Smoked Salmon

[Legolas]

Pink foot that's a really interesting link thanks for posting that. It's nice to see a commercial venture being so open with their processes. Also, every day is a school day, I've always removed the pin bones before brining but your suggestion to do them afterwards makes perfect sense, I'll try that next time.

biathlonjimmy, for slicing there's no need to freeze, the flesh should be plenty firm enough. Just use a sharp knife and take long shallow slices. I'd say that for my first slice the knife edge is maybe 3 or 4 inches in from the end of the fish, keep the angle shallow and use long gentle strokes of the knife. I have a scalloped edge ham knife like the one pictured in the link pink foot posted an it does the job very nicely.

 

[Pine Marten]

Thank you Legolas, this is brilliant. I was half-heartedly planning to go fishing for rainbows at Syon Park after Christmas. I say half-heartedly because it's lovely, the fish are great, but for all that it's a stocked fishery and not a proper one. However now, this has become a food project, because these big old rainbows would be ideal for smoking! And I love smoked fish. I just need to write to Father Christmas about the smoke generator.

Regarding the cardboard box though, isn't there a risk of setting it on fire?

 

[Pine Marten]

Hang on, I could just do it in the barbecue with the lid down, couldn't I? Problem solved.

 

[NoIDeer]

Regarding slicing a good way to go is slicing at an angle into the skin to create D shaped slices then run the knife along the skin as if filleting to release the D shapes. If that makes sense?

 

[Legolas]

Hi PM,

I really couldn's see any chance of the box catching fire, you use a candle to get the dust smouldering then remove the flame. After that you don't even see any glow of embers, it really wouldn't be a potential hazard. You can use your barby, just make sure you tape up any gaps or large vents and put it somewhere sheltered as if you get big draughts ito the smoke chamber it will cause the dust to smoulder or burn rapidly and you will also end up with ash or dust all over your fish - I'm speaking from experience on that front. You do need some small ventilation as you want a flow of smoke as if you dont let the smoke escape it can make the food acrid. As an example I put two holes about the size of a 5p coin in the box.

 

[willie_gunn]

Hi PM,

I really couldn's see any chance of the box catching fire, you use a candle to get the dust smouldering then remove the flame. After that you don't even see any glow of embers, it really wouldn't be a potential hazard. You can use your barby, just make sure you tape up any gaps or large vents and put it somewhere sheltered as if you get big draughts ito the smoke chamber it will cause the dust to smoulder or burn rapidly and you will also end up with ash or dust all over your fish - I'm speaking from experience on that front. You do need some small ventilation as you want a flow of smoke as if you dont let the smoke escape it can make the food acrid. As an example I put two holes about the size of a 5p coin in the box.

PM - have a look here as well: http://www.smokyjos.co.uk/

They were demoing at the Game Fair last year at Blenheim and I have one of their "special" cardboard boxes that I'll hopefully be trying out over Christmas.

 

[Pine Marten]

Thanks W_G and Legolas, I shall make sure to tape up the lid. I have sent an addendum to my original letter to Father Christmas. I'd forgotten the vinegar making barrel thingy too. But you know, realistically, we're probably looking at socks again...

 

[nicowilson]

At the risk of being miserable, I must point out that by buying farmed salmon you are supporting an industry which is doing untold grievous damage to Scotlands biodiversity; that is as well as wiping out the native migratory fish stocks on virtually the whole Scottish west coast. But hey ho! Its cheap.

Fair point. Where should I be buying salmon?

 

[JockStalk]

Legolas - you've just made the dark art of smoking seem straightforward enough.....

I'm now enthused to give this a go!

 

[shakey jake]

Id tried last night to smoke 2 half fillets from the tail end the shavings may have been damp so wouldn't catch and smoke properly so I dried them out then they went too fast and now I have a sort of hybrid between hot and cold Smoked not what I wanted but it does taste bloody good and the wife and kids all love it even the youngest that hates fish! I have now ordered a pro q smoker and just salted 2 rainbows from the summer as a test before another salmon is tried defiantly one of the most exciting threads in a while

 

[gerarddwatts]

Fair point. Where should I be buying salmon?

Anywhere you like as long as it's not farmed in Scotland!

10 Reasons to Boycott Scottish Salmon

 

[shakey jake]

Anywhere you like as long as it's not farmed in Scotland!

10 Reasons to Boycott Scottish Salmon

Just read this article not all the links but it struck me that the data is over a decade old and does read like a bit of witch hunt, if you believe the article how bad must foreign farmed salmon be if our stuff is this scary? is there any well managed salmon farms in scotland. Not trying to pick an argument more devils advocate and would genuinely like to know if you can get some good stuff

 

[gerarddwatts]

I'm conscious that I am hi-jacking some-one elses thread, intended to improve the culinary experience of members!

However, I think all should be perhaps a little better informed?

This book: Book Details : The Salmon - Michael Wigan - Paperback

is a brilliant work covering the perils facing the future of wild salmon....and therefore sea-trout as well to a degree.

It is also a horrifying expose of the results practices and consequences of the salmon farming industry in Scotland...read it and you will not be keen to eat another farmed fish I promise.

