Curing Salmon

[wallie]

I am a little confused (which easily happens) regarding curing salmon prior to smoking.
I put a 442g piece of fresh salmon into a 60% brine for 6 hours, took it out and dried it off.
It weighed 445g.
Hung and left to dry for 12 hours, it then weighed431g

So on my calculations it had only lost 2.4% in weight.

I was expecting about 10% loss.
So I wonder if it would be better trying dry curing with a weight on top, surely you get a better weight loss that way.

Regards
wallie

[Flatbow]

Hi Wallie

We do our salmon in a smilar way. We soak it in a 70% brine for 3 1/2 hours then dry it for 24 hours to form the pellicle.

Final stage is maple cold smoking for 3 1/2 hours in a bradley.

The resulting weight loss is only 8% but the end product is really good (according to he feedback we've had) and you can still taste the salmon.

I'd give it a go s you are happy with the end result

Steve