Smoking Salmon Questions

[CUTiger80]

Have any of you guys tried Jeff Phillip's recipe for Maple Glazed Smoked Salmon?  It can be found here:

http://www.smoking-meat.com/october-17-2013-maple-glazed-smoked-salmon

He talks about ramping the temperature up in 3 steps and smoking for a total of 6 hours.  The last 4 hours he talks about brushing on a glaze every hour or so.
In the past I have steered away from these recipes that called for opening the smoker and brushing on a glaze because I have read on here many times that the SI works best when the door is closed and not opened again until the smoke is finished.  This recipe just looks too appealing to me to pass up, but I would like to get some feedback before going out and buying $20 worth of fresh salmon to smoke.
One of the things that I read on the forum for the Bradley smoker is to wrap a brick in foil and place in the smoker at the beginning of the smoke and let it come up to the smoker temperature.  This helps the interior temperature to recover quicker when the door is opened for checking the smoke or the temperature of the meat.  What are your thoughts on this?

 

[CUTiger80]

One other question on smoking fish that I forgot to ask.  Do you use the water pan in the bottom of the smoker with fish, specifically salmon?  I would assume that you do.

 

[Pork Belly]

The Bradley has a weak element compared to an SI. If you are quick you wont loose that much heat. Having someone assist you speeds things up. You operate the door and racks and have another person holding and brushing on the glaze as you pull racks. I have never added a water pan on fish.

 

[CUTiger80]

The salmon smoke on Saturday (12-06) went well.
The recipe calls for you to ramp up the temp from 100 (2 hours) to 150 (2 hours) then to 175 (2 hours), which I tried to do.  I set the SI#2 on 100 to start.  It blew right past 100 and got up to about 135 (according to my Maverick) at which point I turned it down below 100 on the dial.  At 110 I started getting a light smoke trail which seemed to fade after I turned the smoker down.  After 2 hours, I turned the smoker up to 150.  After about 10 minutes it hit 135 and I had heavy smoke.  It got all the way up to 190 at which point I turned it down to 130 or so.  By then, the smoke trail was much lighter.  As you can see below, I put the Weber apple chunks (about 2.5 oz total) in foil boats and was careful to wrap them tight.  I did not get any belches on this smoke, but it seems (as it has on all smokes with this drier wood) that I get intense smoke for a short period of time (20-30 minutes) and then it peters out.  When the smoke was over, I had one chunk that was black and still slightly hard and the other was fine ash and still glowing (which I assume that it should be).
On the positive side, my wife, who doesn't particularly like salmon, thought it was great and even bragged to some of her friends at church about it the next day.  The smoke flavor was not heavy at all (which was probably a good thing).
Below are some photos.
I would highly recommend this recipe.  It was not as sweet as I feared that it would be.  The syrup mixed with the rub gave it a nice glaze and flavor and the meat was very moist. 
I did put a pan of water in the bottom of the smoker.  It seems when I searched this forum and others, that some did and some didn't.

 

[DivotMaker]

Looks great, Ravel!  I would omit the foil boats for low-temp smokes like that; I think you'll find it works better.  Many use chips or pellets for low-temp like that.  If I want smoke at low temps, I just split some of my chunks into slivers, and go with them.

 

[jcboxlot]

That looks well worth the price of the fish.  Its going on my recipe list!  Thanks for the pictures

 

[Pork Belly]

That looks pretty tasty. I like chips or pellets for low temp smokes 100 to 120'ish. If I were doing the smoke you did with several steps in heat I would have started with chips that were soaked for 20 minutes at the back of the box, I would place a block in the middle of the fire box. Typically I run the heat up to 250 while the door is open, load the firebox (CAREFULLY) cut the heat down to 100 and throw in the racks of meat. Doing it this way you get immediate smoke that seems to last.

 

[DivotMaker]

That's Brian's patented "time released" smoke recipe!   Very cool technique!

 

[BedouinBob]

Nice looking salmon Ravel! I have been wanting to try salmon and will definitely give this a try.

 

[CUTiger80]

Thanks guys for all of the tips and advice.
The salmon tasted "smoky" enough, but I will try the chips next time.  Also, I will try and experiment with Brian's patented "time release" smoke recipe.
I have just bitten the bullet and ordered the Auber, so getting the temp dead-on next time should not be an issue.
We had a slab of the salmon left over the other night and it was very tasty (again).  I was not sure the best way to warm it up, so I wrapped it in foil, added a little water, and heated it in the toaster over.
My next purchase will be a FoodSaver vacuum sealer.  I think that I can then warm left-overs up by dropping them into a pot of hot water.

 

[NDKoze]

Thanks guys for all of the tips and advice.
The salmon tasted "smoky" enough, but I will try the chips next time.  Also, I will try and experiment with Brian's patented "time release" smoke recipe.
I have just bitten the bullet and ordered the Auber, so getting the temp dead-on next time should not be an issue.
We had a slab of the salmon left over the other night and it was very tasty (again).  I was not sure the best way to warm it up, so I wrapped it in foil, added a little water, and heated it in the toaster over.
My next purchase will be a FoodSaver vacuum sealer.  I think that I can then warm left-overs up by dropping them into a pot of hot water.

The vacuum sealed bag in boiling water is my go to method for reheating. It works awesome!

 

[SconnieQ]

Typically I run the heat up to 250 while the door is open, load the firebox (CAREFULLY) cut the heat down to 100 and throw in the racks of meat. Doing it this way you get immediate smoke that seems to last.

Sounds like a great idea! Wondering if you could preload the wood/chips and salmon, then set to 250 with the door open until you see some smoke, then reduce to 100, and close the door. That way you could avoid dealing with a hot firebox.