Ocean Park Crab and Seafood Smoked Salmon

Brother Rick cutting the fish

Ocean Park Crab and Seafood Smoked Salmon

Dry Brine:  equal parts, by weight, of brown sugar and non-iodized salt

We used fairly large fillets of Salmon (PBO: Pin Bones Out), cut across into pieces about 2-1/2" to 3" wide. The tail end we sometimes split lengthwise to make it the same approximate size as the other pieces.

Ready for an hour of refrigeration

Rinse, pat dry, pat on dry brine, placing pieces in a plastic container as you go. Cover (we used foil--don't know what happened to all the lids!) and place in refrigerator for one hour. Remove, rinse off brine, pat dry once more and place back in (rinsed and dried) container and place in refrigerator overnight to form pellicle.

Next day we smoked, using a mixture of Apple and Alder chips. The following is an example of one day's schedule, however it is what worked for the large commercial (albeit home-made) smoker we used at the store. It was made from an old stainless steel refrigerator, with a square burner unit on one side and a circulating fan on the other side. Times would, of course, need to be adjusted for a smaller smoker.

Oven Temp:            Time              Action  

80°                             9:15               A&A* Fan On 

80°                             10:00             A&A       ""

95°                             11:00             A&A       ""

96°                             12:00             A&A       ""

97°                             12:45             A&A       ""   Oven turned to 120°

127°                          1:30               A&A       ""    Oven to 130°

134°                          2:15               A&A       ""    Oven to 140°

144°                          3:00               A&A       ""    Oven to 150°

150°                          3:40               Oven to 165°, smoker off

160°                          4:15               Top rack out

                                    4:30             All out

(* A&A = a mixture of Apple and Alter Chips)

The finished product

So there you have it. A simple recipe, but loved by many. We hadn't shared it with anyone until now, but since both Mom and Rich are dead and the House including the Smoker room we had set up in the shop are sold now, I figured it was time to share the recipe--more of a method really.