Smoked Salmon

The past few days I have been learning to smoke salmon.  I was amazed that the actual work to make it takes very little time.  It’s just the marinating and smoking that takes a while.  The most exciting thing about making this smoked salmon was something that happened because my dad was helping me create the recipe.  He had things pulled out to use in the marinade and happened to be drinking coca cola, which was sitting with the other things.  Slightly confused, I asked if we were going to add the coca cola to the marinade.  He said he hadn’t planned on it, but decided we should, so we added that unusual ingredient.  It was also entertaining to watch the sea salt react with the coca cola when I poured it in.  It only took me about ten minutes to prepare it, with a few minutes of transferring between the stages of marinating, drying, and smoking.  It marinated for about ten hours, dried for maybe half and hour, and then smoked for about ten hours.  Next time I might try drying it for longer, because it was not as dry as I hoped it would be.  Also, it turned out fairly salty, so I would not add as much salt next time.

Smoked Salmon

Prep Time: 10 minutes       

Cook Time: 10 hours marinating + 1 hour drying + 8-12 hours smoking

Ingredients: 1/8 cup soy sauce; 1 cup water; 1 tbsp. Worcestershire; 1/8 cup apple cider vinegar; ½ can coca cola; 3 tbsp. sea salt (or less); 1 tsp. onion powder; ½ tsp. black pepper; 3 lb. salmon

Directions: Mix soy, water, Worcestershire, vinegar, coca cola, salt, onion powder, and pepper.  Put salmon in marinade to soak for 10 hours, refrigerated.

Salmon waiting to be smoked.