As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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
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
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Finally a correct recipe! I have been smoking salmon forever and just wince at all the stuff people add in their brines. Salt and raw brown sugar is all that is needed…with a baste or two of real syrup.
As important as the above is to use natural ocean caught salmon.
I use a big chief smoker and it stays around 130 deg so I have found that the air drying step can be skipped as by the time the smoker gets up to speed the fish is dry.
We have a new smoker and I’ve found some salmon that’s 5 months old frozen in a gallon sized bag… slightly freezer burned. We are unable to go to the store at this time. Do you think it would be worth it give it a crack in our new smoker or would it be awful? Should it be any good still?
Liz: It’s worth a shot, but it won’t be as good as fresh.
I appreciate you sharing your knowledge send postings , I am new to the smoking world and am attempting salmon
After you take the fish out of the brine, do you rinse it before patting it dry?
Lee: You can, briefly. Sometimes I do and sometimes not. Sometimes I just pat the fish dry.
I have done this exact recipe several times and like it better if I just pat dry and don’t rinse. Both are good though.
Can you describe the texture of the fish after brining for 36 hours? Should it be firm, medium firm? Mine came out just as soft as it went in.
Sam: It should be slightly firmer, but not hard like truly cured fish. You are only brining, not full-on curing.
Great, simple recipe. Thank you. What kind of wood do you use?
Jon: Alder, almost always. But willow is nice, too, as is oak or maple. Some people prefer fruit woods.
This Smoked Salmon instruction guide was AMAZING! I loved the directions and explanations. Thank you for taking the time to put this out there for rookies like me to explore with. Nailed it the first time!
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this use for it but… On a toasted bagel (everything) with green onion cream cheese, flaked salmon, lemon juice, this cut cucumber and fresh dill on top is amazing.
Don’t forget the capers!
Came out awesome did some in honey and maple syrup. Think next time I’m going to leave the heat at 150° and not go higher because couple of pieces were just a touch dry. And next time is tomorrow, lol.
A damn good recipe for salmon that tastes like you’re french kissing God!
Love this recipe! What do you serve your hot smoked salmon with?
Best smoked salmon I have ever made! Thank you!!
Iam going to smoke a batch of kokanee and eastern brook trout with my salmon I would cut in 1 inch strips, and with the ends just slice a bit with the kokanee and brookies do you you leave the filet whole or do you just slice them a bit
Being a rank new-comer to smoking foods, your recipe sounds fantastic, so flavorful. I’m 89 years old and don’t have a grill or smoker, can I still use salmon with the pellicle developed first, in a wok, smoke the fish on the stove top? I would be using the standard of uncooked white rice, some green tea, maybe a few aromatics to create the smoke…maybe later with more experience, I’ll try soaked wood chips, too.
Thank you for making the process so easy to understand.
Dione: Not with this recipe. Sorry, this will not work with a wok.
I really absolutely love this recipe. Second time using it. Talk about some great tasting smoked salmon!
Sir, Dustin Steger from Texas. Love the recipe, making it for second time. My question is, when you say let it rest for an hour after smoking, do you mean at room temp(AC 70 indoors) or what exactly? I shrink wrapped after last batch resting for 1 hour that way. Delicious. Just want to see if that’s the way you advise
Thanks for your wonderful insights
Dustin Steger
Texas
Dustin: Yes, at room temperature. It lets everything firm up and not “sweat” when you put it in the fridge.
Best smoked salmon I’ve ever had!! Thank you! One question, for convenience, I’d like to brine my salmon the day before drying it (I prefer to dry it outside rather than in the fridge). Is it ok to leave brined salmon refrigerated overnight and then dry it the next day?
Catherine: Yes, it’s fine to do that
I plan on smoking some river caught trout. When cleaning the fish for this recipe, do I need to scale the fillets?
Zane: I do not scale them.
Can i get a little clarification? You say to gradually increase the temperature of the fish. Should the fish be put into a cold smoker (starting 1 hr timer here) and heated to 150°, after the hour is up, bump the temp up to 175° for 1-2 hours. And then it’s done cooking. Is that right?
Thank you for any clarification.
Amy: Yes, I put my salmon in a cold smoker and let the temperature rise very slowly. This allows me to smoke for 3 hours without annihilating the fish.
Quick question. On the “something sweet” portion of the lead in to the recipe, you say you use it to sweeten your brine. But in the recipe section you don’t mention the syrup with the brine ingredients. I just brined my first salmon side without the sweet. Currently drying. Have I done wrong? Do you also baste with the sweet to start out, or wait at least an hour before the first basting? Thank you for any clarification you can offer.
Ian: Ah, good catch! I no longer do that. Will fix the recipe.