smoked salmon

I do it like Steve Raichlen does it in his book How to Grill. If you don't have that book, I strongly recommend it. This is more of a kippered result than the cold smoked Nova. Still great on bagels and I find I prefer it to Nova.

Skin the slab of salmon and pick out the bones. Marinate in some Rum--I usually use apple juice with some added bitters as I don't drink--for fifteen minutes.

Meanwhile, for every two pounds of salmon combine 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup coarse/kosher salt and 2 tablespoons cracked pepper. Mix evenly.

Drain off the rum. Dry the salmon and the tray. Place 1/3 of the rub in the bottom of the rimmed tray where the salmon will go. You want the salmon to just cover the sugar mix. Evenly distribute the rest of the sugar mix over the salmon. Cover and refrigerate for four hours. It must be a rimmed pan as the salt and sugar draw out liquid from the salmon as they cure the salmon.

Rinse off the sugar mix, but not too vigourously. You should still see some pepper clinging to it. Now smoke it at between 220 and 250 degrees. How long varies from cooker to cooker, I like 1 1/2 - 2 hours depending on the weather but can take an extra hour of smoke and still be good, which is how my dad likes me to smoke the salmon for him.

I usually use hickory or alder for salmon.

For trout, I like a combination of lemon pepper and cajun seasoning.

Make sum very strong green tea as it cooling add some wasabi,green onion, tamari sauce, garlic and ginger let it set for a couple of hours you will be able to tell when it had enought , it will turn colors then pat it dry then smoke. This is one fantastic smoked salmon

Apple would be fine.

We brine ours in a fruit juice (or frozen magarita mix), non-iodized salt, with worsteshire (sp.?) sauce, celery salt, white pepper, and a bit of rosemary for seasoning- overnite in fridge. In the morning- remove fish from brine, rinse briefly, pat dry. Oil or non stick coat your smoker racks, and lay the fish on racks for about 30 minutes in teh kitchen, to dry and allow a glaze to form on fish. Preheat smoker during this time. Apple, hickory, or mesquite work great. We usually run at least 3 pans of smoke and then remove the smoke pan after that and allow to heat cook until dry enough. It should be dry on the exterior, medium brown, flakey, but still retain some moisture inside -(natural fish oils) Be sure to store in the fridge. And watch out for all the new "friends" you will make when they hear you just pulled fresh salmon out of the smoker.....LOL

I used to work in a restaurant that smoked our own salmon. What we would do was place a cooling rack on a sheet pan. Cover that rack with cheesecloth (clean cotton rags will wok too), place the salmon on top and then completely cover the salmon with a mixture of 2 parts kosher salt and 1 part granulated sugar. We would also put fresh dill, the green tops of fennel, and other seasonings like mustard powder, etc (whatever sounds good to you). Place the entire pan UNCOVERED in the cooler overnight -- you want the air flow to help the process. The following day, by hand gently scrape off all the salt mixture you can, rinse under cold runnig water, and soak submerged in cold water for 10 minutes. Remove the fish from the water and pat dry with paper towels. Now you are ready to smoke!