How to Smoke Alaskan Salmon Fillets  

Preparing the Alaskan Salmon Fillet

It's important to start with a good product.   Start with good fresh Alaskan fish (Humpback, Koho,or Sockeye) can be purchased at your local market or grocery store.  We do NOT recommend using any farm raised salmon.  All the brine and sugar in the world won't help a bad fish that has a soft and mushy flesh.  

Start by filleting the fish and removing all the pinbones.

Once you have a clean salmon fillet, I take each salmon fillet and cut the flesh vertically, down to the skin, but not through the skin. What you want to create is called "candy bar" strips.  Strips of flesh about 3/4" to 1" square, but still attached to the skin.

A Basic Brine Recipe

This is a basic brine recipe but there are a number of different ones that include ingredients such as:   Tabasco, white wine, sauce, or apple juice.  Try different recipes and ingredients to find out what exactly you like. 

Basic Ingredients for Your Brine:

• 4 cups dark brown sugar
• 1 cup non-iodized salt
• 10-15 cloves of garlic

Dark brown sugar is recommended over light brown sugar because the color that the dark brown sugar imparts on the fish (a nice dark red).

For the salt, it’s recommended to use non-iodized canning salt. Unlike rock salt, canning salt is ground much finer, so we suggest a combination of 1 cup of salt for every 4 cups of sugar.

TIP:   For the garlic, try to use fresh garlic using a garlic press.  This will not only save you time but also a lot of mess. 

Put all these ingredients in bowl and mix them.    A common question is "How much fish can we brine with this recipe?" Our answer, it depends on how heavy you want to brine your salmon. 

Brining the Salmon Fillet

• Cover the fillets generously with the dry brine mixture.
• Once the fillets are coated, stack them in the bottom of a non-metallic pan.    
• Place the first fillets in the pot skin side down, and then alternate them so all the fish lays flesh to flesh and skin to skin.
• Cover the container and put it in the fridge for about six hours. (The amount of time you keep the fish in the brine and the amount of salt you use will determine how firm the flesh of the salmon becomes, and how salty the taste will be.)
• Rinse each salmon fillet gently in cold water to remove any of the brine.  (Don’t scrub)
• Drain the salmon fillet and set it out on a rack to dry at room temperature.
• Dry the salmon fillets for at least a couple of hours (longer if the fillets are thick).

Smoking the Salmon Fillets

If you don’t have a smoker, we recommend an electric smoker with a timer, they are much more hassle-free than the charcoal or wood-fired smokers.  (Make sure to do your research and pick out the smoker that's right for you.)

Before using your smoker, read the manufacture’s instruction manual and follow their instructions.   Pay close attention to their safety instructions and if you have any questions, make sure to call the customer service department of the manufacture. 

Preheat your smoker for about 10-15 minutes to get it up to temperature. Put your rack of salmon into it, and add your wood chips to get it smoking. The amount of wood chips and what type you use are completely up to your tastes.

Storing Your Smoked Salmon

One of the best ways to preserve these smoked salmon fillets is to vacuum pack them and stores them in the freezer. The normal home vacuum packers like the FoodSaver series are great for this task.

We recommend packaging most of your salmon in smaller pieces, which are good for appetizers and quick snacks.    Make sure you mark your packages and have a system to rotate your smoked salmon.  This will also help you fine tune your brine recipe for the flavor, texture, and taste you want. 

Hope that your Smoked Salmon comes out as good as ours. 

FYI: The brine recipe above is not our closely guarded recipe we use for our traditional Alaska Smokehouse Smoked Salmon Fillets.  Sorry, but we just can’t give that out.