Title: Smoking Salmon And Trout Part 09 - Indian or Hard Smoked
Categories: Fish, 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

Posted to MM-Recipes Digest by "Rfm" on Sep 08, 98