I’m super excited and have to tell someone. At about 1030pm last night, I pulled two salmon fillets out of my Pit Boss vertical pellet smoker. They came out perfect. I glazed them with 1 part got honey, 1 part ginger honey, and about 3 tbsp of minced garlic.
But this isn’t just about salmon. I’ve wanted to smoke meat since I first had smoked salmon when I was a kid. As time went on, I never found an opportunity, whether because of money, where I was living, or who I was living with.
I just turned 30 this year. In the last two months, I married the love of my life and bought a house, and my wife surprised me with a smoker. This fish isn’t just fucking delicious, it’s the culmination of years of hard work, and good luck. It’s a small, savory reward for making it through the bad days, and making the most of the good ones. It’s my silly little way of telling myself I’ve finally made it.
The recipe I used can be found here.
I will tell you the recipe I used is really excellent. Very simple, easy ingredients. The most important thing this recipe gives you is the drying step. Drying the fish in the fridge overnight develops a pellicle on the meat, which seals the juices in the fish to keep it tender, and it gives a tacky surface that the smoke sticks to. Definitely not something I would have thought to do, that’s for sure.
Not smoking, but drying pork belly overnight in the fridge, is the secret to getting some really crunchy crackling.
That’s brilliant! Thanks!
It’s very important, but overnight isn’t really necessary. I pull them from the fridge, wash the curing stuff off, pat them dry with paper towels, put them on a drying rack, and let them sit while I get the smoker ready and the smoke goes from white to blue, and they come up to room temperature. Seems to work fine that way.