Rememberance of Salmon Past...

When I was growing up we used to have a friend that would bring smoked salmon back from fishing trips in New Brunswick. The salmon fillet was still on the skin and would be scored in a criss-cross fashion so that chunks could be picked up off the skin and eaten or put on crackers. Generally there'd be a bowl of sour cream and chives to accompany the salmon - and lots of beer.

The texture of the salmon was not the moist pink of deli salmon, but dark and more towards the dry, flaky side. There was still some residual moisture on the inside but the outer layer was crusty and with a strong smoky flavor. I'd like to duplicate this and am thinking of an alder or applewood smoke at @ 200 degrees - although I wonder if it should be a little hotter if necessary. My best guess is that it was brined overnight and mopped with water and maple syrup.

Any suggestions re. the IT and the length of the smoke would be appreciated.

Best,

Steve

Thanks guys, for your responses. I've looked at a couple "hot smoke" salmon threads and it looks like 200 is a bit low for what I want. I'm going to set a grill temp for 225 and an IT of 160 - but look for the white liquid coming up and settling beforehand. If it looks good with an IT of 145 then I'll take it off. I figure 1-2 hours at 225 should be about right. First time for me and I'm looking forward to it.

I would think that oak and hickory would be good choices for the kind of basic warm smoke that we're talking about here; apple and alder for more delicate smokes. Lots of threads here on bqb on different ways to smoke salmon - I'm going to start with the method described above as it probably comes closest to what I remember from back when. oifmarine2003, here's a vid for us newbs re. removing pin bones:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeiOYtDk9Jw"]How to remove the pin bones from salmon, trout or char - YouTube[/ame]

I well remember my dad smoking shad in an old metal can in the driveway after fishing on the Delaware; someone would always call the FD and they'd come and admire his build. I think my dad always told them to drop by a few hours to pick some up when it was done.