Yesterday I helped a friend cook some fresh Salmon by smoking. That is not the same as creating "Smoked Salmon" which is a process to preserve as much as cooking. Yesterday we wanted to cook the Salmon using Alder Wood in a way that kept it moist and added the flavor of the wood. Here is how we did it.
Prepare the salmon - She had purchased the fish with the skin on. That is great for this - just make sure that the fish has been de-scaled. If not you must do that. Next rinse the fish under cold water to remove any scale and surface bacteria. Pat the fish dry. Oil the basket or the grill where the fish will cook. Then put he fish skin side down and rub with some EVOO. Lightly sprinkle with seasoning. We used DAVIS DUST which was Fantastic!!
My grill has a smoker box built in. So after soaking the Alder Chip overnight I filled it about 1/3 full and turned on the that burner - which is very small - to high. I put the basket with the fish in the middle of grill on the grates. The smoker is on the left of the grill. I also made a smoke bomb using aluminum foil and put it on top of the far right burner which I put on the lowest setting. Using this method you can control the heat so the fish cooks slowly and absorbs the wood smoke flavor without being over direct heat. The 2 pounds of fillets took about 35 minutes. I kept the temperature right around 250 - 275.
We had a wonderful lunch of Alder Smoked Salmon with some cold salads.
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