So after making several trips to Lake Michigan with family and friends, even after they’ve taken all the fish they want, I’m left with an abundance of large King Salmon in the freezer.
What do I do with it? Easy choice there. I fire up the smoker and load it to the hilt with the largest fillets in the freezer.
Four racks filled with fillets, glazed for an hour out of the brine and ready to be loaded into the smoker.
Four racks is the equivalent of 3 large King Salmon.
With the smoker loaded, all that’s left is to keep it the charcoal burning and making sure it has wood chips in it so that it is continually smoking instead of cooking.
Five hours later, it should look like this.
And the taste, simply fantastic!
For me, being able to smoke our King Salmon is a huge part of the fun with catching and consuming these great fish.
The only real problem now is deciding which friends and relatives we share it with. You find out in a hurry how many new friends you have when the word gets out that your smoking salmon!
That’s pretty much what I did both Saturday and Sunday.
Ended up with about six gallon sized bags full of smoked salmon. One extra large bagged stuffed to the hilt was traded to long time friend Mike Jacobs for two quart jars of his home made Maple syrup. That was a great deal for both of us!
Picture – my smoker = simple but very effective! Plenty of people using electric smokers but I still love the taste of charcoal smoked fish.
Wow that looks great!
I was hungry before looking at this post, now I’m craving smoked fish! 
Looks good, I’m heading out in about a month for a long weekend of fishing.
Charcoal all the way for me too. What brand smoker is that? Looks like better quality than the ones I have.
Yum!
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Charcoal all the way for me too. What brand smoker is that? Looks like better quality than the ones I have.
I’m not sure what brand it is. Bought it quite a few years ago and added two more brackets to it so I can smoke 4 racks at a time.
It’s simple but works great!
So once you have a pile of smoked salmon, you freeze it? How long does it last in the freezer after smoking?
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So once you have a pile of smoked salmon, you freeze it? How long does it last in the freezer after smoking?
If you vacuum seal it, then freeze, it will last a long time. Mine doesn’t last long in the freezer because anything that taste that good just isn’t going to survive very long in a freezer or anywhere else.
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Yum!
X2 
My mouth is watering 
Ya Joel, I’ve got the salmon and the smoker and I’m going to have to just do it, good food forsure. I’ll find a good smoking marinade, bar none,,,got one?
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Ya Joel, I’ve got the salmon and the smoker and I’m going to have to just do it, good food forsure. I’ll find a good smoking marinade, bar none,,,got one?
Here’s my brine recipe:
1 cup canning or sea salt
1-1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 tspn Lawries Seasoning Salt or equivalent
1/2 tspn Garlic Powder
1/2 tspn Liquid Smoke
6 tblspn’s Maple Syrup
Leave in brine for 12-16 hrs.
Lay out pieces on grill racks and allow to sit for at least 1 hour. “Do Not Rinse Off the Fillets”. They should go directly from the brine to the rack! I like to have a fan blow air over them during this time. This is an important part of the glazing process.
Smoke for 5-7hrs.
I love the tasted of Alder woods chips with a small amount of Mesquite added directly to the charcoal.
Alder chips are small and will turn to very fine ashes if you put them directly in the charcoal. For this reason I have two small cast iron chip pans which I load with wet Alder chips. I load one right into the middle of the charcoal. When it almost stops smoking, I pull it out and load the other one. Then set the first one on top until the chips stop smoking before pulling it out again. It usually takes a good 15 minutes for the fresh, wet Alder chips to start smoking inside these cast iron pans which are made specifically for this purpose. I bought mine at Menards.
A warning on putting fine chips like Alder wood directly in the coals – it will create a lot of smoke which is great, but….it will also send a large amount of soot up and around your fillets. Especially if your smoking outside and any wind is blowing at all. Don’t ask me how I know this. 
Good luck guys! You won’t be disappointed once you start down this road.
That looks divine..ahh..
joel, do you use any water with that brine mix, or is all the moisture added by the maple syrup?
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joel, do you use any water with that brine mix, or is all the moisture added by the maple syrup?
The brine recipe above should have included 2qts of water.
Sorry! That’s what happens when I try to recite a recipe from memory.
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