Smoked Sockeye
Equipment
- Traeger or Smoker
Ingredients
Sockeye Cure
- 1 each side of Salmon & Sable Sockeye
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 1 T orange zest from one orange
Instructions
Curing the Sockeye
- In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, salt, and orange zest.
- On a foil or plastic lined sheet pan, place the side of sockeye skin side down.
- Sprinkle the sockeye with the curing mixture to completely cover.
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate 4-6 hours depending on the size of the fish.
- Remove the sockeye and rinse off the curing mixture, and pat dry.
- Rest the sockeye on a cooling rack over a sheet pan to allow maximum airflow, refrigerate uncovered for several hours or overnight until a beautiful pellicle* is formed.
Smoking the Sockeye
- Set your Traeger or smoker to 180F.
- Place the sockeye skin side down on pink butcher paper or directly on the grill grates.
- Smoke until desired internal temperature is reached. I prefer 125F-130F, but 140F-145F will make for a flakier fish.
- Enjoy!
Notes
*A pellicle is a skin or coating of proteins on the surface of meat, fish or poultry, which allow smoke to better adhere to the surface of the meat during the smoking process. Useful in all smoking applications and with any kind of animal protein, it is best used with fish where the flesh of a fish such as salmon forms a pellicle that will attract more smoke to adhere to it than would be the case if it had not been used.
If using a larger fish, or thicker cut of salmon, you may need to increase the curing time and recipe which is simply equal parts of brown sugar and kosher salt.