Problems smoking salmon

[Dr. Endo]

So, I have a UDS that I made over a year ago now. I love it, and I've become pretty confident about my cooking skills with it. I've smoked whole fish in it before with good results but today was the first time that I tried salmon fillets. After reading all of the good reviews about "thirdeye's" recipe, I decided to go with that. I mixed up my brine/paste and followed the instructions closely. The flavor was fantastic but they were CRAZY SALTY! What do you guys with more experience than myself think that I did wrong. I washed off the fillets just as he told me to. The only deviation that I am guilty of committing was that I used granular salt instead of kosher salt. But would that make that big of a difference? I'm excited to try again but thought I would pool your guys thoughts on the matter.

[Big George's BBQ]

That is probably why you have the problem Use kosher Thirdeye has a conversion and you would use a differab]nt amount with kosker than granular I believe there are other differences too

[HeSmellsLikeSmoke]

Different brands of kosher salt differ in saltiness too.

[IamMadMan]

It makes all the difference in the world...

[Richard_]

rinse it before you smoke it , the salt is to help pull the moisture out

[Bro-be-que]

kosher salt is coarser and lower in sodium than table salt. could make a huge diff...

[chriscw81]

there's a significant difference between kosher and the other stuff.....

[MS2SB]

2 things
1) When curing always go by weight instead of volume
2) As has been said above table or fine salt has a higher density than kosher and 1 C table salt can weigh almost twice as much as the same amount of Kosher.

[Richard_]

table salt is best left on the table , kosher ftw

[dmprantz]

Just to be clear: kosher salt is neither less salty nor lower in sodium than any other kind if salt. Salt (NaCl) is salt is a rock is salt. Kosher salt is shaped in such a way that you get less mass of salt per the same volume if crystals, but that's density, not sodium content. Weight is the way to compare, but for Morton's, it's 5:4. Also, just FYI, "kosher salt" is not the only salt which is kosher. It's just the salt that you use to kosher bloody meat.

dmp

[BayoustateBBQ]

^^^^he nailed it. Yeah there are different size grains of kosher salt. I have some that is labeled coarse kosher and i Like to use it in rubs. Iodized sale-table salt has grains like sugar. Keep in mind different kosher brands may have different grain sizes. The sizes of sale are:popcorn salt(the tiniest) through table salt, various kosher salts, various sea salts, rock salts, up to slabs of salt the size of a dinner table or larger.

[HeSmellsLikeSmoke]

It even gets more complicated, but probably not significantly, by anti-caking and other additives put in salt. For example, non-iodized Morton table salt contains calcium silicate while Morton coarse Kosher salt contains Yellow Prussiate of Soda. Morton's iodized salt contains dextrose and potassium of iodine in addition to calcium silicate.

There are conversion charts online to help sort this all out.

[BayoustateBBQ]

Since we are on the subject what is the best kosher salt to use for rubs?

[rockinshelby]

Stick with the kosher salt. I use 1 cup kosher salt, 4 cups brown sugar and 10 -15 cloves crushed garlic. Dry brine for about 6 hours. Recipe stolen from www.salmonuniversity.com. Nice simple brine. Works perfect every time.

[MisterChrister]

Originally Posted by rockinshelby

Stick with the kosher salt. I use 1 cup kosher salt, 4 cups brown sugar and 10 -15 cloves crushed garlic. Dry brine for about 6 hours. Recipe stolen from www.salmonuniversity.com. Nice simple brine. Works perfect every time.

That's a great step by step pic tutorial there, thanks for posting!