Smoking Salmon Is Ridiculously Easy With These 2 Pro Tips

Smoked salmon is a breakfast staple for many, and for good reason. The briny, salted fish is the perfect complement to a bagel and schmear, it can elevate a plain old omelet to a restaurant-quality brunch, or revolutionize your avocado toast (smoked salmon pairs exceptionally well with avocado). The one downside to smoked salmon, which is slightly different from lox, is that it can be a pretty expensive craving to sustain on the regular. Depending on where and when you buy it, a pound of smoked salmon can range from $30 to $75. 

While it may sound intimidating for the casual home chef, we highly recommend you try smoking your own salmon. Not only is it cost-effective, but it's ultra-delicious and nutritious with fewer additives than what you'd find at the store. Just be sure to follow these 12 tips and tricks for buying quality salmon, and you'll be slicing thin, delicate chunks for your breakfasts in no time. We spoke to expert Matt Ranieri, PhD and Vice President of Technical Services at Acme Smoked Fish, to get his pro tips for smoking salmon at home. 

Ranieri is not only in charge of product development and food safety at the Brooklyn-based smoked fish purveyor, but he's also an avid home cook himself, so he knows a thing or two about how to smoke salmon. According to Ranieri, the two main things you need to pay attention to are your post-brine (or cure if you so choose) drying procedures and the temperature at which you smoke your salmon.

Understandably, moisture plays a big role in the texture of your smoked salmon. You should note that it is highly recommended, if not mandatory, that you brine or cure your salmon before smoking it. This not only infuses your fish with flavor, but will also help retain the moisture within the meat of your salmon, which is what you want. A dried-out smoked salmon has more of a jerky consistency, which, while tasty, is not the texture you want for your delicate breakfast dish. The only tricky thing about brining is you also don't want to overdo it on the moisture front. Brining introduces a lot of liquid to an already moist fish, which is not great for the final texture of your smoked salmon.

Luckily, Matt Ranieri has a solution to this problem. "After a brine or dry cure, gently rinse the surface and pat [it] dry with [a] paper towel or allow [it] to air dry (for one to two hours under refrigeration) prior to smoking," he said. "When slightly dried, the surface of the fish absorbs smoke more consistently. In smoking terms, the dried surface of fish is known as the 'pellicle.'" The pellicle is not only important for smoke consistency, but it also helps retain moisture, flavor, and color. Gently dabbing your brined or cured salmon dry before smoking it is crucial for this step. When you're done, the skin should feel slightly tacky to the touch, which will also help the smoke cling to the fish.

Before refrigerators were ubiquitous kitchen appliances, smoking meats was an excellent preservation technique. There are two ways you can smoke your salmon: hot smoking or cold smoking. Hot smoking salmon results in a fully cooked fish with firmer, flakier flesh. It's great for dishes where you want the fish to maintain some of its structure, so it works well in things like salads, dips, omelets, and pastas. 

Cold smoking, meanwhile, produces a slightly raw interior — that's completely safe to eat so long as it's cold-smoked properly — with tender, more fishy-tasting flesh. Cold-smoked salmon is better as a topper or to bring fishy flair to delicate dishes like open-faced sandwiches, hors d'oeuvres, or a deconstructed sushi bowl. Both cold and hot smoking are great preservation techniques, but this doesn't mean your fish will last forever. It's best to enjoy your smoked salmon within a week and make sure to keep it in the fridge in an air-tight container. 

According to Matt Ranieri, "For a home smoker, targeting a full cook to 140 degrees Fahrenheit is easier to achieve. Work the fire to keep the smoking chamber temperature at 200 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. An alternative method is cold smoking, where the temperature of the smoking chamber remains below 90 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature control is difficult to achieve and generally requires separation of the smoking fuel (wood chip burning) from the smoking chamber." If it's your first time venturing into the world of home smoking, we recommend you try the easier method of hot smoking your salmon until it reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit. After that, try your hand at these eight smoked salmon recipes.