Cold smoked salmon (aka "lox")

[Luckylies]

I'd like to make myself some lox (more like nova but pish posh) I know how to hot smoke- thanks egullet! but have not yet tried to cold smoke.

Any suggestions?

I'm thinking of starting with a side of salmon. Should I cure it first? how? I have a weber smokey mountain smoker...

thanks for any suggestions or tips.

[BBQ Brian]

I too am a hot smoker with interest in attempting cold smoke. Here's where I am getting my education on the topic - especially focussed on using a Weber kettle:

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/coldsmoker.html

As for salmon, indeed cure it first. I met a few of the salmon processors here in British Columbia and they often cure with salt, sugar and sometimes maple syrup before cold smoking to create "Indian Candy" - a wonderful sweet yet still soft jerky-like cubes of salmon.

Good luck

Brian

www.houseofq.com

[melkor]

I rigged my weber smokey mountain up to a gas grill using some aluminum dryer hose - run the wsm without the middle section and stick the hose on the top vent connecting it to the bottom of the grill using the grease trap. This time of year the air is cold enough to let you use anything you want as the smoke box (cardboard is a reasonable choice), when its hot out you'll want something that you can stick an ice tray in to keep the temp down. Ruhlman's charcuterie book has a cold smoked salmon recipe in it, it calls for curing the salmon for a day and a half before smoking it. I keep meaning to defrost some salmon and give it a try but laziness has prevailed thus far.

I just checked out the post on the virtual weber bullet that BBQ Brian links to - they are doing the exact opposite of what I'm doing, they use the smoker to smoke the food and a seperate container to generate the smoke. Using the smoker to smoke stuff? Crazyness! I'd go their route if you don't have a grill available to use as the smoker. My setup cost all of $8 and took 5 minutes to rig up but it only makes sense if you've already got a grill and a bullet.

[jsolomon]

My parents and I cold-smoke using a cast-off double sink and a cardboard box.

We up-end the sink and use one side's drain to route the smoke to the second side where it cools further and then a piece of dryer hose into a cardboard box.

For the fire, we just have an old cast-iron skillet to hold the burning wood.

It works best when used on dry dirt or cement. Which, my parents' farm has plenty of.

[jackal10]

I did some in my blog http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=939709

1) Brine the side of the salmon (150g salt to 600g water) for half an hour

Let it fry overnight in the fridge to form a "pellicule" (skin)

For the smoker i used the bread oven, but any enclosed box with enough room would do. I guess a large BBQ kettle would work fine.

You need some hardwood sawdust, such as oak or cherry. A local furniture maker often has some.

Put a ring of sawdust, maybe 2 inches deep round the inside edge of the kettle. Light one end (blow torch and a piece of bacon fat are traditional, but half a firelighter works. Wait until the sawdust is just smoldering.

Put the salmon on a rack well clear of the sawdust, and put the lid on.

US a digital thermometer. The temperature should not go above 90F.

Come back and check after half an hour and then every 4 hours.

About 12 hours for a medium smoke, then let the fish rest for a couple of days in a baggie in the fridge to mellow and let the smoke flavour permeate.

Having gone to all that trouble, you will appreciate just how good is the smoked salmon you buy commercially.

However you can do bacon with a similar set up, and that is much better than commercial bacon...

[jsolomon]

Having gone to all that trouble, you will appreciate just how good is the smoked salmon you buy commercially.

However you can do bacon with a similar set up, and that is much better than commercial bacon...

←

I can agree with Jack on both accounts. The commercial smoked salmon I've had is really quite comparable to what I've had that family has similarly smoked.

Home-prepared bacon, though... I need to scare upthis post.

Pay attention to the wine mentioned at the end of the post. Home-prepared bacon is good enough to warrant breaking that out.

[babsarooni]

I built myself a cold smoker after watching Alton Brown's "Scrap Iron Chef".

The hot box is a small galvanized garbage can containing a hot plate and a heavy

aluminum pie tin (not the disposable kind). There is a small hole cut in the bottom of

the garbage for the electric cord of the hot plate.

