Smoked Salmon

Smokin' has become a new hobby around the Vaccaro/Nassau parts. It all started when my dad's longtime friend gave him his smoker that he thought was too much trouble. My parents usually have a family dinner on Sunday nights and so dinner usually is a little more than a typical weekday dinner. The testing started with a turkey and some sausage. The next attempt was Ribs and then Salmon (and it is here that we struck gold) and dad has moved on to other items including chicken, pork and brisket.

When Jenny and Scott English moved to Texas we inherited a smoker from them and starting today have begun a smoking journey of our own. Now there is a benchmark Salmon...the one my dad made for Aitan's bris. Incidentally, there has been a disagreement between my dad and I about the Salmon. He thinks it was too salty, but to me the salt was part of what made it great. I keep drawing him back to the way people were raving over the salmon (literally, "oh, cute baby...who made the Salmon?"), but he won't hear it. So if we ever want to have it that way again, it's up to us. I seasoned it the first couple times so I had that part down, but getting the technique right, well, that was the challenge. Luckily it turned out!

As a side note, my parents neighbor also smokes salmon, and he even goes through an extra step of brining the salmon, but after having tasted his, I still prefer this simple method.

So, if you have a smoker and feel up to smoking some salmon, here's the technique:

Salmon Filet (doesn't seem to make a difference whether skin is off or on, but I prefer off)
1 part rock salt
2 parts brown sugar
Hickory wood chips
Hickory chunks

So, I mix the brown sugar (1/2 C.) and rock salt (1/4 C.) and spread on both sides of a skinless filet. Usually I do this while the man of the house is getting the smoker ready, so it never "seasons" longer than an hour, which is being generous.

Prepare the smoker according to manufacturer instructions. Using the chunks as fire (although this smoker is electic, so we didn't need them as fire). The woodchips are soaked to prevent burning and placed in a container above the heat to provide the smoky flavor. Bring the smoker to the appropriate temperature (about 180 degrees) and cook for about 2 hours.
When the salmon is done scrape off the rock salt and any fat that has risen to the surface. Serve hot, cold or room temperature.

I'm sure it never would have tasted so good without a little help from Ilan.