Kippered Salmon – Wood Pellet Smoker-Grill

This is my version of Kippered Salmon which involves first cold smoking the salmon at lower temperatures in my MAK 2 Star Super Smoker Box before finishing the salmon at the traditional temperature of 180ºF in the pit.

Started by preheating the MAK 2 Star pit temp to 180ºF using CookinPellets Premium 100% Hickory. The 180ºF MAK 2 Star pit temperature equated to the Super Smoker Box being at a temp of 100ºF. Note that the ambient temperature will affect the smoker box temp. During the 2^nd hour I increased the pit temp to 225ºF and then to 275ºF for the 3^rd hour. The internal temperature of the kippered salmon was at 99ºF at this point. Lowered the MAK 2 Star pit temp to 180ºF and transferred the cold smoked salmon to the pit area to finish the kippering process.

Started out by brining the salmon for 8 hours using Mr Yoshida Traditional Teriyaki Marinade & Cooking Sauce in a 1 gallon ziploc bag. Turned the salmon every hour in order to ensure that every piece of salmon was evenly brined. Yes, there are a zillion recipes for brine out there but now and then I like to take the easy way out and Mr Yoshida's is a great product.

Removed the salmon from the brine and lightly patted them with a paper towel. Placed them uncovered on a tray in the refrigerator for 8 hours in order to allow pellicles to form. A pellicle is a skin or coating of proteins on the surface of fish that will attract more smoke to adhere to it.