To convey the smoke to the cold box, a hole is cut in the lid. I joined two lengths of

aluminum ducting (the slinky-like expandable stuff). One end is attached to the lid of

the garbage can, the other is inserted into the cold box.

The cold box is a large cardboard box with a couple of wooden dowels inserted horizontally

near the top. These support the grills from my hot smoker. A small desktop fan

sits on the bottom of the box, in front of the aluminum ducting.

To smoke foods, turn on the hotplate, the fan, and put a chunk of smoking wood on the

hot plate. Adjust the heat until the wood smolders, but keep the setting low enough to prevent

flames. A couple of wood chunks will last a couple of hours. I have also used wood chips,

but the wood chunks are easier to control. The temperature in the cold box can be adjusted

by expanding or contracting the ductwork slinky.

This contraption cost ~ $30 in materials, and has lasted 3 years so far.

To make smoked salmon I cure the salmon by packing 2 fillets of salmon in 1 cup

salt + 1 cup sugar (usually seasoned with cracked mustard seeds, black pepper,

coriander, orange peel, dill etc) and sprinkle with a shot of booze (vodka or gin or

tequilla). The salmon gets cured 2-3 days and is flipped around whenever I think about it.

After curing, I rinse the salmon well to get as much salt off as possible, blot it off with paper

towels and let it dry in front of a fan for an hour or two. The biggest problem I have had with

this method is overly salty fish.

The salmon gets smoked for 8-12 hours with apple, oak or alder wood. I think it is better if

it is allowed to rest in the refridgerator for 24 hours before eating.

[alexthecook]

Hi,

I've just finished curing and air drying two big atlantic salmon fillets and am about to cold-smoke them in my Bradley smoker...

I only have maple and pecan pellets and was wondering if any fellow egulleter had tried either variety and what the results were... I am afraid the maple might overpower the delicate taste of salmon, but that the pecan may be too subtle, or just plain non complementary... any thoughts?

Also, I've aired the fillet for 16 hours under a relatively far away oscillating fan... a smooth and dry coat has appeared (it actually appeared within the first few hours of airing) but the tail end seems like it will be a bit on the dry side.. is it possible I've over-dried? (Bradley recipe recommended 24 hours of drying, which seems excessive)...

Anyways, as always, anyone's thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[jackal10]

Brining: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=939709

Smoking: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=940911

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=941029

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=941729

Slicing: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=943821

This is over cherry wood sawdust, Good but very sweet and distinctive

I have used Oak sawdust with success.

To dry I just leave for 12-24 hours in the fridge, to form the "pellicule".

Salmon is very delicate and needs to be lightly brined, dried and smoked.

Edited October 30, 2006 by jackal10 (log)

[alexthecook]

Thanks Jackal!

So for those who are curious, I ended up using pecan wood for about 3-4 hours... and the result is fantastic..

Less sweet than maple, but still a little sweet, with a nice identifiable pecan nut flavour... I'm in heaven!

The pellicule, which I thought had hardened too much, was fine... I think that past some point, it becomes a carapace and the air drying stops affecting it... the result, once cut, was a relatively fine chewier layer, likeI've experienced in many commercially smoked salmons..

Right after smoking the fillets, I slathered on a little Bowmore scotch which gave them an amazing depth (after an immediate taste test session)... I just don't know how well the scotch flavour will stick or if it will just evaporate...

I plan on serving it at my Halloween party with fresh sesame seed bagels, red onions and cream cheese... if anyone has other serving suggestions, please go ahead!

[joesan]

Alex - sounds terrific - my mouth is watering at the thought of it.

I'd recommend trying it on some grilled sourdough bread (homemade or Poilane or similar). Just grill the bread,I use a ridged cast iron pan for additional smokiness. Let the toast cool down and add some fine butter. You don't want the butter to melt.

Top with your salmon, squeeze of lemon and grind of pepper. You'll really find the flavour of your salmon shines through. I love bagels too but you'll be surprised just how good the salmon is on the grilled bread.

PS - How is the Bradley? Is it expensive to run?

[alexthecook]

Hey joesan, thanks for the tip! I will try it for sure!

