Smoking Silverbright Salmon
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| Corey and I taking a break from catching Reds, Silvers, AND Silverbrights. |
“Wow, look at this!” We pulled the next grunch of fish into the boat over the gunwale. It’s not a group, it’s not a bunch...it’s a grunch! Setnetters are known to create their own vocab. I noticed that one of them was special. Corey and my dad were too busy picking fish to notice my discovery. I had pulled a giant Chum Salmon into the boat. It was well over 15 pounds. The head and jaw resembled a King Salmon and it was as bright as dime. I quickly decided that I wanted to keep it, so I ripped a gill to bleed it properly and slipped it into the cooler.
Chum Salmon are the Rodney Dangerfield of Alaskan Salmon; No respect. They have taken-on many names over the years including Dog, Keta, Calico, and recently the cheery Silverbright Salmon. The natives on the Yukon River have always coveted them for their rich oily texture. As it turns out, the Chums that have to travel the farthest to reach the spawning grounds are the largest and store the most fat on their large bodies to be able to endure the long trek up-river. Fat equals flavor.
Our market here on the Susitna for Chum Salmon has been limited. Primarily we sell Reds (Sockeye), and Silvers (Coho) to our customers in Talkeetna. Some dog mushers will buy Chums and put them up for the dog team, but that market has been hit-and-miss. They are usually larger and fattier than Reds and Silvers but for some reason, no one wants them; I decided to smoke this big ol’ hog and see what’s up. Warning: Recipe.
After filleting it I cut it into one inch strips (lengthwise). My dry-brine is a 50/50 kosher salt and brown sugar mix. I dredged each piece with the mixture and set them inside a small cooler. One hour.
What happens next is a small Christmas miracle. Moisture is pulled from the fish and the salty/sugary brine settles in. After the hour, the once dry brine is now a slurry of brown sludge; Time to rinse.
I like to fill a bucket 2/3rds with water and put all of the fish in there. One by one I pull them out making sure that all of the salt has been washed off. From here it goes on the drying rack.
I set up a fan. I’ve got a couple of racks that I made out of 2x2’s and screen door mesh (aluminum). Keeping the flies off is key. One full day is good enough, but if you want more of a jerky texture then two or three days is better.
From there the fish goes into the smoker. I use a gimmicky product called “The A-mazin Smoker.” that sells for 29.99 on Amazon (link below) The small rectangular tray is filled with smoking pellets and has dividers that form a maze. Get it? A-Mazin smoker? The pellets smolder in the maze pattern slowly without much heat over the course of 6-8 hours.
I like to finish them off in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. It’s best to let them cool before vacuum packing but they will never taste better than when they come out of the oven hot.
The end product is a super oily, mild and smokey fish that you have to kind of slurp off of the skin. It’s pretty darn good and from now-on, it’s official I’ll be calling them Silverbright.
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| Yummy Chummy. |
https://www.amazon.com/A-MAZE-N-AMNPS5X8-Pellet-Smoker/dp/B007ROPJ1M/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
