smoked salmon and mackeral

[tinca]

Ive just dry cured some salmon and smoked it for 5hours , then out into the fridge now i just brought some macks and want to brine them for a few mins in an 80% brine then smoke them, i will also put the salmon back for another smoke, im just wondering two things really , how safe is it to re-smoke salmon and how safe is it full stop? as i want to give some to a friend and not poison them. and how long for the macks in smoke, lucky for me ive just got a CSG for me birthday with oak dust and want to try it out Gaz

[Ryan C]

Hey Gaz,
I'm afraid I don't know much about brining fish. I'm not sure why you want to do it this way instead of dry-curing like your salmon. My best guess is that it would take closer to a few hours rather than a few minutes for your mackerel to cure.
I always dry-cure my fish because I find it easier to feel the 'firmness' of the flesh to tell when I think it is done.
As for safety, as long as you've cured the salmon properly and it is fresh, the only real safety hurdle is the temperature inside the smoker. Keep the temperature below 12 C (often this is easiest done overnight) and you wont poison anyone.
Putting the salmon back in to re-smoke is no problem at all, in fact most of the time that is what I do - as do many others.
Remember, keep everything clean and in the fridge and you will have no issues whatsoever - except for a load of scroungers coming round to eat your fish!!

Best of luck

Ryan

[wheels]

From:

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopi ... aged#15142

Well, I finally got around to have a go at at producing some smoked mackerel, I managed to obtain some fresh ones and the first thing I done was to fillet each one and immerse them in a brine of about 70% strength for 1 1/2 hours then I dried them off (put them in the fridge for an hour) next I sprinkled cracked mixed peppercorns on each fillet and then hot smoked them on my kettle bbq until cooked (I used a couple of handfuls of oak woodchips wrapped in foil and placed on the hot charcoal.) I omitted the cold smoking stage and I am very satisfied with the results
Incidently they are better cold with a salad!

I'd brine the mackerel fillets for under an hour with an 80% brine. See:

[url]http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/tan/x5938e/x5938e01.htm#Smoked mackerel[/url]

The pro's say just a few minutes!

I'd smoke for one full run of the CSG in my set up - many people would do less.

Smoking with an interval in-between is quite common and no problem as long as the salmon has been kept at safe temps between.

For the safe preparation of salmon see:

http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/tan/x5886e/x5886e01.htm


HTH

Phil

[Ruralidle]

When I cold smoked mackerel I used an 80% brine and immersed the fillets for about 5 minutes. I then dried the fillets and smoked then for a complete burn of the CSG. The friend who had them was very pleased with the outcome.

[tinca]

Cheers guys

As with alot of questions on here there is always alot of different answers
I did brine the mack for around the 5min mark, then smoked for 6 hours as it was peeing down and it was time for bed , i didnt want to leave it over night as it would have gone out by then im going to cook them so im not to worried about the health risk there , was just worried about the cold smoked salmon as a friend dos want some, its looking and smelling good , i tried some yesterday and seeing as i dont like smoked salmon , it wernt half bad the CSG worked great put my homemede bodge job to shame althhough if youve got a more coarser grain dust which the CSG dosnt like , knick a metal peanut bird feeder , dismantle and use the metal wire cage as the holder for the dust, heat a small piece of charcoal place on the top and your off Now off to try and sharp[en a knife to cut the salmon Cheers Gaz
PS will freezing cause any problems with the texure of the salmon???

[tinca]

Hey Gaz,
I'm afraid I don't know much about brining fish. I'm not sure why you want to do it this way instead of dry-curing like your salmon. My best guess is that it would take closer to a few hours rather than a few minutes for your mackerel to cure.
I always dry-cure my fish because I find it easier to feel the 'firmness' of the flesh to tell when I think it is done.
As for safety, as long as you've cured the salmon properly and it is fresh, the only real safety hurdle is the temperature inside the smoker. Keep the temperature below 12 C (often this is easiest done overnight) and you wont poison anyone.
Putting the salmon back in to re-smoke is no problem at all, in fact most of the time that is what I do - as do many others.
Remember, keep everything clean and in the fridge and you will have no issues whatsoever - except for a load of scroungers coming round to eat your fish!!

Best of luck

Ryan

Ryan
i went for the brine because the fillets wernt exactly large, and dry curing them would have made them to salty i reckon, even in the brine for a few mins you noticed the change in texture and color, i did dry cure the salmon with 1 cup of sea salt to half cup of mixed brown and white sugar, than some dill, all rubbed in and vac packed, in the firdge overnight turning now and then, by the time i came to taking it out it had been atleast 18hours there was plenty of liquid and the fillets were stiff with a nice browny color, but nice and soft but firm inner, left in the fridge for a day then smoked for atleast 5 hours then about another 6 last night, looking good just got to slice and vacpack now. Cheers gaz

[wallie]

I brined 12 herring last week for kippers the average weight of the 12 was 150grams.
My brine was 5pints water to 360g of salt the herrings were in 3 minutes then hung to dry overnight.
They had an average weight loss of 12.5%
Smoked twice with the CSG.
They were just a wee bit to salty for me but otherwise very nice.
I will only brine them 2 minutes next time.

Regards
wallie

[tinca]

Just wondering why people put a weight on top of there fish when dry curing, i didnt with me salmon , but it was vacpacked so stil have pressure on it, just waiting for me shoulder of pork to be done , then smoking that didnt ry my mack , left them in the fridge and forgot about them , not been well lately Gaz

[Dave Smith]

I got my brine cure here.

Thanks for the information, next time just introduce yourself a little on the forums before you start placing links to other sites. That way your post won't be mistakenly marked as spam...
-TJ Buffalo