Homemade Smoked Salmon Is Easier Than I Thought

We did something this weekend that I've always wanted to do. It was small something but still, I checked something off the life list! We smoked a salmon. We LOVE salmon in our house no matter the recipe but smoked salmon is far and away our favorite. In fact, we're maybe a little addicted. I already was before Jeff and I met, but I blame his addiction on ME.

Previous to a weekend birthday trip to Kansas City for my 36th, Jeff had never tried lox and bagels with cream cheese. I had to fix it! We got bagels, lox and all the trimmings at a local bagel shop and headed to the fountains at Crowne Center to enjoy our morning before heading home. The moment he took the first bite, I knew I had converted a "fish for breakfast?" doubter! We have since tracked down some beautiful lox, nova lox, gravlax, and Irish lox on our travels (for more information on the different kinds of smoked/cured salmon, see HERE). If there's a restaurant with any kind of reputation for smoked/cured salmon, we will find it. . Favorites so far include Kopperman's in St. Louis (you'll also want to get the latkes with homemade applesauce here), and Cocotal at the El Dorado Royale, Riviera Maya.

 

I had always thought that smoking a salmon would surely be a difficult process but a few things happened that made me want to give it a go. First, I've already mentioned that we love smoked salmon and would like to eat it much more than we do but it's not always easy to find at the store in Missouri. Second, when I do find it, it's expensive. Finally, I was at Sam's Club and found an absolutely beautiful salmon for $12.50 but it was huge and wasn't in the mood for salmon steaks. So, we smoked it.

 

First step was to brine the salmon. I used my largest stock pot filled it with 1 gallon of water, 1 cup of kosher salt, 1 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup of granulated garlic. You can find lots of recipes on Pinterest. The salmon brined for 24 hours in the refrigerator. Before church yesterday, I removed the salmon and discarded the brine. Here's what it looked like.

 

 

We needed to dry it out before the smoking process so I pat it pretty dry with paper towels and then sat a fan to blow across it while we were at church. When we returned, Jeff made a fire in the smoker box side of the grill and it was ready to start smoking. We left the skin on the salmon and placed it skin side down on the tin foil.

 

 

As you can see, we don't have a fancy grill but you don't need one for this. The smoker box on the right is holding the briquettes and wet pecan wood. We smoked the salmon for about 3 1/2 hours making sure the grill never got more than 16-170 degrees.

 

Here's about 1 1/2 hours in, starting to flake on the edges.

 

 

Sam and Jeff checking the salmon at about 2 1/2 hours. Sam was starting to get really excited and wanted to "eat it riiiiiggggghhhhht now Mommy".

 

Salmon Smoking Boys

 

We let it go about another 35-40 minutes and thankfully, it was ready because none of us could wait anymore! Here's the finished product.

 

Homemade Smoked Salmon

 

I put out all of the classic trimmings (except purple onion, we were out, bummer) and made a little cabbage/dill/yogurt slaw and we dug in.

 

 

We did a FANTASTIC job. It flaked to succulent, beautifully salty pieces. We have already stared discussing what we'll do different for the next one. I'll get a little fancier with the brine for sure and probably add lemon or lime, fresh garlic, maybe a little soy sauce/ginger combo instead. The possibilities are almost limitless. We're also thinking of turning an old mini-fridge into a cold smoker box. I love the thought of having a cold smoker box because then we could do some cheese too. This is another snack we love but don't buy frequently because of the cost. And, we're going to try different types of wood chips to see what flavors we can coax out of these wonderfully yummy fish. Best part, besides the eating of course? It was less than $15 with the cost of the fish, the little bit of pecan wood and the few briquettes that we used! The bigger investment was time. It took a little more than 3 hours of smoking time after 24 hours of brining but it's play in the yard, watch a movie, get some other meals prepared for the week time.

 

This was so much easier than I thought it was going to be. I urge you to give it a try. Save some money over going out and have a delicious meal at home.

 

Cut to this morning. I made Sam his pretty standard breakfast of a strawberry breakfast bar and some cut up fruit. He took one look and said "salmon Mommy". Ask and you shall receive my sweet. He ate the salmon THEN the fruit. So he's a great sous chef and has great taste!