How to Smoke Salmon in a Box
- 1). Soak sawdust in water for 8 to 12 hours.
- 2). Cut salmon into two- to three-inch strips. Smaller pieces take less time to smoke.
- 3). Mix two quarts of warm water with the brown sugar, salt, allspice, garlic powder and lemon juice to make the brine.
- 4). Soak the salmon in the brine, covered, for one to two hours in the refrigerator.
- 5). Cure the meat by placing the salmon pieces on an oven rack on a table. You might want to lay newspaper under the racks to collect the drippings. Place a table fan nearby to blow on the salmon. Let it dry for an hour or two.
- 6). Seal the bottom of the box with packing tape. Poke both dowels through the middle of the box, enough inches apart to support the oven rack.
- 7). Cut an access door near the bottom of the box large enough to remove a 10- to 12-inch skillet.
- 8). Place a hotplate in the bottom of the box. Place a cast iron skillet on top of the hotplate. Turn on the hotplate and add two handfuls of soaked sawdust to the skillet.
- 9). Insert the oven rack with the cured salmon into the box from above. The rack should rest on the wooden dowels, several inches away from the hotplate and skillet.
- 10
Insert one oven thermometer into the fattest part of the meat to measure the temperature of the salmon. Insert the other in the middle of the box to measure the ambient temperature. Place the digital readers where you can monitor them. The ideal ambient temperature is 150 to 200 degrees. The salmon must meet 140 degrees to be safe to eat. - 11
Close the top of the box and the access door. Seal the top with tape. - 12
Allow the salmon to smoke. Smoke times will depend on the ambient temperature reached and the amount of salmon in the smoker. Half a pound of salmon will take one hour to 90 minutes to smoke. Four pounds might take as much as three hours. The salmon is done when the meat in the thickest piece reaches 140 degrees.
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