Smoked Salmon brine recipe wanted - without soya sauce

Ground Tackle

Active Member
I know I can go online and find something to try but just wondering if one of you has a good brine that does not have soya sauce in the ingredients? We are currently smoking salmon today and tomorrow and I realized this morning that the tried and true recipe we use from my father-in-law contains soya sauce. My daughter developed an allergy to soy this year right after having her first baby - seems to be some weird food allergy reaction which seems to have been triggered by the pregnancy. Anyhow, she loves the smoked salmon but she can't have any of this. So, we will do up some just for her but need to find a good recipe - we don't like it candy style and not sweet. Anyone have one they have that they would not mind passing on? Thanks.
 
5 parts demererra sugar one part pickling or course salt. and a little teeny tiny bit of powdered garlic

easy peasy.

1- coat your pieces with the above mixture, cover and put in fridge over nite ( 12-16 hour brine approx)
2 - next morning rinse any remaining brine off the pieces, and allow to dry on a rack or a towel. i use an oscillating fan. you want a “pellicle” to form on your pieces
3- throw in your smoker. i usually do 6 hours or so

ppl always try and over complicate their brines. i like to keep it simple so you know you are still eating fish.
 
5 parts demererra sugar one part pickling or course salt. and a little teeny tiny bit of powdered garlic

easy peasy.

1- coat your pieces with the above mixture, cover and put in fridge over nite ( 12-16 hour brine approx)
2 - next morning rinse any remaining brine off the pieces, and allow to dry on a rack or a towel. i use an oscillating fan. you want a “pellicle” to form on your pieces
3- throw in your smoker. i usually do 6 hours or so

ppl always try and over complicate their brines. i like to keep it simple so you know you are still eating fish.

This. FYI, a 1 kg bag of brown / demerara sugar to 1 cup salt is about 5:1. Makes the measurement easy.
 
I’m all in with RiverBoy—-keep it simple! But for the last 3 decades, I’ve kept it simple with a wet brine rather then a dry brine.... I get rave reviews on my fish so please give me some degree of street cred with this one:

1)) one cup brown sugar
2)) one cup salt (either iodized, coarse, blessed by a rabbi...doesn’t matter, just salt)
3)) Add JUST ENOUGH water to get those two cups of dry stuff mixed into a solution ——that will be your brine....I use an approx. 1 1/2 to 2 gallon cooler for the mixing
4)) Cut up fish into approx. 5” squares, layer them in the solution , then place a weight on them...I use a small Tupperware container full of water to keep all pieces immersed
5)) Let sit for a few hours, then agitate to get the pieces that were on top of the pile down to the bottom, then re-apply the weight and leave the cooler over night where the raccoons and flies can’t get at it
6)) In the AM, place the fish on a rack, hose off the brine, pat each piece dry with a paper towel, sprinkle some ground pepper on them, then as RiverBoy mentioned, let them sit for a minimum of 24 hours to develop that pellicle....you’ll know you have it when the pieces are dry and if you push your finger tip on the pieces they’ll feel like little hard-bodies
7)) Predicting an amount of time to smoke is not in the cards. It completely depends on what you’re smoking. The cut-up fillets of a tyee spring will obviously require more time then the fillets from an 8 lb coho. Smoke it as long as you think you need to—-break apart a fillet on the bottom of the rack...if it’s almost done and the pieces on top have a ways to go, switch out your racks so the almost-done are further away from the heat source

A few years ago I smoked part of a 65 pound spring I caught....I took the fillets and cut them once again sagitally (on a horizontal plane) to reduce smoking time

Last tip: if your fish is “almost” finished but still a bit wet or mushy, another trick is to leave them on a plate UNCOVERED in a refrigerator....the refrigerator will suck moisture out very quickly so don’t over-do it

If you have more then you can eat or give-away, trim the pin bones and any sharp or poky edges and vacuum pack....it’ll last quite awhile though don’t read what some food scientists tell you....they make it sound like if you eat smoked fish more then a few days old you’ll die of food poisoning
 
Last edited:
I’m all in with RiverBoy—-keep it simple! But for the last 3 decades, I’ve kept it simple with a wet brine .... I get rave reviews so I give me some street cred with this one:

1)) one cup brown sugar
2)) one cup salt (either iodized, coarse, blessed by a rabbi...doesn’t matter
3)) Add JUST ENOUGH water to get those two cups of dry stuff mixed into a solution that will be your brine....I use an approx. 1 1/2 to 2 gallon cooler
4)) Cut up fish into approx. 5” squares, layer them in the solution , then place a weight on them...I use a small Tupperware container full of water
5)) Let sit for a few hours, then agitate to get the pieces that were on top of the pile down to the bottom, then re-apply the weight and leave over night where the raccoons and flies can’t get at it
6)) In the AM, place the fish on a rack, hose off the brine, pat each piece dry with a paper towel, sprinkle some ground pepper on them, then as RiverBOy mentioned, let them sit for minimum 24 hours to get that pellicle
6)) In the

Don’t you find a 1:1 recipe too salty?? I’m with Riverboy and use 1 bag of Demerara to 7/8cup of pickling or coarse salt. Then add a few table
Spoons of roasted garlic powder.
 
