Smoked Candied Salmon

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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?

pieces of candied salmon on a cutting board.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

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.

close up of strips of candied salmon
4.84 from 107 votes

Smoked Salmon Candy

This is traditionally done with salmon in Alaska, usually chinook, coho, sockeye or chum salmon. But any salmon will work for this recipe, as will fish like mackinaw (lake trout), Dolly Varden, big rainbows or cutthroats, char or really any large, fatty fish you can cut into strips. I bet tuna belly would be good for this.
Course: Cured Meat, Snack
Cuisine: American
Servings: 25
Author: Hank Shaw
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 4 hours
Total Time: 5 hours

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

Calories: 164kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 18g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 50mg | Sodium: 41mg | Potassium: 474mg | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 36IU | Calcium: 25mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Tried this recipe? Tag me today!Mention @huntgathercook or tag #hankshaw!

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About Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

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367 Comments

  1. My go to smoker recipe for big rainbow or brown trout. But it also works well on the small trout, too. My 8 year old loves smoked trout. He also loves to help paint the maple syrup on each filet. I also use the trout from this recipe to make a trout dip. Just add smoked trout, cream cheese, dill, horseradish and S&P. Don’t skip step #2 (form a pellicle)

  2. This recipe was exactly what we were looking for!! Followed all the steps and it came out flawless.

    I didn’t have maple syrup so mixed honey and brown sugar into a syrup, and also added red pepper flakes.

    As Hank said, this is damn good!

  3. I try to make a batch of this every so often, and it always disappears within a few days. It’s worth the time.

  4. I was wondering if you could mix the maple syrup with honey? I used to buy salmon candy from Whole Paycheck @ $25 a lb, and my smoked salmon from a family owned butcher shop that recently went out of business, leaving me bereft. I have been smoking lots of salmon on my Traeger this summer, since I’m semi quarantined with nothing else to do. I am not thrilled with the Traeger since I can’t get the temp low enough to keep from getting the white gunk on it, but it still tastes really good. This batch I’m gonna try and prop the cover open a little to maybe help keep the temp a tad lower. I smoked two salmon halves last night, one with honey and one with maple syrup. I liked the honey one better, which is why I’m asking if it would be ok to mix the two. Thanks in advance.

      1. Luna: Take the skin off after it’s done. You need it on there to hold the pieces together on the smoker.

      2. Hey, Hank. I’m on the iPhone and don’t see how to post a separate comment. I can only reply to another post.

        Anyway…

        I recently bought my second Caja China (my first one disintegrated years ago), but how many times does one cook a whole hog? So I want to start using this one to regularly smoke fish. I bought this great little gizmo called the A-Maz-In pellet maze (or some name like that) which you can use in the Caja China.

        Sound like a plan? And for this recipe, can I use hickory? I got a 20lb. bag to use up!

        Thanks for these recipes and your insight.

        I installed two thermometers so I could monitor temps, and

    1. If you set your fish out on cooling racks and blow a fan at them for at least an hour right before smoking, it goes a long way to preventing the white gunk

  5. Hello.

    Do you know if this will work with low carb substitutes, such as Swerve brown sugar alternative and a syrup made with liquid allulose and maple extract?

  6. Thanks for the tips on this recipe! I referred to it for guidance after a long break from smoking salmon. I however, even as an Alaskan, can’t find chipped Alder. I sure as heck don’t want to buy a chipper for the alders I see. Where do you find yours? In the mean time, I just buy wood chips that recommend use with fish. Has always done well in the past.

  7. Hank, absolutely the best recipe for salmon candy out there.

    I do 2 to 1 brown sugar to kosher salt. Brine for 30 min, dry for 2hrs and smoke for 3 to 4 hours In the traeger. Best ever. Thanks Roger

  8. Hi
    Trying the recipie for the first time! I love spicy and sweet candied salmon, when would be the best time to add chilli flakes…. at the brine stage or the glazing stage?
    thanks
    Erin

  9. Do you brush with maple syrup before you place fish in smoker? Or only start 90 minutes into the process?

  10. This is my go to recipe. Only thing I do differently since I’m using little Kokanee fillets is 2:1 sugar salt and then add a little bit of bourbon to the maple glaze.

      1. Cheski: Bourbon? I have never tried that. This recipe highlights the salmon, and the glaze is just pleasant a side note.

  11. If the oil that comes out of the salmon belly is pink and so is the fat, does this mean that it is farmed and not wild caught?

  12. Today will be my 5th time using this recipe. I dont have much access to good fresh salmon where I live (driftless area of WI) but I’ve been using fresh caught rainbows and it works great! One whole fillet is about the equivalent of a 2″ strip from the recipe so it takes a good day of fishing to get 4 or 5 lbs together (oh darn!) but free sure beats the $28 per lb “fresh” salmon at the local grocery store.

  13. Most thorough advice I found on internet, thanks question do you have any more thorough advice on cold smoking, and just an idea cold smoking then a short hot smoke to finish at end?

    1. Stew: Cold smoking is a very different process. It’s salt curing, then smoking at very low temps, below 80F, for a very long time.

  14. Smoking some sockeye salmon and some halibut with your recipe but coating the fish every 50 instead of 90 with birch syrup. Just trying it out.

  15. Just tried your recipe and it’s fantastic !
    Took 3 1/2 hours at 175-200 degrees in a small Kamodo over alder wood .I would post a photo if I could!

  16. Too salty for my taste. I’m going to try again using less salt, more sugar and less than 2 hours brine time.

  17. Like the look of your recipe and going to try. Do you use wood chips and if you do what kind and how much. Thanks