I recently bought a pellet tube for smoking. I want to try my hand at smoking some salmon. Must it be brined before smoking?

For those of you with experience, what do you recommend? I want the product to come out right since fish is spendy in middle America. I bought some maple pellets for this.

Brine is the way. I don't smoke salmon personally, but friend does. I don't smoke fish.

I have Helia smoker, some recipes for it here:

https://www.heliasmoker.de/ass...ung_englisch2019.pdf

You will find there brine for fish etc.

Jiri

Thank you, Jiri. On my way to do some reading.

Kensco should come around soon. Always has smoking good advice.

quote:

Originally posted by nvmichael:
Kensco should come around soon. Always has smoking good advice.

He does and I hope he makes a recommendation. And for sure, anyone else who's done fish.

PACK ABOUT 2 INCHES OF BROWN SUGAR ON TOP OF THE MEAT AND COLD OR HOT SMOKE IT,,,YOU WILL LIKE IT...

I smoke a lot of salmon and a few king mackerel every year. Everyone seems to have their own brine recipe but I use the same one every time. I gallon of water, one cup dark brown sugar, 1/2 cup of rock salt, and I usually shake a little garlic powder in. I’ll let the brine sit in the fridge overnight and then stir well and add my fillets. I like them in the brine for about two hours but anything between 1/2 an hour and three hours should work.

Remove the fish from the brine, rinse well and let the fillets dry a bit before placing them in the smoker. My favorite chips for fish smoking is alder, but any fruit wood will work.

Thank you for responding, JA!