Its a difficult book to precis, but here is a review from the Wall Street Journal(?!)

'Salmon farming really gets Mr. Wigan's back up. The overcrowding in salmon pens breeds "swarms" of sea lice, a natural predator that in unnaturally large numbers can literally suck wild salmon dry as they pass the pens on their way to sea. The chemicals used to treat for sea lice are intended to dissolve the shells of the parasites, but when the chemicals wash out of the pens with the tides, they end up dissolving the shells of crabs and lobsters as well.
And there are the inevitable escapees from fish farms as storms swamp the pens and seals tear them open. Those fish interbreed with wild stocks and dilute the finely tuned genetics that allow them to find their natal streams in the first place and weather natural hazards.
The outlook is dark—Mr. Wigan's chapter headings include "Extinction Vortex" and "Survive or Be Damned"—but the book is not an obituary, even if it sometimes sounds like it.'

 

[gerarddwatts]

And, it should be noted, the industry is enthusiastically aided and abetted by The Scottish Government, who have all the facts at their disposal yet choose to ignore them.

Herewith an exerpt from another review..

'This is a remarkable book. First, it is hard to produce something stimulating, even jazzy, on a subject like fish; and second, the author, while no scientist himself, has enough practical knowledge in his field to be able to say to the boffins, Yes, and so you assert, but what actually works is this. The result is a work that will be immensely readable to all except the many members of past and present Scottish governments who have, until recently, failed to lift a finger to ameliorate, let alone prevent, the ecological nightmare that is salmon fish-farming on the west coast of Scotland. How harmless, how pastoral do those small rectangles of buoys look to the tourist dawdling beside the sea lochs of Argyll! Little can he know what lies beneath - but he should, and this is where he should go to learn everything there is about salmon cages, burial pits, Dead Zones and the chances of survival of that most noble and enigmatic of our migratory fish, the wild Atlantic salmon.

 

[Ray7756]

I WILL buy scottish farmed salmon, remember that it is providing employment for local people, why buy Norwegian salmon an give the money to them,,,, treehuggers p: ss me off go start your own thread, the industry is moving away from chemicals to get rid of sea lice they are now live catching sea wrass and putting them in the pens, they eat the sea lice

and just ordered my smoke generator from Amazon, mrs is going out to get some FARMED SCOTTISH salmon

Ray

 

[gerarddwatts]

Aaah....you'll know which companies operating in Scotland are owned by Norway and which by UK then? Biggest one in Scotland? Marine Harvest...Norwegian.

First time I've been called a treehugger! Always good to listen to an expert.

I hope the experiments with farmed wrasse work; catching wild wrasse is not sustainable and there have been difficulties in wrasse production that have thus far limited their deployment, so at the moment still mostly chemical control

Have you read Wigans book?

But you are right....it's someone elses thread... I'm out. Luckily my christmas smoked salmon is wild! No trees were hugged during their capture!

 

[Boogie]

I WILL buy scottish farmed salmon, remember that it is providing employment for local people, why buy Norwegian salmon an give the money to them,,,, treehuggers p: ss me off go start your own thread, the industry is moving away from chemicals to get rid of sea lice they are now live catching sea wrass and putting them in the pens, they eat the sea lice

and just ordered my smoke generator from Amazon, mrs is going out to get some FARMED SCOTTISH salmon

Ray

As most of the Scottish farmed salmon industry is now owned by the Norwegians they will be taking your money anyway. The Norwegian government has in recent years clamped down on much of the environmental damage caused by current salmon farming practices in Norway, if only the Scottish government had done the same.

Regarding jobs, you are correct that salmon farming does provide employment, however the industry has led to the decimation of wild salmon and sea trout populations and the fishing tourism industry and employment associated with it. So no positive benefit there.

As for using wrasse to remove sea lice from salmon, this is just a PR exercise, with no significant impact on populations of lice in sea cages. If it worked they would all be at it - they are not.

At present the industry is not moving away from chemicals - there is industry data available to demonstrate this.

If this was happening on land where people could see the dire consequences it would have been banned long ago.

The good news is that land based production does provide a more environmentally sound method of production - without the pollution, the sea-lice impacting on wild fish species, and the escapee fish damaging the genetic integrity of wild salmonids. It's still in the early stages but its future look promising, provided the consumer supports it when it's available. It's a free country you can buy what ever type of salmon you choose but don't delude yourself by thinking Scottish farmed salmon is sustainable in its current form.

I am not a tree hugger, I just care about our wild fish. I want to be able to head back up home in the future and be able to go out and catch a wild salmon or sea trout in a beautiful environment and decide whether I want to take it home to eat with my family or return it to fight another day.

If I do take one home to eat I might well smoke it using the excellent advice found on this thread

 

[scotch_egg]

I have bought the smoker used by the OP as a Christmas gift for father.

Great thread. I'm lucking forward to smoked venison

 

[Tracker-Man]

All things aside...Whatever Salmon you end up with, try it with Horse Radish mayonnaise.....

 

[Ray7756]

Making my smoker out of a 210Lt steel drum, that way I can cold or hot smoke with it
Cheers
Ray