RM: Okay, so I admit I'm an old fart, but my dad smoked salmon in an outdoor smokehouse with the fire in a barrel outside, with the smoke piped into the bottom of the smokehouse. The lowest rack was about five feet above the ground. I highly doubt that fish ever got above 100 degrees. He smoked it for seven days and used only fresh cut alder that smoldered and smoked but made very little heat.

When he was 85, I told him I had smoked some salmon in one day. He was almost offended. He said, "You may have cooked it in one day buy you sure as hell didn't smoke it" I think he was right. What we do now days is to cook it with a smoke flavor.

I'm not knocking anyones methods here. I too use a Big Chief and never have it in there more than 10-12 hours. Just some thought on the "good old days"


P.S. I loved dads smoked salmon, but in hindsight it was dry, hard and smoky as hell. They were smoking more as a preservative than as a gourmet treat.