great! My temps (still working on it) went from 150 to 170 and I still had perfectly flavored salmon smoked with alder and then some cherry. I also only made a pound and just 1/5 the brine recipe. It was very, very good. Thanks!
I’m going to brine for maybe 3 hrs…. how long did you keep it on the smoker ? You started at 150 right. For how long. Thx ?
This is my go to recipe. Perfect.
Oustanding site Hank! Followed this recipe last weekend and had the best smoked salmon to date. Been cooking at too high a temp and never basted before your coming across this recipe. Your instructions made a world of difference. Been looking for more sausage ideas as well and looks like you have some really great ones. Being a Montanan, glad I discovered you!
Approximately how long do you smoke steel head pieces?
Rosemary: About 3 hours, if I can keep the smoker below 200F. Less if not.
I used this recipe a few weeks ago and the salmon came out great! Everyone who tried it said it was the best they ever had. Moist and flavorful. Thank you.
I started another batch last night and added some red pepper flakes to the brine.
When trying to dry my fish today, I couldn’t get the pellicle to form. My fish is just dry, it isnt sticky.
Is there a way to fix this?
My husband and I will be ice fishing this weekend for Lake Whitefish. Assuming we catch something I am planning on smoking them. Do I alter the recipe at all?
I’ve been using your method since last fall for all of the fish I bring home from commercial fishing in my home state of Alaska, except I’ve been using an indoor smoker that I place under the fan on my stove. The fish turns out incredibly well every time. Nothing like Alaska smoked sockeye with a New England maple glaze. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
I’m a little confused on when you are putting the salmon in the smoker. Do you put it in right away, smoke until it reaches a temp of 140-150; leave for an hour, then raise the temp to 175 for an hour or two?
Jake: Yes, it stays in the whole time.
Try to baste with apricot jam. A friend who never eats anything that is not charcoaled to death just loved my smoked salmon ++++
Thanks. First Time smoker. Have my salmon in the brine
do you baste the fish with syrup as soon as you put it in the smoker, or just starting after the first hour?
Thanks for the write up, very helpful
Tyler: You start after the first hour, and not earlier than 30 minutes into it.
Hank: thanks for explaining the technique along with the recipe. It helped take my whole smoke game to the next level.
Larry: I had this problem with my masterbuilt, too. Lighting one charcoal briquette in the ash pan at the beginning solved the problem of no smoke, and still gave me a moist and juicy fish. The briquette heats the wood chips up enough to smoke, and the electronics adapt to keep the temp in range.
Can you use a Cameron stovetop cooker for this?
Anne: I don’t know that that is.
I caught my first salmon this fall with my father in law. She was a big girl who was not great table quality meat, so I decided to smoke it. This recipe is so good. I will use it over and over. In fact, I’ve got a second batch in the smoker now that should be done any time. Cheers!
Hank, I live in north FL, and use a Masterbuild Electric Smoker. The outside temp is usually warmer here, so the chips do not smoke at your 150 recommended cooking temperature. With 60 degrees outside, I have turn it up to 180 or 190 to get it to smoke. Any recommendations? Guessing a colder day will allow for lower cooking temp and slower cooking? Still came out tasty!!
Larry: You should be fine at 180F.
Turned out great on some small king fillets! Thanks for sharing.
Besides salmon salad, a chowder is a good use for “dry” smoked fish. I’ve made a spread as well which would probably mask a heavily smoked fish.
Salute and thank you from Montana! This recipe is AMAZING! I used bourbon aged maple syrup for the baste (I highly recommend it). Smoked for two hours at 130 and two hours at 180. It was moist and flaky and a huge hit! Thank you again!
Fabulous! Brining Atlantic salmon for 8 hours was perfect. I used a pellet smoker with applewood. I smoked the fish for two hours at 160 and then two more hours at 180, taking the thinner pieces off once they reached the appropriate internal temperature. The salmon is moist, flakey, and delicious. Thanks for the recipe.
This recipe beat out the store bought smoked fish at deer camp this season. Not too smoky and moist, it was a great hit. The hunters at BD Doug’s camp salute you from Northern Minnesota!