brine recipes for little smoker

using my friends little chief smoker right now was wondering about what is a good easy brine for smokes salmon? much thanks Ben

You are in luck. My father smoked salmon for 50 years. I have done so for 35 yearas. Here is the easiest and the best "brine" ever.

Mix rock salt and brown sugar. Ratio of 6 parts salt to one part sugar. You may vary to suit taste. more sugar if you like it sweet .

Put an inch of the dry mix in bottom of glass bowl or plastic tub. Do not use metal. Place a layer of fish on top of the mix.

Cover each piece of salmon with rocksalt/sugar mix - NO WATER -NONE!!! Repeat layers until the bowl is full.

Leave fish covered for two to four hours. Thinner pieces need less time. If the fish has been frozen it needs less time than if fresh.

Use only nice bright fish. That old saying about it's good enough to smoke is nonsense. Garbage in garbage out!

Remover from mix and rinse thoroughy.

Refrigerate overnight.

Smoke.

I have done literally dozens of reciipes and this is by far the easiest and I think the best.

I am constantly asked for my smoked saolom recipe, and have provides smoked salmon for several wedding and receptions. The guests alwasy rave about it.

This recipie makes a mild - not too salty - fish. If you like a real salty smoked salmon, simply leave it in the mix an extra hour.

Try this dry brine recipe:

Box of Brown sugar(16oz)
1/2 cup non-iodized salt
2 TBLS Black pepper
1 TBLS Dry Mustard
1 TBLS Onion salt
1 TBLS Celery salt
1 TBLS Garlic salt
....add more sugar as desired
NO LIQUID added
Mix all ingredients and put into two 2 gallon plastic bags evenly for one 15lb or so salmon.
I have had best luck cutting fish in 1" steaks to smoke so all is same thickness.
Cure for up to 20 hours in fridge but turning bags every so often.
The Dry brine will turn to liquid within hours and will need to be turned every so often until it is ready to smoke. I have found the best AVG time is 16-18 hrs. It depends on the thickness of the fillets or steaks. If the fillets are thinner than 1" then cure less. Use a Little or Big Chief to smoker until done. I use Alder chips but you may use any of the other flavor of chips.

This recipe was posted on another board several months ago. I've cut the brine time to less then 8-12 hours and have noticed little differance. I'd say of all the spices in this that pepper is the most important. I've substituted curry and used crushed peppers to get fish with kick. Excellent with a beer!

Luhr Jensen. Easy, tastes good. I use alternating cherry/alder chips. I used to experiment with recipes of my own but always made the mistake of not writing down what I'd use. dumb, so now I use the Idiot Method and at least it's the same each time.

thanks a million for the thought out responses. got something to go on now. much thanks again Ben

Trick...I posted that on steelheader.net and am happy you are still experimenting and fine tuning the recipe to fit your needs.
The other spices also add salt since they are garlic Salt, celery Salt etc.
I am curious about the lower curing time down to 8-12 hours. Please post or e-mail me ok?
I have switched to using mostly fillets as it results in a more moist product. Used this on Albacore loins with less curing time and I thought it turned out great.

What,no one uses soy sauce.Soy sauce and spices that's the ticket.

We have used this recipe for 30 years.

Granny Griffins Smoked Fish Recipe
(Family Secret)

In a new 5 gallon bucket –
1 Gallon warm water
2 cups salt (I use morton’s Table salt)
2 Cups Brown Sugar
4 tablespoons garlic powder
8 tablespoons onion powder
2 ounce bottle of mapeline
1 ½ cups Karo Corn Syrup

Mix it all real good. Add trimmed filets. I like to cut fish to skin (not through) in 1 1 ½ inch strips. This is enough brine for a 5 rack Big Chief Smoker. Let soak 6 to 12 hours. Dry on paper towels for at least one hour. Brush with honey if you like. Pepper heavy with crushed or cracked black pepper. Preheat smoker 1 hour. Smoke fish 6 to 12 hours or until completely done. Smoking time varies depending on wind and weather.

Jeff aka Fishguts

I tried alot of wet brines and Slides recipe was great. I really like the low cost...sugar and salt can be had pretty cheap.

I used to use the soy sauce based wet brines.....expensive and inferior to the dry brines in my opinion.

Slide, thanks for posting your recipe (I've done about a dozen loads since your posting on steelheader.net. I've brined from 20 to 8 hours and I haven't noticed a substantial differance in taste. I'm brining chinook closer to twelve and doing steelhead and silvers 8-10. The brine pulls the fluids out of the fish pretty quick and I think alot of the brining occurs during the earlier stages.

I air dry the fish in the rack for at least two hours rotating the rack every 30 minutes before it goes into the smoker.

Slide, have you tried lower brine times and what did you think? I'm still playing with the recipe and next week I'll probally try something new. I have also tried MSG as an additive and again I noticed no differance in the product.

