My parents live in the Midwest and love smoked salmon. They haven't been able to travel to see their kids or grandkids this year, and my mom was just talking about having smoked salmon for the holidays this year and not worrying about a big meal.

Got me thinking maybe I could surprise her by smoking and sending a batch. Anyone ever try sending? I have to thaw out some coho and then smoke it. Would you then freeze solid again (I know, not ideal) and overnight it in a little insulation? Or some other way?

I've never sent any of my smoked salmon thru the "mail" so I have no experience. But, what you described is what I would do particularly if you vacuum pack the smoked fish within a day of smoking it. I really think it makes a big difference in taste if you trap more of the smoke flavor right away. You could probably overnight it without freezing, but I probably would just to play it safe. Good luck! I have a batch of silvers in my smoker right now!

I would just thaw and overnight it,but my smoked fish has a high salt content. I'd eat it.

Smoke it. Vacuum pack - twice. Ship overnight.

I've done it many times before without issue. There is a small chance they'll send your shipment back if a vacuum seal breaks, so I always double seal it as a safety measure.

I have vacuum sealed it and overnighted it...no ice, not frozen. Always been just fine.

Fish on...

Todd

Yeah....cold packs, ice or whatever is not needed. It's smoked.

I do use gloves when handling fish from the smoker to sealing, just so as to not introduce any extra bacteria etc. If you do your smoke job right, it's shelf stable for a couple of weeks. Commercial smoked salmon has a 2 - 3 week shelf life from initial sealing to the final sell by date....roughly.

You can always use a higher salt content brine which will help a lot with preservation....

12/14/2020

I've sent smoked fish to AZ and to Virginia ...... right now is not the best time of the year to do so.....Christmas stuff being sent BUT if you smoke it, vacuum seal it, put in refrigerator.

When the Christmas rush is over, pick a Monday or Tuesday to ship.....reason for these days so it won't get hung up on a week end.

I've shipped on Monday....got to Virginia on Wednesday and Thursday.

This time of the year......colder weather for shipping is good...

NO WILD STEELHEAD IN ANY FISH I'VE EVER SENT !!!!!!!!

Smoke, vac-pac, ship - no issues the half dozen or so times I've done it.

forget the higher salt content, who wants that? get an insulated box, throw in a couple blue ice and vacuum sealed fish, and ship it UPS. I sent it to Arizona last year and it was fine.

Well if you do a 4 parts sugar 1 part salt ratio say in a dry brine,that's plenty of salt. Fish will keep a couple days no problem if it's vac sealed.

yep, 4/1, vacuum seal, keep cold.

I started canning my smoke Salmon so I can ship it without worries. A lot of it went to my folks in Hawaii and others to friends in Germany. No issues doing it that way and I actually think the canned version of smoked salmon tastes better.

Do you have the smoke fish done at a commercial cannery, so its done in cans????

I have a home canner, but I have to use 1/2 and pint jars, I do smoked summer run and tuna fish......it does taste good.

Definitely punctuates the smoked flavor in the fish.

So what's the deal with the Costco boxed gift packs they have for sale... smoked sockeye is unrefrigerated, who knows how old it is ? Is that brined with a special preservative or something?

It's pasteurized.

If only man could have preserved the live fish.

WDFW is going to try......

The commercial process more or less...

Link here if anyone cares....

I used to sell PKG supplies to all of the big and small PNW commercial processors, so I had to learn a little bit about this stuff.

It's a pretty interesting process to see first hand. I believe Ocean Beauty in Monroe used to give tours before Covid hit. Cool place, but your clothes will smell like smoked fish butthole forever. The actual smokers they use are are HUGE. 1000's of pounds of fish at a time.

I do it myself and usually use half pint jars. Got to wrap them good for shipping, but never had one arrive broken. I usually put about an hour of smoke on the fish and then can.