Salmon

The whole sides of Salmon from Sam's are pretty fair for farm raised.

Around late Sept,they get actual Alaska Salmon in for a couple weeks at a fair price.

Try the search for Jim Minion,or Cardogs Salmon.

It is popular on here and around the country.

I use a simple method on our smoked salmon. Find a tupperware container long enough to hold the whole fillet. Mine is wide enough to hold 2 fillets. I use sea salt... shake on the bottom of the container, then lay fillets skin down on top of the salt. Sprinkle more sea salt on top of the fillets... dont cover it, just be liberal. Then sprinkle some brown sugar on top, and LIGHTLY spread it around. Cover and put in fridge for 12 hrs minimum. I have gone 24 hrs. Open container and flush with LOTS of cold water. I do lightly rub the fillets, but just to remove obvvious salt/br sugar. Place fillets on a rack and let air dry (in cool place) until a sticky skin (pellicle) is formed on the outside. Place in your smoker. I use apple chips... maybe an ounce. Set temp on 150-160 and let it run. I only take my fillets to 140-145. Remove from smoker and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate. I dont like any kind of salmon, but I can eat this on crackers and its quite good.

Bob

Thanks Tom and Cadillac.
I don't like a real fishy taste and I am hoping one of these methods will work for my taste due to hearing so much about smoked Salmon.

Amy

AmyHall:
I do it pretty much like cadillac, except before I put it in the smoker I sprinkle a little brown sugar or a little maple syurp and then cover it with mayonnaise. I cook it at 200* and probe the fillet and take it out when it is 145*. I use apple or alder wood. When you take it out, scrape off the mayonnaise, wrap it in foil. It is wonderful!

Cadillac,
Used your suggestions on the Salmon. cooked at 225...forgot what temp you had said. It came out Great! Probably isn't going to fit my taste but neighbors said it was the very good!

Thanks,
Amy

Im glad they liked it Amy. You dont like fish or was there a problem with it? I serve it cold here with crackers.

bob

We have tried more elaborate procedures, but find we like a simple prep best: Wash the fish, pat dry. Garlic pepper, lemon pepper, salt. 2-3 oz. of hickory. Smoke at 200* to internal of 145*, about 2-2.5 hours. Great every time.

Amy, as Bob asked, what didn't you like about it? If you haven't had it much, it could be just the fish, or maybe the method.

If it was the flavor, there are 100's of salmon recipes. Dry brines, Wet Brines, etc that could get you want you want.

Also, most Salmon is the farm raised variety. It doesn't EVEN taste like the Wild version, but it can be done very well.

Amy -- Smokin hit on a key issue. Most of the salmon you find in your local grocery store is farm or pond raised. I can't stand it! The taste and texture is totally different that salmon caught in the wild.

I think this is the time of year when wild salmon is generally available in you larger stores like Wally-World, etc. Before you give up I'd give it another shot. Wild salmon is good stuff! JMHO!

I'm not one for a very strong "fishy" taste. The Salmon was purchased at Wal-mart. It said it was Atlantic farm raised..$4.99lb. This fish looked a pretty golden color and the smell was very good when removed from smoker. The texture was good too. For my taste though it was a little fishy and rich tasting.

Amy

Farm raised? They call it that, but the farm is out in the middle of the Pacific (yeah, Atlantic Salmon raised in pins off British Columbia in the Pacific)

Amy, lots of good fish experience here, just let us know, we'll help find so good recipes for you

Here some details if it helps someone:

quote:

Q: Is there any difference between farm raised fish and wild caught? Specifically taste and/or nutritional value differences?

A: Though all fish differ, and one could write a book about wild versus farmed fish, it might be easiest to use salmon as an example. Wild salmon is much more flavorful than farmed, and has a silky, flaky texture and a rich, mouth-filling taste. The color tends to be a deeper red, due to its natural diet of crustaceans, and the fat is marbled throughout the fish.

On the downside, wild salmon is expensive and the price fluctuates according to available supply. Wild salmon has a season, usually from May to September, depending on the variety, and can be hard to come by -- if not frozen -- the rest of the time.