Trick....You have done far more experimenting with the recipe than me. I've been pleased with the end result and have only changed the brining times. I think the lowest time for brining salmon was 15hrs since any lower I thought may decrease the storage time in the fridge. Steelhead at 10 to 12hrs was fine. Albacore at 6-7hrs with thick loins was excellent. No storage needed for that since it was just...gone!

I don't worry to much about fridge storage time. What won't be eaten in a few days gets portioned out, vac-packed and froze until needed. Always come out of the packs in excellent condition. Love my foodsaver....mmmm.....mmmmm....good!

Trick and/or Slide,
Do you have to rinse the fish after brining? I hate rinsing.....looking for the fastest easiest approach. Thanks.
James

Hey Little Fish,
I am not sure what Trick has come up with but I always rinse the fish briefly under the the cold tap water. The thing between Trick and me.... He liked the basic recipe I provided and has experimented so much with cajun type spices and brining times.
I basically like the plain good old ...not too salty..smoked salmon that no matter who you give it to will say.....The best smoked salmon I've ever had.
I don't understand why you hate rinsing the excess salt off the fish. This is the easiest approach.....pull fish out of bag and with cold water running rinse fish for several seconds under the tap(dry with paper towel very lightly)Lay on rack and let "pellicure"(?)
form before smoking. This may take an hour or so at room temp. The fish will have a glossy or shiny look on the surface.
Not rinsing the fish will make it more salty.
This basic dry brine is one which you cannot screw-up. I wish I knew it before I wasted so much fish with salty soy sauced wet brines. An hour or two of brining time plus or minus is not going to greatly effect the finished product as far as the saltiness. Follow the recipe, only change the sugar/pepper/ and add what you want for variance. You can follow Trick's brining times. If you have any more questions, just e-mail me.

Blueslide,
Thanks for the response. I'm going to try your recipe. I too like a simple recipe that creates the "best smoked salmon I've ever tasted". In the past I've used the basic wet recipes found in the little chief book. I've found, these recipes require a significant amount of rinsing.....you almost have to rub down each piece of fish under running water. I've found this to be them most time consuming part of the process. Ideally I'd like to find a recipe that only requires a quick rinse or no rinse at all. Off course it may just be a matter of more experimentation.
JMS

I was curious, I just finished brining my fillets with gutz recipe and was curious if I can refrigate the cured fillets and smoke them in the morning, or do I need to smoke them now?

Stubble, once the "pelicle" forms, you may refrigerate for up to a week before smoking the fish. Just make sure you seal the fish in ziplock bags or it may take on the taste of other things in the fridge.
I hereby volunteer my taste testing skills for any one who might be interested in my opinion of their fish smoking abilities.
G

1 quart water
1 cup brown sugar (tightly packed)
1/3 cup table salt

Mix the dry st uff with 1 cup of hot water until disolved, then add the remaining three of cold water.

I chunk my fillets in 3-4 inch portions. throw them in the brine in a tall tuperware container and store in the fridge for 24 hours.

Let them sit on the rack while the smoker heats up. They need to have a nice glaze. ( I don't rinse)

Smoke away. Comes out the same every time. In fact I just finished a chunk of steel I smoked Friday night.

I would like to add a few things here.
Number one; Yes, Dry Brine is superior to wet brine. (It may take some experience to get your volumes of sugar/salt right and technique adjusted as well)
Number two; Carefully and quickly rinse each piece of fish after brining and dry each with paper towels immediatly. Any meat should touch as little water as possible, but it seems neccessary to rinse the fish briefly as the salt seems to pull some unpleasentries out of the meat that just has to be rinsed away (especially noticable when smoking Pink salmon). I use a knife to carefully scrape the water off the fish before I use the paper towels as paper towels are expensive. You can even lay the fish skin side down on black print newspaper then towel off as you lay the pieces down. Don't use color newsprint as there are toxins in the dye.
Number three; A light coat of brown sugar after towel drying adds a yummy sweetness to the fish, though it is messy as you will be pulling more moisture out of the fish. This is a good time to add a few spices as well if you want.

What I would like is a recipe using Honey instead of brown sugar. Seems the only way to use honey would be to dilute it with a little warm water or drizzle the honey over the fish while layering the fish in the dry brine. I have tasted honey cured smoked salmon before and it seemed better than mine cured in brown sugar. Happy eating all!

Hey man go with surecatch's recipe. My father in law has been doing it for 30 some odd years and has the same recipe only he sticks it all in a bowl for 24 hours in the fridge uncovered to dry out and then puts the brown sugar'/salt brine on it for another 24 hours THEN sticks it in the smoker. I would say you need to write down all of these recipes down and try them all before you make a decision on what YOU like. Cuz different people like different flavoring dude. Tight lines!