Storing Hot Smoked Salmon/Trout

I vacum pac mine. Seems to work well

I am concerned about the slime. How long and at what temp are you storing the salmon? How does it smell? Please explain the use of newspaper.

The shelf life of salmon in the refrigerator will depend on several factors.

1. If you caught your own fish. Was it handled properly between catching and freezing?
2. Whether or not it was brined.
3. The concentration of salt (% salinity) in the brine.
3. Whether or not other preservatives were used.
4. Was it air dried properly?
5. Length of time and amount of smoke.
6. Finished temperature.

From what you mentioned. It sounds that you are somewhere between a hot smoke and a cold smoke.
The colder the finished temperature, the shorter the shelf life. I have found that tightly wrapping in cling wrap then placing in zip bags to be sufficient in storing in the refrigerator. I now just vacuum seal them. They will easily keep for up to three weeks this way. Keeping in mind, this is using my recipes. If longer storage is desired, I can mine using a pressure canner but, that is using a completely different technique. Some will freeze with good results.
Hope this helps, Tom

I use your hot smoke method Mr. T! Love it!

Its not an actual slime, just a lot of moisture that on the skin gets slimy slippery.

I've been using comerically caught/processes wild sockeye.

I've been cooking to 145.

The actual fish is fine, just REALLY moist on the skin side.

It's okay Pale Ale, you are fine. The sockeye is a extra fatty fish and what you are seeing is nothing but oil working its way out. In my opinion this is a welcome sight. This tells me that the oil was not drawn out due to an excessively strong brine or overbrining and that moisture was retained. If it is leaking out of your wrapper. Try a couple extra wraps and put in zip bag.

Glad you are enjoying the recipe. Any more questions,please ask. I will be happy to help if I can.
Tom

Ah good. I was wondering if wrapping so tightly wasn't good or something. I just did trout for a friend with an adapted brine but similar method and it turned out really well too.

So I'll keep wrapping in saran wrap and go from there.

The newspaper was just a way to keep the wrapped pieces together for giving away and because that's how they send it out up on the North Shore of MN.

I was just wondering about the newspaper. Makes sense to me.

Got 33 nice perch today. Hows the walleye fishing doing back there?

quote:

Got 33 nice perch today. Hows the walleye fishing doing back there?

I haven't been out on hard water yet. Such a wimpy winter so far, check that, I went out over NYE weekend but way up north and was shut out.

Cool fish completely before refrigerating. It is best to wrap in white freezer paper (coated on one side. In lieu of that, parchment paper would work well. If you want to freeze some portion of the fish, wrap in parchment, then put in ziplock bag, removing as much air as possible.
The most important thing to remember is the slime is coming from condensation of warm product wrapped tightly in plastic.