Cook-Off 59: Cured, Brined, Smoked and Salted Fish

[scubadoo97]

Bit late to the party for this cook-off but here is my first effort at smoked salmon.

Dry Salt packed around fish overnight. Rinsed and patted dry. Dried in fridge uncovered on rack for a day. Cold smoked in my Masterbuilt electric smoker using A-Maze-N smoker with oak chips and apple wood sawdust for an hour and a half only. I also used my chamber sealer to seal ice in bags and put one bag on each of the spare racks. It was cool in there.

Came out perfectly. Here it is on toasted ciabatta with cream cheese, onions, and capers.

Excellent nickrey. I smoked a couple of trimmed sides after wet brining my salmon in a 10% salt solution for 24 hr. I cold smoked for 3+ hours in my Masterbuilt. I used a couple of foam ice packs and managed to keep the ambient temp around 44-50* f. If you can get a few of these they're great. I wrap then in foil and but the fish directly on the packs and the fish stays very cold, even here in Fla. Just rinse and reuse over and over

Your salmon looks really good

[mm84321]

How far in advance can I brine salmon prior to cooking? Looking to eliminate albumin. Not cooking sous vide. Thanks.

[vogelap]

8-12 hours should be sufficient. What's the cooking method going to be?

[thampik]

I often cook a Sat Barns (2* chef) Salmon recipe that involves brining before sous viding - the recipe involves brining for 1 hr - 200g sugar/200g salt/1 lt water/4 pieces of kombu. It is then cooked at 40C for 10 mins.

[Syzygies]

I brine in 1/2 cup sea salt, 1/4 cup sugar per gallon water, for four hours or so. I then cook very slowly on a bed of supermarket basil (or large garden basil, at a stage where pesto would taste like lawn clippings) in a Spanish cazuela, in an outdoor ceramic cooker over charcoal with some apple smoke. This is both very easy and spectacular.

To eliminate albumin you want to air dry in the fridge after brining, again several hours. This forms a "pellicle" (dried skin) that keeps the salmon from oozing "albumin" (white foam) when you cook it. I don't bother; salmon photographs better with a pellicle, but I find the pellicle more objectionable than the albumin.

Edited April 11, 2013 by Syzygies (log)

[ninagluck]

actually, i you brine raw with salt and sugar, it is cooked and does not need further cooking! what result do you want to get?

[scubadoo97]

actually, i you brine raw with salt and sugar, it is cooked and does not need further cooking! what result do you want to get?

Well not exactly.

What % brine do you use and for how long?

[Keith_W]

How far in advance can I brine salmon prior to cooking? Looking to eliminate albumin. Not cooking sous vide. Thanks.

Hi MM, I brine mine according to MC@Home. If memory serves me right, it is a brine made of 10% salt, 4% sugar, and 3-5 hour brine. After you brine, rinse the fish to remove excess brine. I would have thought that your salmon wouldn't change any more once you remove it from the brine, provided you wrap it up and refrigerate it immediately? I don't know the answer, because I have never kept salmon more than a few hours before cooking it after it comes out of the brine. FWIW the MC@Home brine recipe gives a subtly seasoned fish.

actually, i you brine raw with salt and sugar, it is cooked and does not need further cooking! what result do you want to get?

Depends on what your definition of "cooked" is I think most people would use the word "cured" because to say that something is cooked would involve applying heat.

[rlibkind]

I don't know whether or not this is a "true fact", but I was taught that if you get albumin you've over-cooked the salmon. I'll ha e to check my Harold McGee tomes.

I dry cure a small filet (one pound) for no more than two hours in 1:1 kosher salt/sugar (1/4 cup each) with lemon zest added, wrapped tight in plastic. Rinse off cure, thoroughly dry, bake at 225F for 25 minutes if still cold from fridge, 20 if at room temp. Finished product has very thin pellicle, and melts in your mouth if you start with a fine piece if Chinook; still excellent with sockeye (which may require less cooking because its fillets are thinner), just not quite as superb. I wouldn't try Coho for this. Ditto all but the highest grade Scottish or Norwegian farmed product.

Credit for this recipe goes to Vadouvan who does not appear to be too active on eGullet these days.

[mm84321]

So, I did not have time to do a brine. I basically just seared the salmon on one side, then poached in olive oil at 60C until a center of 32C. Did not get one trace of albumin, so that was good.

[skavoovie]

32C? That's really really low but if you liked it and your fish is good enough to eat raw, why not. But albumin shouldn't be an issue until somewhere above 50C.

[rotuts]

I love raw salmon, used to eat it a lot ( sashimi ? ) when I was able to get extremely fresh salmon at Cook's Seafood in Menlo Park CA.

easy to tell fresh enough for raw: it has no odor what so ever. none.

[ninagluck]

@keith, you are right, "cooked" is not the right term. lets call it ready to eat! ;-)

[mm84321]

32C? That's really really low but if you liked it and your fish is good enough to eat raw, why not. But albumin shouldn't be an issue until somewhere above 50C.

