- Joined
- Jan 14, 2006
- Location
- At home on the range in Wyoming
I can about 45 (1/2 pint) jars of fresh trout, steelhead or salmon each year and some time ago after Cowgirl posted about canning cold smoked salmon I was all over the idea. Problem was, I hadn't pulled it off until a week or so ago. Her recipe is in several posts here and it's on her blog site as well. I used my dry brine for about 4 hours, rinsed and rested the fillets overnight and cold smoked the steelhead for 3 hours (it never got above 40° internal), so it was similar to lox.
My canner holds 14 jars when double decked so I got 8 jars of the regular recipe and 6 jars of the smoked. Seasoning was jalapeno rings, black pepper, toasted garlic powder, and red onion slices. I do vary from the USDA rules by adding olive oil and 1/2 tablespoon of water, and process fish for 100 minutes @ 13psi. USDA recommends adding additional quart of water to the canner and 110 minutes for processing 'smoked' fish, but their RULES are based on pint jars. So basically I'm following rules for fresh fish canning.
The results were great, the smoked fish has a texture similar to my hot smoked fish, really nice color, very moist and a subtle smokey flavor. I have a couple of tweaks in mind for my next batch, but they are minor.