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Hello all. I just got done smoking two batches of Copper River salmon in my AQ. I brined the salmon overnight using Mr. T's brine recipe (very good!), smoked at 220 F for an internal temp of 145 - 150 degrees. The only difference was the first batch used apple wood, the second cherry. The first batch was perfect in texture and flavor. The second had an acrid, slightly bitter flavor and a somewhat unpleasant aftertaste.

I am trying to figure out the reason for the differing results, and I don't believe the difference between apple and cherry is the culprit. The only other thing I did differently was to open the AQ near the end of the second smoke to quickly check the internal temp with my thermapen. After closing back up, I noticed a short period when a new plume of smoke came out the vent. I am guessing that the sudden lowering of the smoker temp when I opened it causes the heater to come on and try to catch up the set temp, possibly causing some late heavy smoke on the fish, which messed up the flavor.

Does this seem plausible to you guys? Another, possibly related question: Why would the internal temp of the fish during cooking suddenly decrease by a couple of degrees (the reason I opened the smoker)? That occurred just about at 140 degrees. Any ideas about this are welcome. Thanks!

Jay
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My bet is it was the cherry. I have hot smoked and cold smoked quite a bit of salmon in my AQ but I would not use cherry. How much wood did you use? 2 oz is more the enough, I usually use less then that, about an ounce. I like apple and lilac for salmon. It could have been the last bit of heavy smoke laying on top of the fish that gave it the bitter finish, too much wood will do that. cherry can be strong for fish IMO.
A nice fellow brought me a free load of good looking cherry wood. It smelled just like cheeries when sniffing on the raw wood. Turned my stuff blacker than a black cat eating liquorish in a locked up coal car at midnight. Made everything taste like caca. Cherry wood is best for making furniture as opposed to trying to make bbq with it. Blame the Cherry wood.
Don't know, maybe you got some black cherry. Wink I've gotten the most gorgeous color of red every time I've smoked with cherry. In my 020, I've preferred to smoke salmon with maple. I have noticed a couple of times in my 020 after opening the door the element came on and caught the wood on fire. I too noticed a large increase in the amount of smoke coming out, re-opened the door and saw the wood ablaze.

Salmon fillets out of the FEC using 100% cherry Lumberjack pellets. Glaze was about 75% maple syrup & 25% BBQ sauce. Holy Smokes sauce in this case.

Last edited by andyj
Andy, thanks. I will pay attention to bigwheel and Wilber, and avoid cherry when smoking fish, but I tend to agree that I made a big mistake opening the smoker at the end of the smoke. "Let it be, let it be." I am hoping to find some alder for next time - spent a lot of August time on the Olympic Peninsula years ago and loved the way the guy smoked the silvers (coho) I caught with alder.

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