"Janet Wilder" > wrote in message
...
>I bought a whole frozen Alaskan (wild) pink salmon that weighs 2 ½ pounds
>on sale for a little over $5. It's in the fridge defrosting now.
>

Janet, Iused to live in Seattle and smoked A LOT of fresh salmon in my day.
You mentioned you had pink salmon, that is not a favorite of salmon eaters.
This fish runs every other year in big numbers and is often referred to as
dog salmon. I think that is because it is the oiliest salmon, and great for
dog coats (and ours) That being said it does smoke very well. We always cold
smoked pinks, think temps below 200 for 5 hrs with a very light smoke. You
want to try to dry this out a little, and it will firm up the meat which can
be less firm than cohos or chinook and sockeye.
The brine recipe is correct, 3/4 to 1 cup kosher salt per gallon of water,
and lots and lots of lemon, orange slices it will pick the citrus up well.
Sage, peppercorns and savory herbs are all good play around. We brined pinks
overnight and always got great results.
The firmer flesh of the higher quality salmon does better with hot smoke and
2-4 hr brine. Either way you can't lose, just run cool on the pinks or they
can be mushy.

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