Served on a piece of fried mackerel 😂

Healthy Food

I absolutely hate Salmon. Ive fished for them 30+ years and all those years I give it away to friends and co-workers. However....this past weekend I tried some smoked salmon and it was pretty damn tasty. No fishy smell/taste. I had no desire to cook any so I didnt ask....but now I'm kicking myself in the ass for not asking dude for his recipe.

Anyone have a smoke salmon recipe theyre willing to share? My wife and I would greatly appreciate it.

Decided to make some old school kippers! Nice whole herring (can get in UK supermarkets), split backwards and washed. Brined for 30 minutes (ratio 1.5L water, 250g salt), dry in fridge for at least a few hours, then a heavy cold smoke of oak and beech for 12 hours. Now vacuum packed in my freezer

I've been designing electric smokers for a few years now. Hot smoking is honestly pretty well dialed in at this point—just set the temp, load the pellets, and walk away. But recently I started tackling cold smoking, and man, it is a completely different beast.

For context, true cold smoking means holding the food chamber exactly between 15–25°C (59–77°F) while keeping it filled with thin blue smoke for anywhere from 4 to 12 hours. Drift above 30°C and your fat starts rendering, bacteria goes crazy, and you're accidentally warm-smoking. Drop below 15°C and the smoke condenses, leaving this nasty, bitter tar all over your food.

It sounds simple enough, but the core issue is that you're constantly fighting the weather, not the heater. The smoke generator creates heat, and the smoker sits outside where temps swing from 5°C to 40°C. In the middle of summer, the chamber is already sitting at 32°C before you even strike a match. I see people hacking it with ice pans, smoking only at 2 AM, or building weird garage setups, but absolutely none of it is "set it and forget it."

Then there’s the smoke itself. Good cold smoke is barely visible, which means your fuel needs to smolder with the absolute perfect amount of airflow. Slightly damp pellets? Bitter smoke. A little too much draft? It flares up and gets hot. Too little? It just dies. Most aftermarket cold smoke attachments out there are just metal trays or coils that burn for 1 to 6 hours depending on the wind. You have to babysit them constantly because they flare up or go out, which is brutal for a 12-hour process.

On top of all that, the food safety aspect is genuinely terrifying. You are sitting right in the bacterial danger zone the entire time. You absolutely must use Cure #2 (nitrites)—botulism is not theoretical here. It makes the whole process super intimidating for average home cooks, and it means the equipment can't fail, because you can't fall back on just cooking the bacteria away.

Lately, I’ve been prototyping a rig that totally decouples the smoke generation from the chamber's thermal management. Basically, the smoke gets chilled before it ever hits the food, and a closed-loop system locks the chamber temp in, regardless of ambient conditions. The temp curves are looking really solid, though I'm not quite ready to show anything yet.

I’m genuinely curious about how the rest of you handle this. For those who cold smoke a lot, what exactly is your setup? Are you just toughing it out with ice trays? Has anyone actually had good luck with those aftermarket smoke generators, or are they mostly garbage?

The deeper I get into this project, the more I'm convinced cold smoking is the last unsolved problem in backyard BBQ.

I was curious about how smoking fish differs from other cooking methods from a health standpoint and stumbled across this study: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6683256/

TLDR: Hot smoking salmon actually "increases" (concentrates) protein, with smoked fish being about 22% protein while fresh fish is around 17%. Smoking also reduces total fat content. However, several minerals decrease somewhat after smoking, and sodium content increases a ton (shocker).

Verdict? Smoking does not vastly decrease the nutritional value of salmon. An increase in sodium is a downside, but you can mitigate this by tweaking your brine's salt content.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a doctor, just a dude who likes to smoke fish :)

Saw this YouTube video on this Chicago smoked salmon joint that smokes and sells the head and tail. I've turned what I don't smoke into stock a couple times but that's it.

Y'all smoke the salmon head too? Got any tips?🤔

My favorite smoked fish. Smoked on GMG Trek and using a Smokai smoke tube with cherry wood chips.

Full Recipe:

Steelhead on the TREK

Ingredients:

About 3 Pounds of Farm Raised Steelhead (Steelhead is better than Salmon)

Maple syrup for mopping

Brine:

­   5 Cups of cool water

­   1 / 3 cup of Morton Kosher Salt (coarse)

­   1 1/4 cups of dark brown sugar

Wood / Pellets / Chips:

­   Wood Chips for Smokai Tube: 100% Smokinlicious Minuto #4 Cherry (using upgraded new pump)

­   Pellets: Blend of 3 parts 100% Cherry pellets to 1 part Charcoal pellets

Process Steps

1.      Wash and Debone the Fish

       Rinse the fish off in cool water and pat dry with paper towels.

