Every year, I look forward to smoking the salmon that I’ve been catching on my annual fishing trip. This season, I’ve been experimenting with a candied smoke recipe and found this one to be excellent! This is a step-by-step tip on how to make delicious Candied Smoked Salmon. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
5 pounds skin-on salmon pieces, cut into 1- to 2-inch thick strips
1 pound kosher salt
1 pound brown sugar
1 cup maple syrup or birch syrup
Method:
1. Mix the salt and brown sugar together. Find a lidded container large enough to hold the salmon; a big plastic tub works well. Lay down a layer of the salt/sugar mixture about 1/4 inches deep. Put a layer of salmon down on this, skin side up. Cover the salmon with more salt/sugar mixture. If you need a second layer of salmon, make sure the layer of salt and sugar between them is thick enough so that the pieces of salmon are not touching. Basically you are burying the salmon in salt and sugar. Cover and let cure in the fridge at least 30 minutes, and I do it for four hours.
2. Remove the salmon from the cure, and briefly rinse the fish under cold water in a kitchen sink. Pat dry with a paper towel and set the salmon on a drying rack skin side down. Let this dry in the fridge, uncovered, overnight. You are doing this to form a pellicle on the salmon, which helps it smoke properly.
3. Traditionally salmon candy is cold smoked for several days. It is impossible to do it at home with a home style smoker. I use a Bradley Original Smoker for the smoking and bring the temperature up gradually over the course of an hour or so and let it sit at around 165°F to 200°F for at least 3 hours, and I do it for 6 hours as I like my salmon harder and smokier.
4. Every 40 minutes, paint the salmon with the maple syrup. This also helps to remove any albumen — the icky white stuff — that can form between the fish flakes if your smoker gets a little too hot too fast.
5. When the salmon looks good and lacquered, typically about 4 to 6 hours, remove it to the drying racks again and paint it one last time with the maple syrup. Allow it to cool to room temperature before storing. Salmon candy will last a week in the fridge, longer if vacuum sealed. It freezes well, too.
Mix the salt and brown sugar together
Cut salmon to a 2″ thick strip
Use a tweezer to remove all bones
Wash and use paper towel to pad dry
Put salt and brown sugar mixture in a plastic box, 1/4 inch thick, Place the salmon, skin side up.
Cover the salmon with the rest of the salt/brown sugar mixture. Cover it and store it in the fridge overnight.
Getting the Bradley Original Smoker ready
Using maple bisquettes today
Prepare the smoker
Lineup the salmon strips on the smoking racks
Paint the salmon strips every 40 minutes with maple syrup
Smoke for six hours