Summer Love: Making Your Own Smoked Salmon

By / Food / July 10th, 2013 / 1

Smoked salmon is a great choice for any occasion, especially for entertaining larger groups of people during the summer season. Today I will walk you through a simple smoked salmon recipe, guaranteed to please every seafood lover’s appetite. If salmon is not your first choice, skip to the end to see the alternative pieces of fish you can cook with this recipe. Let’s first walk through what we need to have on hand to make this dish a success.

Ingredients: This recipe calls for very basic and traditional ingredients. They include: 1 cup of kosher salt, ½ cup dark brown sugar, ½ cup sugar, 1 tbsp. black pepper, 2 large salmon filets (bones removed). These ingredients can all be found at local supermarkets and farmers markets, if you’re lucky enough, you can even catch the salmon yourself.

Preparation: First mix the pepper, salt, brown sugar, and sugar in a small bowl. Next, lay the filets on a large piece of plastic wrap and sprinkle the fish with our prepared rub. Keep the fish wrapped in the plastic wrap and aluminum foil outside and put in the fridge for 12 hours. Be sure to put something heavy like a book (don’t use your favorite) on top of the fish while in the fridge, it helps with the process.

Once the fish has completed its full 12 hour stay in the fridge it is time to get smoking. Be careful when taking the fish out of the fridge, it will have runoff and want to be sure none of it spills. After unwrapping carefully, rinse and cure the fish with cold water, patting dry with paper towels. Now, let the fish sit for 2 hours before smoking.

Smoking: This is the fun part; it is time to get excited. The smoker should be set at a constant 160 degrees; the inside of the fish should register at 150 degrees when it is cooked through (about 3 hour). When the fish has reached temp. take it off and serve it warm or wrap it tightly and put it in the fridge for a max. of 2 days.

This recipe is great for entertaining large groups because you can smoke so much salmon. Don’t be afraid to tone the recipe down and cook for a smaller crowd or family though, it will cook much faster. If your guests aren’t fans of salmon, try smoking trout or bluefish; these both taste great with the same ingredients and cooking instructions. Enjoy!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Looking at the small things that make life great and the people who create them.

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