Cold Smoked Salmon

[pnoon]

Dry Cure For Salmon - 1.5 lb. fillet

1/2 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp pink salt
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp ground bay leaf
1/2 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp ground mace

1.5 Tbsp dark rum
1.5 lb salmon fillet

Place half of the dry cure in a dish/pan. Place salmon. Sprinkle rum. Coat with remainder of cure. Cover in plastic wrap. Place 5-8 lb. weight on top.
Refrigerate ~36 hours or until thickest part feels dense and stiff.

Rinse thoroughly. Pat dry.

Place on rack over a pan and refrigerate uncovered for 4-24 hours. I did 12 here and it worked fine.

I then put it in my cold smoker for around 3 hours.

:dr

[replicant_argent]

Sounds great, Peter. Salmon in any form agrees with me. I haven't cured or smoked any in a long time, the last being a refrigerator cured lox a few years back (6-7, wow, time flies)
My wife isn't a fan of fish, but I think lox/hot/cold smoked salmon is one of the great savory treats.

[tupacboy]

thanks for posting... gotta give this a whirl :)

[bvilchez]

Salmon is my all-time fave fish. Thanks for the recipe brother.

[tupacboy]

just curious... what's the purpose of the weight?

[pnoon]

just curious... what's the purpose of the weight?

Helps the cure extract liquid and infuse flavor.

[tupacboy]

oic thanks...

so after 3 hrs you just cut it up and ate it?

[pnoon]

oic thanks...

so after 3 hrs you just cut it up and ate it?

Yep.
:dr

[pnoon]

Another 5 pounds of salmon going on the smoker this afternoon/evening.
:)

[backwoods357]

This sounds very :drool. Excuse me if I missed it in the smoker thread, but what type of smoker do you use for cold smoking?

[Taki]

Thanks for sharing Peter....sounds :dr:dr

[pnoon]

I bought a cheap charcoal grill and some dryer vent hose with duct tape. I tape the vent hose chimney to chimney from my Traeger to the grill and it works like a charm.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/pnoon/Foodie/IMG_0256.jpg

[688sonarmen]

Nice setup Peter, smoked salmon is damn tasty:dr

[Chainsaw13]

Great idea to get the necessary temps for cold smoking. I've seen something similar for the Bradley with the smoke generator is taken off and ducting used like how you're setup. Can't wait to see your results.

[T.G]

Earned it, I did.

[T.G]

Thanks Peter.

I modified the recipe a bit for a slab of lox for the Napa Polar Bear herf.

Removed the skin.
Left out the pink salt since I hate using nitrates.
Added 1 heavy tsp of finely ground white pepper.
Doubled the bay leaf.
All other spices measurements were "heavy"
Used some brandy as the booze to kick start it (it's what I had around).
Used a couple bricks in ziploc bags to get a really firm direct contact pressing on the fish while curing.

Pics in the smoker thread
http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1536559#post1536559

[pnoon]

Wow. Talk about irony. I have been meaning to go back and edit my original post. Soon after posting this thread, I made some more and went back to the book I got the recipe from. It seems I left off one ingredient. Yep. 1 tsp white pepper!

[T.G]

That is ironic.

The first one I did, it tasted like something was missing.

So the next one got white pepper, but only 1/2 tsp.

Not enough.

This slab was run #3 - it got a full tsp.

[T.G]

The pnoonlox was a hit with everyone who tried it. You have a winner of a recipe there Peter, thanks a bunch for posting it. :tu

PS: Ignore my modification about doubling the bay leaf, I figured out why I had to do that. I always thought it was that my trees were of a slightly milder variety, turns out I wasn't aging the leaves long enough before I chucked them in the coffee grinder with the other spices. To develop the pungent flavor, bay leaves need much longer after drying than I had realized.