Safety of cold smoked Salmon

[Miles Reeder]

Hi all,

I have been making cold smoked Salmon using supermarket Salmon in the UK. I have made approximately 10 sides with a dry cure method and they have all been delicious and great value!

I did read up on safety and found very mixed messages across several sites so decided to crack on and just be very careful with cleanliness etc. However, I do have some minor concerns over contamination and with plans to make a few sides to enjoy with family over Xmas thought I would ask the forum for thoughts/discussion. Obviously i'm particularly concerned with Botulism!

Thanks

[wheels]

I can't do better than this link to the Gov't fishing industry research stations advice on smoking salmon:

http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/tan/x5886e/x5886e00.htm

You'll note that it's the weight loss during salting that gives added protection during the smoking period.

Phil

[catfishhoward]

Same for me, I don't want to give anyone botulism either, one site says it's okay and some sites say it will kill you? There is way to many mix opinions on this and you don't know what the facts are, or at least I haven't found anything on line yet, I guess the fish company's don't want to tell us the process and the government doesn't want to get sued if somebody dies so they say you have to heat the meat over 145 F degrees.

I just gave up cold smoking and now hot smoke my farm Atlantic Salmon here in Georgia. When I did cold smoke I used a salt and brown sugar dry brine over night or until the liquid was pulled out of the fish, but I went another step and put pink salt in the dry mix to help prevent botulism.

I think a wet brine with the pink salt might be the way to go if I could find a recipe showing a set by step process from a fish company.

[wheels]

In this case the Government do want us to know. The document I linked to gives details of the full process including weight losses required for safety and is from the UK government fisheries Torry Research Station. They will have done extensive tests to ensure that the advice they have given is safe.

Cure #1 has never been used for cold smoked salmon in the UK.

HTH