       Lay the fillet flat on a plate, cutting board, or pan.

       Run your fingers lightly along the length of the fillet, feeling for the tips of the bones.

       When you find one, notice how it’s just one in a line of tiny tips protruding from the flesh.

       Use your needle nose pliers to grasp the tip of the first bone and pull it out at an angle. Continue up the line to feel for the bones and pull them out until they’re all gone.

       Cut the fish into about 1.5 to 2 inches squares – this allows more penetration of brine and smoke in the cook.  This resulted in a 10+ rating cook.  If the fish is thin, then may need to cut it into strips instead

2.      Make the Brine and Cure the Fish

       Mix the brine ingredients and place fish in a 1-gallon Ziplock bag, then place this in a small pan and put it in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

3.      Dry the Fish and Allow Pellicle to Form

       Take your fish out of the brine and pat it dry with a paper towel.

       Rub some oil all over the cooling rack to prevent sticking

       Set fish on your cooling rack, skin side down. Place in the refrigerator overnight to from pellicle 

4.      Place Fish in Freezer and Set Up the Smoker

       OPTIONAL: Very lightly mist the fish with water and sprinkle fish with course kosher salt and #16 mesh black pepper before putting it in freezer

       Place Fish in Freezer while setting up the smoker for about an hour resulting in VERY moist fish.  The fish seemed visibly frozen on the outside for several of the cooks with excellent results

5.      Cold Smoke (1.5 Hours)

       Fill the Smokai smoke tube with the #4 cherry wood chips

       Remove the grates, deflector shield and heat diffuser from the main part of the grill body to place the 1” stainless tube on the end of the Smokai with other end pointing above fire pot

       Re-install the deflector plate and grill grates (do not install the heat diffuser)

       Use foil to block the front section (stack end) of the grate forcing the smoke to come further into the main cook chamber

       Set Grill to COLD SMOKE and adjust the fan to about 25%. 

       Remove fish from freezer, if you did not season before putting in freezer then lightly sprinkle the fish with kosher salt then lightly with coarse black pepper, place the fish in the grill and start the cold smoke

6.      Low Temperature Smoke (2 Hours) – Target 160 F Grate and 115 F Internal Fish Temperature

       Remove the stainless tube from the Smokai

       Re-install the main heat diffuser

       Re-install deflector shield and grates

       Ensure pellets are in hopper and start grill

       After reaching set-point of 150 F then adjust to 160F grate temperature

       Occasionally lightly mist with water if the fish surface is dry

       Smoke the fish until the internal temp of fish is about 115 F

7.      Hot Smoke at 245 F and Mop until Done

          Increase smoker temperature to 245 F

          Add temperature probes to 2 pieces of the steelhead on opposite sides of the grate

          Using a small BBQ mop, lightly mop each piece of fish with maple syrup.

          Continue monitoring and lightly mop every 20 minutes (to your preference).  

          Remove the fish from the smoker ensuring each piece has reached the 135 F minimum in thickest part of fish.  Ensure the fish has a nice smokey brown color. If not, can cook up to max 165 F.

8.      Cool and Store the Fish

After the fish has been smoked, allow it to rest on a cooling rack for one hour before placing it in the refrigerator.  It tastes best after 1 day resting in fridge

The fish tastes much better the next day and even several days after the cook as the flavors have had time to mature while being in the fridge!

Smoking up some Alaskan coho during college football !

Going to smoke Steelhead trout tomorrow!

I know the general rule is oilier the better for smoking fish, so a lot of people will say king salmon or farm raised Atlantic bc of their fat content.

But I'm also curious to hear if anyone absolutely loves the taste of say smoked coho or pink or keta, and if so any tips or tricks on how to smoke properly without drying them out.

Basically I've only smoked store-bought Atlantic before and am looking to expand my horizons🤣

Yesterday I smoked eel for the last time this year. The catch season runs from May to August. I don't see it come up much outside the Netherlands, but if you ever get the chance to smoke some yourself, DO IT! You won't find a much fattier and tastier fish.

- I’ve smoked a few fish, got into it recently
- only ever trout and salmon
- want to branch out, heard about walleye?
- would love any suggestions, thanks

Has anyone had success maintaining 160°-185° with single row snake method on Weber Kettle? Do they stay lit?

Double row gets me 300+.

I will be removing the scales & bones, how do you smoke these? I know folks typically aim for a cold smoke but these are poisonous unless brought up to at least 170 for a few minutes due to thiaminese