Farmed salmon is milder tasting and generally not quite as firm as wild. The color is a paler pink because their food contains natural dyes in order to color the flesh. It would also seem that farmed salmon is higher in PCBs and other toxins than wild is, though not high enough to trigger FDA disapproval. It also almost always costs substantially less than wild salmon, and is available year-round.

The general recommendation is, to buy wild salmon in season if you can get it, and farmed salmon the rest of the time.

Here's how I do mine:
Smoking Salmon

"¢ Mix together Hi-Mountain Gourmet Fish Brine mix and about 1/3 cup maple syrup with a gallon of water.
"¢ Chill and add salmon fillets or pieces.
"¢ Brine salmon for at least 5 hours or overnight.
"¢ Rinse salmon pieces really well.
"¢ Put on baking sheet(s) and pat dry.
"¢ Season liberally with Dizzy Pig Raging River
"¢ Dry in refrigerator overnight. In the winter I do this in my unheated back room with the ceiling fan on. Ideally you want a pellicle to form and a good, new refrigerator is usually too humid inside for that to happen. If you have a commercial-type refrigerator use that. If not, don't worry about it.
"¢ Remove fish from refrigeration and fire up smoker to around 200 degrees. I use apple wood.
"¢ Spray racks AND fish skin with food release spray.
"¢ Arrange fish on racks
"¢ Smoke fish for 45 minutes to an hour and then keep checking to see if the fat has oozed out. When it does, heat up some grade B maple syrup if you can find it. If not use grade A amber. Be careful - it is easy to ruin. Here's a source: http://www.cookssugarbush.com/store/category.cfm?Category=40
"¢ Brush hot syrup on fish and try to brush off the fat globs at the same time.
"¢ Smoke another half an hour at least, until the glaze has set up and the fish is firm.Every batch is different so times vary.
"¢ Remove fish from cooker and cool on baking sheets
"¢ Remove skin and vacuum-pack

Note: The farm raised salmon from New Brunswick and Newfoundland is quite good. I can't stand the Chilean junk they sell at Sam's & Costco.

Like many, I steer away from farm raised salmon and have done so for many years. In addition to the poor taste and texture, there are a lot of health related issues with farm raised salmon. First, it's much lower in Omega-3 fats (good fats) than wild salmon and much higher in Omega-6 fats (bad fats). Then there's the issue of substantially higher amounts of PCBS, PDBES, sea lice, pesticides, and some other scary contaminants found in farm raised salmon. Some interesting and informative info can be found here.

The term "Atlantic Salmon" is nothing more than a marketing tool used by the salmon farming industry. Large scale commercial fishing for true Atlantic salmon went away several decades ago. Unfortunately, some buyers see the term and, without investigating further, assume that it's wild salmon. The required disclosure of being farm raised is often in tiny print in hard to find locations on the label.

Amy - You said that the fish smelled good when removed from the smoker. More important would be how it smelled before it went into the smoker. Also, that "pretty golden color" that you referred to was a choice made by the salmon farmer. The natural color of wild salmon is a function of their diet. They primarily eat pink krill, shrimp, and other crustaceans. The natural color of farm raised salmon is gray. Their primary food source comes from pellets. Since gray salmon would have little appeal in the marketplace, the farmers turned to the chemical industry, primarily Hoffman LaRoche, to develop a series of synthetic pigments (dyes) to add to the pellets. The farmers can choose the color of the flesh of their final product by using the - ta da - SalmoFan . Kind of reminds me of those chips you see in paint stores for selecting colors.

Fortunately, I have pretty good sources for wild salmon, primarily king salmon from the Pacific Northwest. We normally have it 2-3 times a month (smoked or otherwise) and, while it's a bit more expensive, it's worth it to me.

Oh "thanks" dls! You just made my day, especially with that link! LOL

I have been tidying up a newsletter article for a friend in the grass-fed cattle business - much along the same line (organic as opposed to feed-lots). Thanks to him I've not had to eat grocery store beef for about five years now.

And, after reading your post and the link provided I will definitely be paying closer attention to the salmon we buy.

We humans sure know how to mess up things God gave us. Like we've got a better idea or something!