Not too salty if you don’t over-do the brine time. I do not like the taste of salty smoked fish so I start the brine late afternoon so by the AM, it’s had max about 8 hours brine time. You can shorten that time but you want the full benefit of reverse osmosis to prepare for the smoking process
 
I use 1kg bag of Demerara to 1/4 -1/3 cup course kosher salt and brine for 24 hours stirring every 4-8 hours. The fish is ready for racking once it feels nice a firm and the brine is all liquid. Rack and let sit for a few hours or up to a day then smoke to desired doneness. I also remove all the skin and slice the fillets lengthwise into strips ( slice out the pin bones and discard )
 
Dry brine.
1 cup Kosher salt and 4 cups brown sugar.
In the fridge 12 hours over night covered.
Take out, rinse, pat dry and dry on the counter for 2 hours.
Maple chips in the smoker.
High smoke at 160 for 1 hour.
Brush with honey after 1 hour. And 45mins later.
Turn down to medium smoke 140 for 1 to 1.5 hours.
Cool
Eat

Time would be adjusted if the fish was thicker. I like the smoked salmon moist not dry.
 
This is all good info. Out of interest, regarding chips so far apple is my favourite. I found hickory to have a real bite to the salmon.
 
I don’t know how many of you guys do this but we now smoke the bones. Just vacuum pak them and I pull out a pkg to pull meat off and put into a Cesar salad or a dip etc. It’s amazing how much meat you get off of just the bones. We now kick ourselves for throwing them away in the past.
 
I don’t know how many of you guys do this but we now smoke the bones. Just vacuum pak them and I pull out a pkg to pull meat off and put into a Cesar salad or a dip etc. It’s amazing how much meat you get off of just the bones. We now kick ourselves for throwing them away in the past.
I scrape them with a spoon for burgers
 
I do same 4 cups of brown 1 cup of Demaria and 1 cup of salt so yes ratio is 5 to 1 ..if its say a 20 lb ish fish let it sit for 48 hours rinse off put on racks to dry for 24 hours with a fan on to form a pemicile then smoke away low and slow...at end of smoking making a glaze from honey, maple syrup, and brown sugar (heated on stove) to meld it all... spread on with a pastry bush or BBQ brush dont need a lot just a nice coating let it cool ,,, enjoy....
 
I know I can go online and find something to try but just wondering if one of you has a good brine that does not have soya sauce in the ingredients? We are currently smoking salmon today and tomorrow and I realized this morning that the tried and true recipe we use from my father-in-law contains soya sauce. My daughter developed an allergy to soy this year right after having her first baby - seems to be some weird food allergy reaction which seems to have been triggered by the pregnancy. Anyhow, she loves the smoked salmon but she can't have any of this. So, we will do up some just for her but need to find a good recipe - we don't like it candy style and not sweet. Anyone have one they have that they would not mind passing on? Thanks.
My method is very similar to River Boy's method. I use 5 parts Roger's Golden Brown Sugar to 1 part pickling salt. Put 1/2 inch plus of mixture over fish in bottom of brine bucket, next layer of fish flesh down on sugar/salt mix, next layer skin down followed by another layer of sugar/salt mix and another layer of fish flesh down, repeat as required.
I put fish in brine in the morning. The next morning I stir the fish thoroughly making sure to stir any solid sugar/salt mix up off the bottom of the bucket. I try to ensure that the pieces that are in the top of the bucket have the flesh facing down into the now liquid brine. I stir the fish in the brine again that night as explained in the last couple of sentences. The fish is ready to remove from the brine the next morning (approximately 48 hours in the brine). I give the fish a very quick/light rinse on the flesh side when removed from the brine. I let dry on racks an hour or so before putting into smoker. I do a hot smoke method starting my fish at low temp (120 F) in smoker and gradually raise temp to end up at 150 F for the last hour or two (using 6 rack digital Bradley smoker). You will want to shift racks throughout the smoker the last few hours to ensure even doneness of the fish. The Smoke time can be from 7 hours (5 racks of coho or similar size fish) to 12 hours with smoker over-filled (8 racks by putting 2 racks upside down over 2 of the racks) or with larger fish (chinooks or bigger cohos). I run smoke the whole time but some people prefer less.
...Rob
 
The commercial smoker I used to use told me a dry brine was better, but that their volume was too big for that. I prefer at least 3:1 brown sugar/salt; but realize I REALLY don't like salt & most like more salt. Wet brine is probably better for a more consistent sugar/salt ratio.
 
Larson's wet brine, modified...
1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup seasoning salt, 1 tbsp each garlic salt, onion salt, celery salt, mustard powder.
4 litres of water, or less.
put in large plastic bag, then into the crisper of the fridge.
soak 12-16 hours.
rinse off, air dry with a fan for 1 hour, or more.
get the smoker warm and then put the fish strips in. 1" wide strips.
 
I never throw them away...I use them to make a salmon stock for chowder / pasta or simply dig them into the tomato garden for a great crop next year
I don’t know how many of you guys do this but we now smoke the bones. Just vacuum pak them and I pull out a pkg to pull meat off and put into a Cesar salad or a dip etc. It’s amazing how much meat you get off of just the bones. We now kick ourselves for throwing them away in the past.
 
I do same 4 cups of brown 1 cup of Demaria and 1 cup of salt so yes ratio is 5 to 1 ..if its say a 20 lb ish fish let it sit for 48 hours rinse off put on racks to dry for 24 hours with a fan on to form a pemicile then smoke away low and slow...at end of smoking making a glaze from honey, maple syrup, and brown sugar (heated on stove) to meld it all... spread on with a pastry bush or BBQ brush dont need a lot just a nice coating let it cool ,,, enjoy....
Hey Wolf, have copied your recipe and the family loves it. My 3rd batch now and would like to try your glaze, what’s your ratio honey/syrup/sugar. Thanks for sharing!
 
Don’t you find a 1:1 recipe too salty?? I’m with Riverboy and use 1 bag of Demerara to 7/8cup of pickling or coarse salt. Then add a few table
Spoons of roasted garlic powder.
I use this same recipe and everyone raves over my smoked salmon the only thing I do different is I brine it for 2nights.
 
Back
Top