Title: Smoking Salmon and Trout Part Ix - Indian or Hard Smoked
Categories: Seafood Smoke Info
Yield: 1 Text file

Low-fat fish make the longest keeping hard smoked fish as it is the fat that causes rancidity. Very fat hard smoked fish should be frozen or salted until just before eating. Medium fat fish will last a week unrefrigerated before starting to go slightly rancid. And lean fish will keep indefinitely unrefrigerated. Hard smoked fish can be made from fresh, frozen or hard salted fish [instructions for hard salting follow in a later chapter].

Hard salted fish should be freshened before smoking. Depending on the hardness of the salting, your taste and the thickness of the pieces to be smoked this may take 24 to 48 hours with water changes every 3 to 6 hours. There should be no salty taste left as the drying will concentrate any saltiness remaining. Other products retain 50 to 75% of their original moisture but hard smoked fish only 6%

Fresh fish and thawed frozen fish should be very lightly brined if at all. Brining draws out moisture and cuts drying time but salt also speeds fat rancidity in the finished product. Make a 90 deg sal brine and soak pieces no more than:

BRINING TIMES

: Thickness Time

: 1/4" 2 min : 1/2" 4 min : 3/4" 7 min : 1" 10 min : 1 1/2" 15 min : 2" 20 min

Smoking directions: Smoke for only a portion of the total drying period according to taste. Dry at 85 deg F for 30 hrs with a forced draft smoker and up to 3 weeks with a natural draft depending on the weather or until the fish is completely dry and hard.

Extracted from: Smoking Salmon & Trout by Jack Whelan. Published by: Airie Publishing, Deep Bay, B.C. ISBN: 0-919807-00-3 Posted by: Jim Weller

previous

next