Smoking Salmon and Trout Part Kippering and Barbecuing

The salting procedures are the same for both cooking methods. You can kipper or barbecue whole sides for special occasions but pieces of fillets cut according to thickness is easier to salt and smoke cook. You can dry salt, plain or mixed, whole sides and wet brine, plain or mixed, pieces. Thick sides are hard to dry salt so either slice into two thinner fillets or inject brine. Plain salt:Score the skins as for dry salting before Scotch curing and place the salt the same way. The time required is 1/3 as much as for Scotch smoking and 1/6 if brine is injected. This is because Scotch smoked fish must be thoroughly conditioned so as to be able to slice it thinly but here we are just adding enough salt for flavor. Also Scotch smoked fish is an appetizer, a tid-bit and can be salty to the taste but kippered and barbecued fish is a main course. After dry salting, simply rinse off the salt and drain before cooking. Salt mixes: add 3/4 cup white or brown sugar to each 2 1/4 c pickling salt and optionally add up to 50 bay leaves, 8 tsp pepper, 2 tb mace, 7 tsp allspice, 2 1/4 tb cloves, or 2 tb juniper berries. Prepare the side for salting as for dry salting for Scotch smoking and place the salt as for Scotch smoked fish. The time required is 1/2 as much as for Scotch smoked fish or 1/4 if brine is injected. Plain Brine: Prepare brine [2 1/2 c salt to 2 qt water] and cool to 50 deg. Keep fish and brine cool at all times. Stir pieces from time to time. The time required is about 3/8 as much as for plain brining for Scotch smoking. Drain fish coming out of the brine before smoking/cooking. Sugar-Spice Brine: Prepare brine as for Scotch smoked sugar spice brine. Time: 3/8 as much as Scotch smoked method. Drain fish coming out of the brine before smoking/cooking. Reusing brines: Because the fish has absorbed sugar and salt and released water, you must bring the brine back up to strength by adding more salt or mix. Use a salinometer to be accurate and bring back up to 90deg salinity. Smoking Kippered Salmon: Drying- is important for appearance and flavor. During drying the salt soluble protein protein from the fish forms a skin on the surface called a pellicle which combines with the smoke for a pleasant appearance and most of the smoke flavor. Methods of drying include hanging under building eaves in a breeze out of the sun, with a fan, a forced draft smoker and a small clear fire in a natural draft smoker. Dry at 100 deg with maximum draft for 1 1/2 hr [forced draft] or 3-4 hours [natural draft]. First smoking- 1 hr, medium density at 100 deg. Tempering- is gradual as opposed to sudden heating and is important for appearance and quality, so soluble protein juice does not pool on the surface and form curds or the flesh dry unevenly and crack. Gradually raise the temp to 175 with medium smoke over an hour. Second Smoking- 1 hr at max. smoke at 175. Take thinner pieces out of the smoker now and give the thick pieces 1 more hour. Barbecued fish: after salting or brining, place in a hot pre-heated smoker and cook until fish flakes readily. Storage: of kippered or barbecued fish. Cool as quickly as possible. Do not wrap before it has cooled or it will spoil. Freeze the surplus promptly. Smoking Salmon and Trout - Making Lox There are three products called Lox: old fashioned Lox, Nova Lox and Lox Salmon [ plus a whole lot of other smoked and pickled products using the name but bearing little resemblance to any of these]. Old fashioned Lox: Freshen mild-salted fish [salting instructions follow in a later chapter] by soaking in several changes of water. Thin pieces will require less time than thick pieces that may take up to 24 hours. Test by tasting, remembering that the subsequent smoking will dry the fish and concentrate the saltiness. Drain the freshened fish on the smoking racks. Smoke at 85 deg F with medium density smoke for 6-8 hrs [forced draft] or 12-16 hrs [natural draft]. Cool the fish before wrapping and freeze any surplus. Lox is perishable. Nova Lox and Lox Salmon: Fish may be either fresh or frozen. Frozen is actually better as the freezing and thawing removes some of the moisture. If the fish are frozen whole, fillet them when they are half thawed. Cut into pieces according to thickness. Use the thick portions for Lox and the thin ones in kippering, drying, canning or eating fresh. Make a dry salt-sugar mix of equal parts sugar and pickling salt. Dry salt by placing the pieces in a container of mix. Cover each piece but do not rub it into the flesh. Sprinkle some mix into a container and lay the salt mix dredged pieces on it skin side down. Sprinkle each layer with more mix and add another layer etc. Times for salting according to thickness are the same as for Scotch smoked dry salting above. Remove the pieces from the mix, rinse and drain. Now brine the pieces in 90 deg sal brine [2 1/2 c salt per 2 qts water] with optional bay leaves included. Keep brine and fish cool throughout the process. Then freshen the fish under running water more or less to taste; the table is just an approximation. BRINING AND FRESHENING TIMES Thickness Brining Time Freshening Time 3/4" 9 hrs 45 min 1" 12 hrs 1 h 1 1/2" 18 hrs 1 1/2 hrs 2" 24 hrs 2 hrs At this point decide whether you want smoked Nova Lox or unsmoked Lox Salmon. For Nova Lox smoke as for old fashioned Lox. For Lox Salmon the pieces must be dried without heat until firm enough for slicing. A frost free refrigerator will dry uncovered Lox enough to firm it.