Don't go crazy..
Found it. Original had pictures (long since lost to the photo host that kicked the bucket) so some grammar, punctuation etc may be a tad off. Enough remains to get the gist of it though:
Cold Smoked Tuna
Slowly thaw the desired amount of whole tuna loins. Once thawed, make up a DRY Brine of 4 parts Demerara Sugar to 3 parts non-iodine (coarse or pickling) Salt. Put enough of this in a plastic container to cover the bottom of it:
Place the tuna loins on top of that. And cover well with the balance of the brine mix.
Now let sit for at least 24 hours in the fridge (If you don't have room in your fridge, keep cool by whatever means). After that period the tuna will have "leaked" a fair amount of juice (moisture) and the brine will pretty much dissolve.
At this point the tuna will have darkened substantially in response to the dry brining process.
It is not necessary to rinse the loins, as they now go onto the next stage - the Wet Brine process. Yes, that is correct, two brines as apposed to a single one that we are all most familiar with. I chose to go this route due to the advice of some VERY serious lox producers who insisted this was the "
preferred" method to ensure a great quality product.
Run enough cold water into your tub to cover the tuna. Add in a LOT of salt (in this case a little better than half a bag went into the brine). You want a "super saturated" solution, meaning that the brine can absorb no further salt, and there is salt settled out on the bottom of the container. Then add the tuna loins. Let sit in the fridge or a cool place for another 24 hour minimum period. Following that the loins will lighten considerably:
Remove from the brine, and prepare for the next step
This next step is
CRITICAL and very finicky!
This is termed "
Freshening" in which the salt is slowly removed from the tuna.
Place the loins in another container and run cold water into that, allowing the water to run over the sides carrying away the salt with it:
You
MUST keep a
VERY sharp eye on this process! If you don't allow sufficient time for the desalination to occur, the tuna will be overly salty, and no-one will want to consume it! On the other hand should you leave the loins in for too long, they will turn into a wet soggy mess and be ruined - non-recoverable error!
The Glaze is a mix of full bodied Rum, maple syrup and brown (Demerara again) sugar. I used quite a large amount of rum, as I like the taste it instills. For this run the ratios were 3 Parts Rum to 1 part Maple Syrup. Then I added in 1/2 bag of the sugar. The sugar will settle out, so to combat that and mix it well, heat (GENTLY) just until the sugar dissolves.
DO NOT OVERHEAT!
Check the tuna over the freshening period. What you want to see is the ability to slice the loin VERY thinly, and no salt taste.
WELL oil one of your smoking grills, and place the tuna loins on that. It is best to ensure air flow both above and below the surface to the grill. You can now apply the glaze either by brushing on, or as I did with a squirter bottle:
This is a somewhat messy process, so make sure you cover the surrounding area with some type of protection. The glaze is very sticky!
Set up a fan so the air rushes over all sides of the lions:
Over the course of the next several hours the tuna will absorb the glaze. Add more glaze as it does so, keeping the surface of the loins moist. The drying process will vary, in this case they ran under the fan (with a lot of glaze sprayed on continuously) for 8 hours. At the end of that time allow a "patina" to form with the glaze. You must stop adding the glaze to induce this, and it will likely take an hour or two before it dries enough to form the patina:
The final step of course is the actual smoking. Regardless of how you do it, the internal temperature of your smoker should
NEVER reach more than 70 degrees F - and cooler is indeed better.
Again, the temperature is
CRITICAL! Do not overheat the loins, or they will dry out and be ruined!
COLD Smoke Generator is best.
Only run a few hours even with that set-up, all you want to do is infuse a little flavor.
For that process I used apple / alder (50 / 50) mix.
.....................................................
As I said, rather finicky and time consuming. But, the finished product was a real hit among all my buddies, many of whom had tasted "professional" versions.
Guess I'll run with the old Tried & True again. Can collect a few pix along the way to replace those that wandered.
Cheers,
Nog