The picture on the right below is the smoke house which l built a few years ago. I bought the smoke generator from a company in Vancouver. We cold smoke using the custom wood bisquettes supplied by the company. The beauty of the smoke generator is its automatic operation - every 20 minutes the used bisquettes is dropped into a water tray and the next bisquette is advanced. The bisquettes come in a variety of woods; l use maple. At the moment we only smoke salmon.
Here’s the process:
- get your fish supplier to cut 2 fillets lengthwise of a whole salmon; leave the skin on and pin bone
- prepare the curing mixture (3 parts rock salt to 1 part sugar plus chopped up dill)
- cut the fish into portions; say three per side
- lay out a length of cling film
- place a generous amount of curing mixture on the middle of the cling film
- place one fish portion, skin down, onto film
- cover top of portion with more mixture
- place another portion, flesh side down, on top of first portion
- place more mixture on top of second portion
- wrap up portions and mixture with the cling film
- after all portions prepared, place in container and weigh down with bricks
- leave for at least 16 hours
- drain off liquid, unwrap portions, wash of remaining mixture and air dry for at least 1 hour
- now you’re ready for smoking: we smoke for about 8-10 hours
The smoke generator was purchased from: Bradley Smokers