Smoked, Peppered Salmon: Fish To Fight Over (Monk Original Recipe)

After searching for a good smoked salmon recipe, I finally gave up and made my own. 

So I love salmon. Especially the smoked variety. I've tried a lot of amazing smoked fish in my life, but I was always looking for a combination of flavors that never really seemed to do it for me. Finally, after getting bored of trying other's recipes I decided to just make my own recipe with my favorite simple brine. So let's dive in and make some fish

What you're gonna need

• Salmon fillets 2-5lbs
• a big bowl of water
• 2 1/2 cups kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• Apple Pellets

For the seasoning

Note: this will be relatively spicy depending on your tolerance, also it will need to be doubled or tripled if you're making a lot like I do in the tutorial. For this I tripled it and made 2 whole wild caught Coho Salmon which I filleted myself (which is why they're ugly, I've got no clue what I'm doing when it comes to cutting up fish)

• 2tbsp black pepper
• 1tsp brown sugar
• 1tbsp crushed red pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder

Step One: The Brine

Mix the water, 2 1/2 cups kosher salt, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar in a bowl. Mix it until all the sugar and salt dissolve. This will only take a couple minutes of stirring. Doesn't need to be perfect. Then cut the salmon into 3 inch strips, add it to the bowl, and refrigerate for 3-4 hours.

Step Two: Mix The Seasoning In A Ziplock Bag

Step Three: Smoking The Flavor In

For this, we use Apple pellets. Turn the grill to smoke, put the fish on it, skin down, and generously coat the top of the fish with the seasoning. Then close the lid and let her smoke for an hour

Step Four: Turn It Up And Take It Off

This step isn't exactly challenging... turn it up to 180° and let it go another hour then take it off

Step Five: Refrigerate... Or Throw Self Control Out The Window And Eat It Hot

Personally, I prefer it cold. However, it does taste excellent hot. I could eat this stuff all day. It's like candy. I advise letting it cool to reduce the condensation produces then stick it into a gallon sized ziplock bag or some air tight Tupperware. 

Final Thoughts:

I've had a few people tell me this recipe has too much pepper, and others tell me it's the best smoked salmon they've had in their life. It really depends on personal preference. I was shooting for a very specific taste when I created this and I think that I hit it right on the head. If you prefer a less peppery/spicy recipe, I would advise dropping the pepper to half and maintaining the same quantities for the other ingredients. 

Something else; you may read this and say "Hey, he's cooking it at 180°... that isn't smoking. When you smoke something, you don't cook it." Well that would be correct and incorrect. There's two types of smoking, cold and hot. Cold smoking is what you do for things like beef jerky. I will never advise anyone try this with fish at home. There are commercial facilities designed for it with very stringent codes that they need to adhere to. You have very high risk of food poisoning if you try cold smoking fish at home. That's why we do it at 180°. It's fully cooked, but it's also smoked... and trust me, it's absolutely delicious. 

#HardwoodsOnly