So, besides the salmon I fried gently in a pan for dinner, I did some smoked salmon too - this is the salmon which has just become available in the DC area in select stores. The salmon is straight from Alaska via Alaskan Airlines. Wild and fresh Sockeye salmon. Currently available at Safeway, Harris Teeter, Balducci's, and probably Costco too.
I had dry brined the salmon the day before, which just means I rinsed it, dried it with paper towels, sprinkled some salt on it and put it in the fridge overnight wrapped loosely with cellophane. I used kosher salt.
Then I cut out a square of paper from a brown paper bag and placed the salmon on it.
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With scissors, I cut an outline around the paper
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I put it on my SnS kettle, low and slow. Had some JD lump in there, plus some maple chunks and maple chips. I would have used alder wood but I'm out. I started with a very small fire - as small as possible. The rack you see is elevated from the main grate. I do it that way so it's close to the same height as the top vent. Indirect, of course. The heat and smoke passes across the fish and then out the top vent.
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Non FB Anne made banana daquiris. We sat on the back porch as the SnS Smoked. I monitored the temp with the remote. SF1311 will recognize this device. This is a two channel. I have a four-channel as well.
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Took about an hour for the fish to read 125. An hour is about right.
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Let it cool. Then refrigerate for a few hours. It's more appealing if it's chilled.
You flip it upside down on a board, and then carefully peel off the brown paper bag. The skin will come right off and leave the meat behind perfectly. I learned this trick from Meathead on amazingribs.com
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Throw the skin/paper away, and you're left with just the salmon meat.
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Get you a nice cracker, spread a little Philadelphia Creme Cheese on there, add some smoked salmon, and you're livin' large. The salt already infused in the meat which will bring out the salmon flavor nicely. You can add a pinch more salt if you want.
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My favorite cracker on the planet is Crunchmaster multigrain crackers. Costco is the only place I've seen them. I think it's the flax seeds that sets these crackers apart. They're really really really delicious.
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