I want Smoked Salmon – Part 2

Here are links to my recent posts about Alaska & Smoking Salmon:

Alaska Trip;   Smoked Salmon Part I; Smoked Salmon Part II

 

So Rose could not wait for the Egg Smoking Machine to be completed and we planned another small batch to be smoked on the gas grill.

Hauled out another frozen bag from our cache and extracted any lurking bones. That’s what the hemostat is for in the above photo and pardon the fuzziness of some of these shots.

 

Next the dry brine comprised of 2 cups brown sugar, 1/2 cup sea salt, about 8 to 10 minced garlic cloves and 4 Serrano chillies chopped up.

 

Covered the fish with the brine and left in the fridge overnight, 10 hours. The previous one was brine’d for 6 hrs. In the end the sugar/salt mixture extracts the water from the salmon and turns into a tacky goo which is washed off. The salmon steaks are nice and firm at this point. Then we dried them for about 4 hours before smoking them at <200 F for another 4 hrs.

 

Almost ready to sample our efforts – traditional Friday night on the deck.

 

Back to the Egg project. Draft door came in and was screwed in-place. There was a large air gap around the edges which I sealed with caulk – don’t want any unwanted air leaking in next time we fire her up.

 

Oh yes, I needed a temperature gauge. Then I realized I needed a new little hole to mount it in. Not wanting to run the risk of destroying my Egg lid I trotted off to my local ACE hardware store and came home with a diamond ceramic drill bit. More $$ for the rathole project.

 

The metal cap also came in with it’s large and small holes for vent control. Now I’m waiting for the Nomex sealer and the new handle & bands before the next test firing. That will be Part 3.