Alton Brown Makes Smoked Salmon | Good Eats | Food Network

[Music] a cure is nothing more than a mixture of salt a cup of kosher in this case and usually an equal portion of sugar just mixed together now i like to split the sugar between half a cup of dark brown and a half cup of white herbal additions are okay but i rather spice things up with a tablespoon or two of crushed black peppercorns sprinkle on some of your cure just up and down in the shape of the fish just going to make sure that some of this gets on the skin side and then just roll fillet b back over now completely cover this with cures sprinkle it on and don't be shy with it because we don't want too much cure down here where the meat is thin just kind of brush upwards and pack it down as you go same thing on this fillet same exact action just sprinkle it all on now we're going to rotate this fillet so that the head ends line up with each other roll one onto the other now peel off the film that used to be on the bottom exposing the last side of the salmon and this is where you can use up the rest of your cure reapply your film pack it down kind of feel and see if the the two sides are even with one another because that will make a difference there then just bring the two sides of the foil together and i usually start at the head kind of crimp it nice and tight up at the head kind of draw it up tight you want a little bit of pressure on the fish slide my fish right onto here now if you were doing this at home you would put this in your pan and move it straight to the bottom shelf of your refrigerator right on top now i also need some weight you see compressing the meat will make it take the cure better and we'll end up with a finer texture at the end i would usually use soup cans or a couple of bricks but hey i don't see any problem with uh letting our fingers do the walking sweet fit into your refrigerator of course for 24 hours that's the time that i think it takes the cure to really do its voodoo you could get away with 12 but don't push it any further than that thorough rinsing and air drying are absolutely crucial to smoking any kind of food that's because the cure has brought water-soluble proteins up to the surface of the meat and when these dry they're going to create a matte-like surface it's almost like a shellac a protein called a pellicle that will prevent moisture loss during smoking and it will act like a like smoked velcro it'll actually attract it now a fan will speed the process you always want to do this in a cool place but not in the refrigerator it's just too moist in there besides i don't have one place your electric hot plate as close to the middle of the box as you can and make sure you turn it so that you can get to the the thermostat then just lay on your skillet full of dust full to the top and turn the thermostat to high now in the summertime you can turn it down to medium as soon as you see a good bit of smoke coming out of the top of the box but in winter time when it's cold you should leave it on high i've since some fat could drip down from the fish onto the pan causing flare-ups i add a profusely perforated disposable pie plate just like that safety first oh and of course uh an electric fan will allow you to convert your smoker into a convection smoker thus speeding up the cooking process sweet as soon as your fish is dry and you have pellicle formation you can rack up your fish and get it in the box you know the thing i think i like best about smoking is how it makes you kind of take a little time out just just take a few hours and chill catch up on some right reading enjoy a lovely beverage because there's not a whole lot of work to do of course this doesn't mean you can go on vacation you can't go off and see a movie you can't go off to the mall because there is a little bit of maintenance still left to do and that is the smoke itself notice how the smoke has dissipated this is what lets you know that you have dead soldiers inside so open up your trap door reach in with some pliers and remove the perforated pie pan then very carefully remove your skillet and you will find charcoal that's pretty much used up carbon dump this into a flame proof container it is very very very hot there may be some sparks there now re-arm with more sawdust it'll start smoking right away so don't hold it close to your face there now right back onto the heat then of course we must replace the perfectly perforated pie pan back to your lovely beverage now how many times you do this depends on your taste uh for one salmon i'll generally replace the sawdust six times but then of course i'm using a small pan and that's my taste you could replace it as many as 10 times as few as four it's completely up to you either way as long as you maintain the heat the salmon is going to cook there we go now i hope that will inspire you to get a little smoke into your life you know you don't have to wait for your vacation come to think of it you don't have to smoke a whole fish truth is is uh small fillets smoke just as well and they do it in a lot less time of course you don't have to use salmon either any fatty fish you always want to use the freshest highest quality fish you can get your hands on if you catch it yourself obviously you're okay there you want to cure it for 12 to 24 hours more for really thick pieces less for little bitty skinny pieces you want to wash that cure off and allow the fish to dry thoroughly and that could take anywhere from three to four hours under a fan but don't skimp on that then of course you want to smoke with hard wood sawdust don't waste money on chips they'll only cause you pain and don't let it cook too fast either if the fish hits an internal temperature of 150 in an hour obviously it's not going to have much smoky flavor so keep your box just at the finished temperature for the fish and all will go well [Applause] [Music] catch your own fish you

Channel: Food Network

Views: 453,168

Keywords: alton, alton brown, best, blue fish, brown sugar, chef, cook, cooking, cooking show, cooking tutorial, cure, cured, directions, easy recipe, easy recipes, eat, filet, fish, fish recipes, fn, food, food network, food network recipes, food trends, good eats, how to make, how to make smoked salmon, how to smoke salmon, how-to, ingredients, mackeral, peppercorns, quick, recipe, recipes, salmon, seafood, simple, smoked, smoked salmon recipe, smoking, techniquefood network, trendy food, trout, tutorial

Id: TJXEb0eJSfw

Length: 7min 1sec (421 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 03 2019