The cost of running a Bradley, surprisingly, is just as advertised, about 1$ per hour of smoking (you need one bisquette every 20 minutes)... however, a wise person would invest in a couple of metal pucks to chase the bisquettes, or else the two last bisquettes won't get pushed to the burner and will just sort of semi burn and get wasted.

For its versatility and ease of use, the Bradley is a real winner in my book. Considering I'm cooking from my appartment's balcony, I'm quite glad to use such a small apparatus, with no flames to boot! The only downside is that it's so easy I feel like I'm cheating when using it... plus it can get a bit finnicky if it's very windy and you need it to cook meat.. the temperature just won't go up... so at this point in the season, I would only use it for cold smoking..

Alex - sounds terrific - my mouth is watering at the thought of it.

I'd recommend trying it on some grilled sourdough bread (homemade or Poilane or similar). Just grill the bread,I use a ridged cast iron pan for additional smokiness. Let the toast cool down and add some fine butter.  You don't want the butter to melt.

Top with your salmon, squeeze of lemon and grind of pepper. You'll really find the flavour of your salmon shines through. I love bagels too but you'll be surprised just how good the salmon is on the grilled bread.

PS - How is the Bradley? Is it expensive to run?

←

[Sam Salmon]

Pecan definitely-or make every third puck Maple if you're at all short.

For future reference Alder is what works best especially for cold smoking.

[paul o' vendange]

Interesting discussion, Alex. I have a different cold smoker - "Le Smoker," which we used at my restaurant.

I would agree that Alder is a great wood for smoking, and particularly marries excellently well with salmon. I used a mix of hickory and applewood (hickory, very little, to add a very small "bite" of pungency; applewood, for softness and sweetness - echoes my gravlax below, with a citrus, tarragon and cognac cure; if I were only serving the cold smoked, I would likely use alder).

I cured my salmon for 5 hours only. I usually dried in the refrigerator before the fan, for anywhere from 12-18 hours. The pellicle was present, but not heavily so. My salmon plate was a duo of salmon - one, a citrus and tarragon based gravlax, the other, the cold smoked. Slices were translucently thin, so I wanted to retain enough oils in the smoked salmon to make for a nice mouthfeel, while dry enough to cut well. I do not like dryly smoked salmon.

I did not serve the tail section of either my cured or smoked salmon on the above plate. The muscular structure is tougher, and although I cured this section more gently, it will tend to pick up the cure disproportionately. I would, however, use the tail section in a tartare - chopped, or brunoise on the bias, serving it with something else that tends to pull it back down a bit.

Interesting discussion.

Edited November 1, 2006 by paul o' vendange (log)

[joesan]

I've never smoked salmon myself (but I have plans, I have plans!) but for me, here in the UK good smoked salmon is synonymous with Oak smoking. Interesting that people are recommending other woods. I would definitely like to try the other woods for comparison.

As an aside the best smoked salmon I ever tried was from a guy in a little place between the borders of Scotland and England. When we called in to buy some he wasn't there initially - he was out fishing for the salmon itself. We did get to buy some and it was incomparable. Wild salmon smoked artisanally in small batches over oak from a hut in his back garden. Fantastic and an abiding food memory.

[Kerry Beal]

When I lived in the Queen Charlotte Islands back in the 70's I had a Little Chief smoker and an unlimited supply of salmon. Friends would just drop them around for me. For some reason they never seemed to arrived cleaned however.

The only wood I used for smoking was hickory because my dad had a friend who's business was making hickory axe handles so we had an unlimited supply of that too. Back then I wasn't even aware that you smoked with anything other than hickory.

Gotta say, even though these days I'd probably use alder in my Bradley, I made some damn fine Indian Candy with hickory in that Little Chief.

[alexthecook]

To all of those who've recommended alder, I have to admit the only reason I didn't use it was because I didn't have any handy... and I wanted to try something different. But since it seems quite universal that alder is a perfect match, I'll definitely smoke my next batch with that...

paul o' vendange : I've seen a lot of people mentionning that they air dry in the fridge... is this out of practicality or for hygienic reasons? I was concerned at first about letting the salmon out overnight, but felt that the fan's constant blowing would make it sufficiently dry so that nothing bad could develop... am I wrong?