Peach and CoCo: Smoking Season

And we do!

Greetings all you beautiful people out there, today you get a special salmony, savory, smoky dose of Alaska. Peachy spent all weekend long brining, smoking and packaging Red Salmon and she documented the ENTIRE thing just for you!

First step is to catch the salmon, and be grateful. These reds were caught this past summer from the Copper River.

Now you must dry out the fillets of salmon for at least 30 min. Peach has about 10 LBS of salmon here and they are drying out on wax paper. This step helps the salmon soak up ore brine and that means more yummy-ness for you!

The next step is mixing the brine. Make sure you have at least 10 hours for the brining step. A 5 gallon bucket is perfect for this part. Fill the bucket with about 6 inches of warm water then add 1 cup of kosher salt and 1.5 cups of brown sugar. I got my bucket at home-depot, but that is a whole different adventure.

Make sure your pets stay away, unless you are Walter and are the Master Predator of caught Salmons.

Pull the little fishies out of the brine and give them a nice rinse in the water. Once again, let them sit and dry off for about 1 hour. Be sure to remove all bones.

Now it’s time to smoke ‘em! Hickory chips are the best to use for salmon, but it is all preference. Before putting salmon on racks be sure to coat the racks with non-stick spray. I also do either a honey or maple glaze on top of the fish, it really seals in the flavor. Depending on the smoker it should take anywhere from 5 hours to 12 hours.

Now doesn't that look good.