I’m super excited and have to tell someone. At about 1030pm last night, I pulled two salmon fillets out of my Pit Boss vertical pellet smoker. They came out perfect. I glazed them with 1 part got honey, 1 part ginger honey, and about 3 tbsp of minced garlic.
But this isn’t just about salmon. I’ve wanted to smoke meat since I first had smoked salmon when I was a kid. As time went on, I never found an opportunity, whether because of money, where I was living, or who I was living with.
I just turned 30 this year. In the last two months, I married the love of my life and bought a house, and my wife surprised me with a smoker. This fish isn’t just fucking delicious, it’s the culmination of years of hard work, and good luck. It’s a small, savory reward for making it through the bad days, and making the most of the good ones. It’s my silly little way of telling myself I’ve finally made it.
The recipe I used can be found here.
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They say smoking is an appetite supresser, but I am not convinced. It always makes me hungrier
Smoking your own salmon is extra dope because (in the US at least) it is the only way you can taste proper smoked salmon.
For whatever reason, the FDA will not allow smoking to be the only method of preserving salmon (maybe wise considering how little attention the food producers pay to making sure their stuff’s fully on the up and up.) You have to also salt the shit out of it, to the point that it really doesn’t taste all that good. Proper smoked salmon is absolutely fucking delicious, and doing it yourself or having a friend who does is the only way you can actually experience what it’s supposed to taste like.
Now that is interesting, I didn’t know about that. It’s kinda funny, because it came out so good, but also so different than I was expecting for a second I thought I fucked it up.
Yeah. It’s so good. Try it with big black peppercorns on it, and lemon juice. Capers too, I think. IDK, there are probably recipes instead of depending on my faulty memory, but you can make it up so it’s some magical goodness.
Marrying the love of your life and buying a house, wow. I’m stoked for you dude. May nothing happen to sour this feeling! Take care, and don’t wait too late to have kids if you want 'em! 😅
Epic looking salmon.
Welcome to the actually cool smoking club.
Lovely cook! Kind of makes me think I should be smoking salmon, too.
I will tell you the recipe I used is really excellent. Very simple, easy ingredients. The most important thing this recipe gives you is the drying step. Drying the fish in the fridge overnight develops a pellicle on the meat, which seals the juices in the fish to keep it tender, and it gives a tacky surface that the smoke sticks to. Definitely not something I would have thought to do, that’s for sure.
Looks absolutely delicious. Nice flavor combo on the salmon. I’ve always wanted to get a smoker.
Looking back, I actually missed an ingredient. The glaze was 2 parts ginger honey, 2 parts hot honey, 1 part orange blossom honey, plus the garlic. The orange did a really good job of mellowing out the hot honey and rounding the flavors out. If you ever get the opportunity, I would very seriously recommend getting a smoker. It’s a lot of fun to do, and the food is great.
