Cold Smoked Salmon (Lox)

[SconnieQ]

I'm going to try some cold smoked salmon this weekend (lox). I'm going for the raw texture of lox (not cooked). I never was able to do this on my WSM, but the WSM did make some good hot smoked salmon. Hard to get the WSM temp low enough for cold smoke without special accessories that could be used on any old grill. I haven't seen a ton of posts on the topic and success of it. I've watched several youtube videos using similar electric smokers, but they vary a lot in curing time etc., so I thought I'd come here and ask the SI experts for their experience.

Here's my plan:

Skin-on filets, about 6" x 6" each. Make very shallow cuts in the skin side to help the cure absorb. Heavily pack in cure of 1 part Kosher salt and 1 part brown sugar. Cure 24-48 hours (I'm leaning toward the 48 hour cure). Thoroughly rinse cure off of filets. Dry with paper towels. Dry in refrigerator on racks for 8 hours to form pellicle.

Prepare smoker with 1 cup cherry chips and chip grate. Place salmon on oil sprayed Frog Mats (these are great for fish!) skin-side-down. Thicker filets on middle rack, thinner filets on top rack. Cold plate on bottom rack with drip pan full of ice. Start smoker 20 minutes full blast, 40 minutes off. (Maybe only 15 minutes on 45 minutes off since my cherry chips might be a little dry. Will watch to see when smoke appears.) Monitor smoker ambient temp to keep below 90 degrees. Repeat on/off procedure for 4 hours (or more?). Remove and wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate 2+ days.

I'm not interested in any sort of glaze or dill/herbs in with the cure for this. Just the clean flavor of smoked salmon lox.

 

[Pork Belly]

I encourage you to not cut the meat the cure will penetrate fine without doing that. Also 24 hours is way long enough for a good cure.

This is my Go-To Recipe for Salmon
http://smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=1820.0

 

[SconnieQ]

Thanks Brian for your advice. I will go with the shorter cure for this first batch and see how it looks after 24 hours. The only reason it is not whole filets, is because I did not want to use parts of the filet too close to the tail (too thin for lox). I selected thick portions from toward the head, thus, the smaller pieces. Although by "cutting the meat" do you mean slits in the skin?

 

[Pork Belly]

Yes, I didnt look back as to how you worded it, there is no need to make any cuts.
Also you can cure the thinner tail end just apply a thinner layer of cure over that area.

 

[SconnieQ]

Thanks, your Sailor Jerry's recipe looks exactly like what I was thinking. Except I will leave out the extra spices/seasonings for this batch, but they look great for a future batch. I've never seen salmon cured with the addition of Pink Salt, but that sounds like a really good idea to me. When it comes to salmon, does it help keep a nice color? Or help with the food safety issues? Or both? Have you ever done it without for comparison? I have Pink Salt #1, so I plan on giving that a try.

 

[Pork Belly]

Yes, it is for color and safety.

 

[SconnieQ]

Cold smoke is done for today. Cured for 24 hours. I used 1 cup cherry chips (I should have weighed to see how much that was.) Did the 20 minutes on, 40 minutes off for 4 hours. Nice whisps of smoke. Box temp never got above 88 degrees, which I think will be good. Chips had turned to black carbon pieces evenly, no unburnt pieces. Tightly wrapped in 2 layers of plastic wrap in the fridge now. I will try thinly sliced on a bagel with cream cheese, red onion, tomato and capers as my Superbowl treat tomorrow and see how it is. It would probably benefit from 2-3 days in the fridge wrapped, but can't wait that long to try it. I will try the remainder in a few days to see if there are benefits to additional days wrapped.

 

[Durangosmoker]

I'd love to hear how it turned out.  I am crazy about cold smoked salmon, and would love to try making it, but need some equipment. Also, what are Frog Mats, and where can they be found?

 

[SconnieQ]

I'd love to hear how it turned out.  I am crazy about cold smoked salmon, and would love to try making it, but need some equipment. Also, what are Frog Mats, and where can they be found?

Eric, it turned out great! You can search this forum for "Sailor Jerry's" recipe. It has good basic instructions, but I left out all of the seasonings and herbs, and just used 1 part salt, 1 part brown sugar, plus the recommended amount of pink curing salt #1. I was going for just a clean taste of smoked salmon lox without the extra spices/herbs. I thought it ended up a little more smokey than the lox you buy (but delicious nonetheless), so next time I would go with 1/2 cup cherry chips, and smoke for 3 hours (15-20 minutes full blast, 40-45 minutes off). It definitely benefited from a couple days wrapped tightly in the fridge. The smoke flavor permeated the meat more, and mellowed. I have some in the freezer now. Sometimes that also improves the smoke flavor. Will be getting some of that out this week. 24 hours was plenty for the cure. I could see going 18 next time. Considering good lox will set you back at least $25-30 per pound, this is a great thing to do if you are a lox lover. You can buy decent salmon filets for well under $10 per pound on sale. Look for the big think hunks found toward the head.

You will want to get the cold smoke plate for sure. I also have the chip insert, but seems like you could probably put some foil with lots of holes poked in it, in the bottom of the regular smoker box, and put your chips on top. You will need to use chips for cold smoking. Use fruitwood chips (avoid strong wood like hickory). And try to keep your internal smoker temp below 100 degrees (below 90 degrees even better). Frog mats are a semi-stiff non-stick mesh for indirect grilling or smoking. It's not necessary to spray them with oil, and any gunk washes off very easily. You can put them on any grill grate, so you don't have to buy the special seafood grate. I bought 2 of the 10x13 inch ones, and they fit my #1 perfectly. You can also cut them to size to fit. Here's where I bought mine. They were the best price I could find at the time. You can also try and google "Frog Mats". There are several online companies that sell them, including Amazon, but I think FireCraft had the best price/shipping when I was looking.

http://www.firecraft.com/category/frogmats

 

[wasitim]

Just a shout out here. I've been using Sconnie's approach and it's producing incredible results. Smoker never gets over 90f and after a day wrapped in the frig, it's really the best I've had. Been doing half with a pastrami rub.

Got 9lbs of Faroe Island fish in the freezer going in next week.

Thanks for the great recipe!

 

[SconnieQ]

Thanks Tim! Winter in Wisconsin is a great time to cold smoke here, especially lox, since the box temp starts out so darn low! I'll be doing a big batch soon. Gotta love the huge cost savings making your own lox!

 

[pax238]

I'm getting ready to take the next step in my salmon smoking and try to cold smoke. I'm wondering if the consensus is that a 3 hour smoke is the way to go.

Thanks.

 

[SconnieQ]

I'd say 3-5 hours depending on your preference for smokiness is a good starting point. I go 4 or 5 hours using cherry chips. Seems like an average amount of smoke to me. I've seen recipes where people go 10-12 hours, but I think that would be too smoky on our SI's.