Cold Smoked Salmon on the FEC

Sounds delicious. How long in the smoker?

Just shy of 2 hrs.

If it was me I would add some Instacure or Tenderquick to your brine, it kills botchulism which can thrive in a cold smoker.

Better safe than sick... Just my $.02 cents.

I don't know if I'd worry about the cold smoker as much as what lives in the fish that you don't kill. I don't know if I'd use a cure either. All the good food joints that sell uncooked fish either buy it previously frozen or freeze it themselves to kill the bacteria. If you have a place of business no doubt you have some freezers that get really cold, like 10 to 17 below or maybe more. The colder you get it the less time it has to stay froze. No big deal, see how cold your freezer gets, look up the info on the internet on how long it has to stay at that temp and do it. You will just have to have rotating stock to have some ready to cook every couple of days. OR!! maybe your fish you get already has been frozen for that long and it's not even an issue.

Botchulism is an anaerobic spore that thrives in a low oxygen environment (Like your Smoker). Heating it to 121 degrees for three minutes kills the spore, but your cold-smoker never got over 90 degrees. Botchulism is a concern in Home Cooking with Canning, Cold Smoking Sausage, and also home made unrefrigerated garlic oil with whole cloves. You can't taste or smell botchulism.

Check out a book on cold smoking or look it up on the internet. Here is an clip from an article on sausage, but the same conditions apply with cold smoked salmon:

"The conditions that are necessary to produce foods contaminated with botulin include lack of oxygen, low acidity, the presence of moisture, and temperatures between 40 degrees and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. All of these conditions can be present when smoking sausage: lack of oxygen from the smoking, low acidity and moisture in the meat and smoking temperatures in the above range.

Cures containing sodium nitrite must be used to prevent the occurrence of botulin contamination." Source:

www.3men.com/allyou.htm

quote:

Originally posted by Bacchus2b:
Botchulism is an anaerobic spore that thrives in a low oxygen environment (Like your Smoker). Heating it to 121 degrees for three minutes kills the spore, but your cold-smoker never got over 90 degrees.

Point well taken...I'll do a pre-heat next time.

quote:

Originally posted by Bacchus2b:
Botchulism is an anaerobic spore that thrives in a low oxygen environment (Like your Smoker). Heating it to 121 degrees for three minutes kills the spore, but your cold-smoker never got over 90 degrees. You can't taste or smell botchulism.

Caution:
I don’t want to open a can of worms but.
After taking an HACCP workshop last fall to obtain my certificate, when I read the above post a red flag popped up. Please understand I do not want to present myself as an expert by any means and I will try to keep this short.

There are many different forms of botulism. The one we are most concerned about is C.botulinum. Certain strains are called putrefactive because this describes the odor produced during their growth.
Some bacteria are called aerobes – require free oxygen others called anaerobes – of which the smallest quantity of free oxygen can prevent their growth.

There are many different groups of botulism in which the bacteria grows best, some like heat some like cold. The thermopiles group growth range is 122°F to 150°F.

C. botulism spores are extremely heat resistant and can survive boiling water. This is why pressure canning or freezing is required to preserve fish.

The amount of acid in our brines will affect the growth of C.botulism spores.
The spores cannot survive a pH below 4.8.

To the ones who are new to brining. PLEASE USE A PROVEN RECIPE OR ONE WITH A pH BELOW 4.8.