Been smoking salmon for years but recently tried Tom Nelson's recipe and was blown away.... Perfect balance of sweet/salt... THat said, I've always refrigerated fish after taking from the brine to form the pellicle... Nelson states he leaves his at room temp for 18 to 24 hours before smoking??? Am I just paranoid or is this totally safe? Inquiring mind wants to know if the room temp air dry is dangerous?

i air dry mine at room temp for 1-2 hours then smoke...

squaw candy, the REAL squaw candy, takes 20+ days to do, and theres no issue with it, leaving it outside next to a fire to dry and smoke, the recipe you are talking about should be OK.. start at 10 or 12 hours and see what you come up with...

I've never made anybody sick.

Full? Yes... but sick... Nope.

If you've ever been to central Alaska and have seen how the native Alaskans do it... 18 to 24 hours at room temp ain't a big deal with salt & sugar cured fish.

Happy smokin' Buggy!

Good news!

I find that a pellicle forms in the smoker, I just take mine from the brine, pat dry with paper towels, and stick it in the smoker for 18-24hrs, depending on the thickness of the chunks...

Best I ever had was from a native woman from Homer, she cold smoked it for a week, the brine included Jim Beam and pineapple juice as the "secret" ingrdients. It weas a deep mahogany all the way thru, and ambrosial!

Recently did a batch of fish and am done with short-changing (skipping) the pellicle forming process.

I tried putting the fish racks in the kitchen with the box fan blowing on them. Ran out of time, but it was working. After an hour, the fish was getting tacky, but not quite right. Smoked it anyway. This batch turned out better than my average albumen-streaked but tasty fish. I'm going for appearance now.

Letting racks of fish sit on the kitchen counter for 3-4 hours or more is problematic.

The garage has lots of work bench space (Clean...it has a 10' kitchen counter/sink like a kitchen). The problem there is the air is potentially polluted with dog hair or sawdust.

Outside, well....it rains. The easy-up shade thing is an option.

Wife informed me that the wall oven has a dehydrator function. Going to give it a try.

Curious how the rest of you have conquered the challenge of open-air drying.

Thanks,

Mike

I put it in the garage or on the covered back porch for a few hours. Quit doing the kitchen thing due to the garlic I put in the brine.

I do mine inside on the counter, two big chief racks at a time, I give the pellicle forming time for 4 to 6 hours at room temp., never had any issues after 35+ years. I smoke at a low temp. by adjusting voltage so my fish is preserved and smoked, not cooked. The salt brine is doing your preserving, the smoker is for flavor addition and more importantly, moisture removal. I'll rotate racks every 6 or 7 hours letting the water that is being accumulating on top of fish pour off by tilting during rotation. Amazing amount of moisture is pulled out by doing this. Good luck and good eating! Bob R

I do it in my shop fridge for 18+ hours usually about 24.

I wish I could use the kitchen counter, but my wife would freak, the shop counter is plenty big but the cats would attack it.

Pellicle is A1 important.

Patience thru pellicle formation is KEY.

Not just for appearance, but for S-M-O-O-T-H internal texture in the final product.

If you like sawdust smoked fish, then it really doesn't matter.

It'll just look ugly AND taste bad.

I take it from brine and rinse then to the racks. I let sit overnight on the racks, in my smoker. Then smoke the next day.

I never do this and my smoked fish always turns out incredible.

Bingo!

Here is a link to the Recipe/process

I am 100% with Ryley. (6666 posts!) Never bothered with it. Seems unwise to leave food out like that. I will put my smoked fish up against any!

Too many variables too many different methods being used to say one person is right or wrong. A wet brine with a high heat smoke could start with a low moisture meat because the brine cured it. Someone else like less salt and the same process could yield a higher moisture content meat that needs to lose moisture before smoking. Every batch is different for me I use a dry brine and a low temp smoke . Some of the fish has to brine longer than other fish to yeilds the moisture content I like before I smoke. I like it real dry before it hits the smoker. So I brine for 4 to 5 days and dump moisture from the fish daily and rotate in the brine. Same for pepperoni , landjager and Salami and prosciutto's if I treated every batch the same I would get inconsistent results. I have to read the batch and make adjustments based on what I see. I do not cure any meat above 40 degrees that is universal.

My smoker has plated, carbon steel racks.
If no skin present,and where the plating has worn, I will get carbon staining on the product.
Not the end of the world, but ugly.

I've never tried stainless steel racks...maybe that would help avoid the stain.

There are also smoking mats...like a synthetic mesh that might be the answer.

The best solution of course is to leave the skin on next time and smoke skin side down.
If your brine has a salty tendency, cut back on the salt or shorten the soak time.

Better yet, start using the "dry" brine method.
Here's one...
http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=64066


The importance of establishing pellicle explained herein...
http://honest-food.net/2012/08/12/how-to-smoke-salmon-recipe/

Failing pellicle and temp control will yield cooked (not smoked) product, garnished with that fugly white curd (albumin).
Not fatal, but upper tier fugly.

http://www.foodsafety.wisc.edu/assets/pdf_Files/smokingyourcatch.pdf

J F C, Ryley post up ASAP before something really bad happens.

In medicine, a bunch of bureaucratic pinheads got together and assigned a 5 digit code to every known human affliction (International Classification of Disease) For zhits and giggles, early in my medical school days I looked up the code for 666.66. It wasn't good.

Something along the lines of menometrorrhagia.... uncontrolled raging female bleeding from psycho-bitchiness or some such thing.

I'd post up quick, dude.

And right next to it in the big book.... "Chimney Syndrome"

Yeah... what he said.

BUTT f'ugly and dry as saw dust.

Nuthin' a blindfold and a little K-Y or AstroGlide can't fix.

I doubt that I cook any meat...fish, chicken, pork, beef...to anywhere near the AMA's recommendations...they'd rather I make it all look like charcoal before eating it.

I have always got a better result with letting my fish get a good pellicle on it before smoking...usually twelve hours in the shop, with a box fan blowing across it.

I rotate the racks every once in a while so that the ones closest to the fan don't get drier.

Fish on...

Todd