That's what I figured. I wouldn't serve any fish that was not fresh enough to eat raw. I prefer salmon cooked rare, just to the point where it will flake. I let it rest for 20 minutes or so, then reheated in the olive oil just before plating. The guests loved it and ate every bit, so I was happy.

[heidih]

In an effort to finally start eating small oily sustainable fish like sardines and mackerel, I picked up this bag (12 oz incl the fluid) of Mack Snacks at the dollar store. The ingredient list is mackerel, salt and water and it is from Vietnam. I am somewhat afraid to open it being pulled by curiosity and repelled by the thought of I don't know what... Anyway, I will open it this weekend but thought I would ask first. Seems once open I need to use up relatively quickly. I am thinking to pour the whole thing into a big jar so that the brine continues to preserve the fish. Your thoughts?

(I do have access to decent fresh and lightly salted sardines and mackerel at the Japanese market around the corner so I know that is a great option)

[Franci]

I eat a lot of mackerel but I think I only have had one time  slightly smoked mackerel in water, canned, it was very good. I would also pour everything in glass jar and try a small piece. When I'm not very happy with a preserved fish, I usually go two ways: mix with mash potatoes, some saute' shallots, paprika, chopped herbs, a little bit of beaten egg and turn in croquettes or fish cakes (this especially if the fish taste is too strong for me). Otherwise, it the fish is too bland, I'll add some good olive oil and season, plus add something for acidity and herbs and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

[Plantes Vertes]

Brined fish makes me think of Russian food. I would serve it dressed with onions and vinegar with a potato and a cucumber salad. There's also a dish called 'fish in furs' which is brined fish layered with sliced potatoes, eggs and beetroot and dressed with mayonnaise.

 

You could mix it with butter, horseradish, lemon juice and creme fraiche in a food processor to make a pate and serve it on toast or little pancakes with cucumber pickles.

 

There's a kimchi and mackerel stew as well called godeungeo kimchi jorim.

 

My housemate loves canned mackerel with onion and chilli in tomato sauce, for pasta.

[Darienne]

Canned mackerel tasted awful to me.  Used to feed it to the four-legged ones before the price went sky high.

[Franci]

I really believe there is a big difference in quality between canned fish brands. I bought a wild planet tuna, which has very high reviews on the web, and to me it's almost inedible straight from the can. The smoked mackerel in water that I -very doubtfully- bought (in France) was indeed a very positive surprise. 

[scubadoo97]

I really believe there is a big difference in quality between canned fish brands. I bought a wild planet tuna, which has very high reviews on the web, and to me it's almost inedible straight from the can. The smoked mackerel in water that I -very doubtfully- bought (in France) was indeed a very positive surprise.

Franci, I'm not a big fan of the Wild Planet Tuna either. I have it in the pantry but it was not an overwhelming difference from other nationally recognized brands for the price. It comes out of the can in a solid lump

[heidih]

I opened the bag and of course despite my best efforts at being careful ended up with fish juice splashing onto my front.... The initial view was a bit scary as, in my mind, I thought of brine as clear and this was well as you can see yellow opaque stuff. Not really smelly considering and a taste revealed that it was not very salty at all - something I had thought was sure to be the case. The texture of course per the image is sort of "cat-foody".

I mashed one of the thicker chunks with just a touch of mayo, dijon mustard, pickled mustard seeds and black pepper. I grilled a little slice of home-made 5 minute bread and did half with just an added parsley leaf and the other half with some cucumber/yogurt/garlic salad from the fridge. Not unpleasant and not really worse than ordinary canned water pack tuna. More like a fish paste.

Final decision is that were I in the mood I might have used the whole thing including brine in a coconut based, spicy & herby, fish soup. As it stands I will probably mash the larger lumps into a fish salad along the line of my initial experiment but adding onion, lime juice and herbs.

[scubadoo97]

Nice use of the mackerel. Another option is to make a rillette

[Shelby]

Bringing this topic back because we finally got an electric smoker.  A dear friend gave it to my husband.  

 

Not as nice by any means as David's, but it suits us just fine

 

 

Yesterday my husband cold smoked some salt brined trout.  

 

 

 

Thanks for all of the tips and inspiration everyone!

[David Ross]

You'll have plenty of great smoked trout dishes.

[David Ross]

Folks in the Northwest get all giddy when the first of the season Copper River Salmon starts running.  It's incredibly rich, oily salmon and for my tastes worth the price since I only buy it a few times a year when it's in season.  Some people prefer the Chinook's, (King Salmon), but I prefer the Sockeye since it has a better oil content which lends perfectly to smoking.

 

When we started this Cook-Off in 2013, one of my dishes was "Indian Candy."  It's a more rare form of smoked salmon from what most folks think of. I use the same recipe today that I did in 2013-the salmon is brined, then air-cured, then brushed with honey and slow-smoked.  I prefer alder chips as that's one of the woods in the Northwest that have been used to smoke salmon for generations.  The only change I made to the preparation this year is I cut the whole salmon into thick filets, leaving the whole fish intact with the skin.  That way when the salmon was done I could slip off a large filet rather than chunks.  I'm hoping some of you can help us re-generate this popular Cook-Off.