The Outdoor Line Forum

I finally can pin down temperatures and times for smoking salmon!
I just got a smokehouse with a thermometer, thermostat and timer!!!
http://www.theoutdoorline.com/blog/2013/10/16/high-tech-salmon-smoking/

thats the unit i got from mom when i was asking you the same q's. mine is not as fancy, it has the heat control but does not have the digital read out to see where its at. i will try that and turn down the temp and time. last batch was to hot and to long or a combination of both. did you use the luhr jensen alder chips or some form of pellet etc?

I recently got a propane, manully controlled Masterbuilt XL. While it is not as fancy with the electronic and digital stuff, it is what I was taught on and truly like to do. It is hands on and requires a little more attention but I believe the end results are worth it.

A pic of the massive smoker. New out of the box.


One important thing is to make sure you cure your smoker. Your instructions will tell you the best way, each smoker is a little different. Mine had me use cooking oil and wipe down the inside of the door and racks then smoke twice, with a cleaning and fully cool down session in between.

And a few silvers as of late, in the drying process with a little pepper and garlic on top...


Now in the smoker and about ready to fire it up. One key note, at least for me, is to spray the rack with cooking oil to prevent the fish from sticking to the rack and makes for easy clean up. Also the size and thickness of each peice is different so it makes it easy to move peices around and pull out as they finish at different times. I also like to rotate my racks every 1/2 hour to keep some areas from becoming to hot and to create even cooking.



And a few peices I took with me today for a little snack! Nothing like fresh smoked Coho!

ick, i have the older model which just has a heat control like an electric skillet. if i remember it goes from 175 to 450. i did the curing the smoker thing and did Nelly recipe but it didnt come out very well. i think my next cheap investment is to get one of those thermometers that you can stick the probe inside whith the re-out otside. thats some good looking fish!

SCHANKER wrote:... last batch was to hot and to long or a combination of both. did you use the luhr jensen alder chips or some form of pellet etc?

I used the Luhr Jensen alder smoker chips. The amount and density of the smoke that the Masterbuilt Digital Smokehouse produced just blew me away! Especially considering the small amount of chips the loading tray holds!

Temperature is definitely the main issue when smoking salmon. It's better to be too cool and smoke longer than to be too hot and overcook it!

SCHANKER wrote:... and did Nelly recipe but it didnt come out very well. ...

Dude, if it didn't turn out right, please re-read the process and follow it precisely.
I have never, ever had a bad batch with that recipe.

Here's a link in case you need it and better luck next time !
http://www.theoutdoorline.com/blog/2009/06/22/Smoking-Salmon-Simplified!!!

Just fired up a batch of coho in the Masterbuilt. I used exactly one cup of Traeger Alder pellets and smoked out the entire neighborhood for the last few hours.

Here's the temp settings I used:

110 degrees - 2 hours
130 degrees - 1 hour
150 degrees - 45 minutes

These fillets were pretty thin, so it took less time in the smoker. I usually smoke at 100 to 110 for 3 hours, 130 for an hour, and then finish at 150 for an hour. I really have nothing set in stone...I just check the smoker every so often to see how the fish is doing.

I ran two smoke sessions in the Masterbuilt a couple weeks back and it was waaaaaay too much smoke. One cup of pellets in one smoke-out seemed to do the trick.