How to Make Smoked Salmon and Brine Recipe

This is a fantastic How to Make Smoked Salmon and Brine Recipe for the perfect Sunday brunch. I’ll take you step by step through how to make my Smoked Salmon and Brine and you’ll never need purchase store bought smoked salmon again. Deal? I’ve made a new video to walk you through it all, see below!

In this post I’ll also talk about how to develop a shiny skin on the brined salmon, which is called pellicle. The pellicle seals and creates a sticky surface on the fish for the smoke to adhere to.

Smoked salmon, or any fish actually, on a nice toasted bagel with cream cheese is just a wonderful breakfast. Here is a brine for salmon I use before it goes in the smoker. Some people call a brine a “cure” when smoking fish. Whatever you call it this one imparts a lot of good flavor and when smoked is perfection. This process eliminates moisture from the fish, adds flavor and helps in the preserving process.

With the typical brine being three elements – sugar, salt and water and most being equal parts sugar and salt, I use a quarter cup salt to one third cup sugar to four cups liquid. The liquid being water, soy sauce and a dry, white wine here. Feel free to use low sodium soy sauce or adjust to less per your taste.

How do you make a brine solution?

For a basic brine, the typical ratio of salt to water for a brine is 4 tablespoons of salt per 4 cups of water. Place the meat (chicken, turkey, pork or fish) in a container big enough to hold the meat and dissolve the salt in the water.

For this brine recipe, sugar and other spice flavorings are added. The soy sauce and wine, when added to the water, total the basic salt to water ratio.

So for this brine, mix together the sugar, salt, soy sauce, water, wine, onion and garlic powders, pepper and Tabasco sauce in a bowl with a whisk to incorporate thoroughly and dissolve the sugar and salt.

In a 13×9″ pan pour a little of the brine in the bottom of the pan. Next place the salmon to be smoked in the pan and pour the balance of the brine over the salmon to cover. Refrigerate for 8 hours.

After it’s brined for 8 hours place the salmon on a rack to drain. Next you’ll want to place these in front of a fan or in the refrigerator uncovered to develop a shiny skin which is called pellicle.

What is a pellicle?

The pellicle seals and creates a sticky surface on the fish for the smoke to adhere to. Place the brined salmon in front of a fan to dry and develop a shiny skin, this should take 4 hours and is vital to do. You can also keep it easy and leave uncovered in the refrigerator to do this also. The cold, circulating air works great.

I cut the salmon into pieces for easier handling. Place the salmon directly on a rack sprayed with oil as it can stick sometimes.

Although, if you choose not to dry prior to create the pellicle, I usually will place the brined salmon on aluminum foil about the size of the fish because you want the smoke to move around it inside the smoker, then on the smoker rack.

Time to smoke the fish. Follow your smoker instructions, add an inch of water to the water tray, and using alder wood chips, smoke the salmon for 6 hours. On my gas grill I start the temp at 100° for 2 hours, then 140°F for 2 hours and finally 175°F for the final 2 hours. Feel free to baste with the brine mixture each time you bump up the heat if you like.

Wood Chips for Gas Grills

Put 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the wood chips in a large bowl, cover them with water, and let them soak at least 30 minutes. Drain and put them in a small smoker box that comes with most grills, or in an aluminum loaf pan or even a bowl made out of tin foil. When ready to smoke, put the wood chip container over the hot part of the grill. Read more about this in my Smoker Boxes and Wood Chips for Smoking post here.

Because my new Traeger pellet grill/smoker doesn’t go lower than 165°F, I went for 5 hours and it came out beautifully. So now you have times and temps for two different styles of smoking (gas grill with smoke box and a smoker pellet grill).

After you pull the smoked salmon from the smoker allow it to rest on a cooling rack for an hour and then refrigerate or dig in!

You can keep it wrapped in plastic wrap or a container for up to 8-10 days.

Go grab some fresh bagels and cream cheese and load it up with this smoked salmon. Enjoy!

This recipe first appeared on Kevin Is Cooking March 2015 and has been updated with new photos and a video.

Smoked Salmon and Brine Recipe

I'll take you step by step through How to Make Smoked Salmon and Brine Recipe and you'll never need purchase store bought smoked salmon again.

4.41 from 80 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American, Western

Keyword: brined salmon, smoked salmon

Prep Time: 8 hours 10 minutes

Cook Time: 6 hours

Total Time: 14 hours 10 minutes

Servings: 8

Calories: 439kcal

Author: Kevin Is Cooking

Ingredients

• 3 lbs salmon
• 1/3 cup sugar (or brown sugar)
• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 cups low sodium soy sauce
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (or freshly ground black pepper)
• 1 tsp Tabasco sauce (or hot sauce of choice)

Instructions

• Mix together the sugar, salt, soy sauce, water, wine, onion and garlic powders, pepper and tabasco sauce in a bowl with a whisk to incorporate thoroughly and dissolve the sugar and salt.
• In a 13x9" pan pour a little of the brine in the bottom of the pan. Next place the salmon to be smoked in the pan and pour the balance of the brine over the salmon to cover. Refrigerate for 8 hours.
• After it's brined for 8 hours remove salmon from brine and shake off excess and place the salmon on a rack to drain. Next you'll want to place it in front of a fan or well ventilated area to dry and develop a shiny skin which is called pellicle. The pellicle seals and creates a sticky surface on the fish for the smoke to adhere to. This should take 4 hours and is vital to do (See Note 1). You can also keep it easy and leave uncovered in the refrigerator to do this also. The cold, circulating air works great.
• I cut the salmon into thirds or quarters for easier handling. Place the salmon directly on a rack sprayed with oil as it can stick sometimes. Although, if you choose not to cool dry prior to create the pellicle, I usually will place the brined salmon on aluminum foil about the size of the fish because you want the smoke to move around it inside the smoker, then on the smoker rack.
• Time to smoke the fish. Follow your smoker instructions, add an inch of water to the water tray, and using alder wood chips, smoke the salmon for 6 hours. On my gas grill I start the temp at 100° for 2 hours, then 140°F for 2 hours and finally 175°F for the final 2 hours (See Note 2 below). Feel free to baste with the brine mixture each time you bump up the heat if you like.
• Because my new Traeger pellet grill/smoker doesn't go lower than 165°F, I went for 5 hours and it came out beautifully. So now you have times and temps for two different styles of smoking (gas grill with smoke box and a smoker pellet grill).
• After you pull the smoked salmon from the smoker allow it to rest on a cooling rack for an hour and then refrigerate or dig in! You can keep it wrapped in plastic wrap or a container for up to 8-10 days.

Notes

1. The pellicle seals and creates a sticky surface on the fish for the smoke to adhere to. Place the brined salmon in front of a fan to dry and develop a shiny skin, this should take 4 hours and is vital to do. You can also leave uncovered in the refrigerator to do this also. The cold, circulating air works great.
2. Wood Chips for Gas Grills: Put 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the wood chips in a large bowl, cover them with water, and let them soak at least 30 minutes. Drain and put them in a small smoker box that comes with most grills, or in an aluminum loaf pan or even a bowl made out of tin foil. When ready to smoke, put the wood chip container over the hot part of the grill. Read more about this in my Smoker Boxes and Wood Chips for Smoking post here.

Nutrition

Calories: 439kcal | Carbohydrates: 12.7g | Protein: 40.6g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 5.2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6.7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6.4g | Cholesterol: 93.6mg | Fiber: 0.5g | Sugar: 8.8g

Have you made this recipe? Let me know on InstagramTag @KevinIsCooking and hashtag me #keviniscooking!