Candied Smoked Salmon

Candied Smoked Salmon is unbelievable.

Twenty years ago, a friend built a smoke house on the dock we all tie up to at the fishing grounds. It was the first time I had smoked fish right out of a smokehouse. It was amazing! The texture, the flavor, you can’t eat just eat one piece. He would always give us a generous bag full. I had so much of it and didn’t want any of it to go to waste, I began creating recipes using smoked salmon. One day while enjoying it on the dock, I asked for the recipe and the rest is history! I love this smoked salmon recipe and it pleases me to share it with you.

Candied Smoked Salmon
Ingredients

3 lbs. salmon fillets
1 lb. course salt
1 lb. brown sugar
3 Tbl. crushed red pepper
1 cup maple syrup

Cut the salmon into thick strips 1 inch x 1 inch x 4 inches long.

In a large bowl; stir together the salt, brown sugar, and crushed red pepper.

Place the salmon strips in a layer in the bottom of a large lidded container. Leave a little space between the strips of salmon to allow the salmon to loose it’s moisture.

Sprinkle a bit of the salt, sugar mixture on the salmon.

Repeat until all the salmon is covered.

Put the container in a cool place for 1 hour to allow time for the salt, sugar mixture to pull the moisture out of the salmon.

When you’re ready to smoke the salmon, quickly rinse off all the salt and sugar, and pat the salmon dry before putting into the smoker.

Paint a thin coating of the Maple syrup onto the salmon and place in your smoker.

Add your Alder chips to your smoking pan. (Alder gives a delicate smoke flavor). Set the temperature and time according to your instruction manual. Depending on the weather, we generally smoke ours for 5-8 hours.

Apply the Maple Syrup 3 – 4 times during the smoking process.

Smoke the salmon to taste.

When the salmon is done, allow it to cool before eating. ( If you can wait ).
Keep refrigerated.

This is my favorite recipe for Candied Smoked Salmon. Enjoy.

Four rules for smoking success

1 -Start raw. Many of the flavor compounds in smoke are fat and water soluble, which means that what you are cooking will absorb smoky flavors best when raw. As the surface cooks and dries out, the smoke will not penetrate as well.

2 -Don’t overdo it. The biggest mistake rookies make is adding too much wood to the point the food taste bitter. The first time you make a recipe try one or two handfuls of chips you can always go up next time.

3 -White smoke is good; black smoke is bad. Clean streams of whitish smoke can layer your food with the intoxicating scents of smoldered wood. But if your fire lacks enough ventilation (or your food is directly over the fire and it’s juices are burning), a blackish smoke will result that will taint your food.

4 -Peek and brush on the maple syrup quickly. Every time you open your smoker, you loose heat and smoke-two of the most important elements for smoking success. Open the lid only when you need to.