Today was my second time to smoke fish ever, and the first time on my new AQ.
I've been reading about smoking fish on this forum and on 3-Men's web site, and a few other places, and I decided I would try salmon. I went to the store (Costco) and picked up some Norwegian farm-raised salmon, and then I noticed that they had some Copper River Sockeye too. It was about double the price, but the fish guy told me it was worth it. So what the heck, I picked out a Sockeye too.
The Norwegian farm-raised salmon was 2.5 pounds and skinless. The Sockeye was 1.5 pounds and had the the skin on. The Sockeye was a much darker red color than the farm-raised one.
I decided to try half of each filet in one of two different brines or marinades. I chose Fast Eddy's soy sauce marinade from this thread: Salmon tonight. Then for the other I went with 3-Men's brine. I put half of each fish in Fast Eddy's marinade, and the other half of each in 3-Men's brine for three hours. Then I took them out, put them on a rack, and put them back in the fridge. It was late, and I didn't want to start smoking until the morning.
This morning I put two chunks of apple in the AQ, set the temp for 200, and let it preheat while I finished drying the fish in front of a fan in the kitchen. I preheated in order to burn off the heavier grey smoke and get down to a thin blue smoke. I'd seen the recommendation here in a couple of different threads. After an hour I put the fish in the cooker. I set the probe for 130 and stuck it in the biggest piece of fish. I smoked for 2 hours and 15 minutes to hit that temp.
Both fish came out great. Next time I'm going to pull the fish at 127 degrees. The farm-raised fish was a little dry at 130 (really 131 when I took it out). Here are my tasting notes on the four combinations of fish and brine / marinade.
Fast Eddy marinade - Excellent flavor on both fish. Just the right amount of saltiness and sweetness, not too much of either. The garlic, ginger, and soy sauce flavors are predominant. This robust marinade masks some of the differences between the two types of salmon, but it is still detectable. The smoke comes through a little better on the Sockeye. I can use this marinade with the less expensive salmon and have a winner every time. I believe that even people who aren't that fond of salmon will like the results with this marinade.
3-Men's brine - The spices in the brine are subtle, and do more to enhance the natural flavors of the salmon than to compete with them or mask them. I did not rinse the fish after brining, so the fish was saltier than I like. Next time I will rinse. Smoke and salmon are the predominant flavors, noticeably more smoke flavor than with Fast Eddy's marinade. With 3-Men's brine, the Sockeye is a very clear winner with a wide margin over the Norwegian fish for taste, texture, smokiness, flakiness, and moisture. Use only the best fish for this brine.
I'll put some pics in the next post, if I can figure out how to do it.
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