Not Your Umma's Smoked Salmon
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Smoking salmon is in my blood. I am a descendant of Alice Clock of Peak Island, my mother is Alicia Long, my Umma is Barb Jensen, my late great-grandmother is Dolly Scott. I tell you my matrilineal line because that is how I learned to smoke fish. My method has been handed down from generation to generation, from mother to daughter. Smoking salmon is not a recipe but a style, and everyone does it a little differently. So, while you use this guide, feel free to do something a little different, make it your own, and ultimately have fun.
My Umma, Barb Jensen, worked and owned her own salmon processing facility for 12 years called Glacier Packing Company. It was located at Big Point, about six miles southeast of Cordova. She canned plain and smoked Copper River King and Sockeye salmon along with razor clams. The facility still stands today, as do memories of it in the minds of many who considered it the best hand-packed fish in the world.
Editors’ note: this wonderful family recipe from Raven is not a beginner’s guide to smoking and safe pressure cooking fish. For more step-by-step information on safe smoking and canning, we refer you to resources from the UAF Cooperative Extension.
Gather Your Supplies
- As many salmon as you can fit in your smoke house, I can fit about 10 whole sockeye salmon (20 fillets)
- Non-iodized Fine Canning Salt
- 1 5-gallon bucket
- A kitchen timer (or your phone)
- One potato
- Twine
- 1-2 Small tote/tub/metal pans to hold your strips of fish
- 1 Sail cloth needle or something similar
- Fresh cut alder
- 6 cases of half pint jars (72 jars)
- A pressure canner (I use an All-American Pressure Cooker)
- Sliming knife (partially dull, serrated)
- Dexter 8-10” filet knife
Prepare the Fish
Make sure you slime your fillet before you start, otherwise your smoked salmon will taste fishy (use a dullish knife to scrape slime off the fish). I do not scale, but many folks do. Rinse your salmon after sliming to make sure all the goo is off. Next, cut your fillet into 4-5 strips approximately 1-2 inches wide. Tie your fish using the needle and about 12-16” of twine. Poke your hole at the tail end of the strip going approximately 2 inches down from the tip. Fold your twine into a loop of about 6-8 inches and tie a knot, to hang on the racks.
Make the Brine
Make your brine in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Fill the bucket just shy of ¾ full of water. Brine is a mixture of salt and water. Add salt until the mixture floats a potato. Put your strips in the brine for 7 minutes exactly, no more or less. After 7 minutes, remove the strips immediately and hang them in the smokehouse. My Umma has her smoke house set up where nails are on a removable 2x2” board. Make sure the weight of the fish is distributed evenly, so your board does not flip, knocking your salmon off.
Let your brined strips hang in the smokehouse with a fan on them until the flesh is tacky. Once tacky, start your fire. To keep the fire small and smokey, and not too hot, we use fresh alder. A hot fire creates creosote which ruins the taste of your fish. You want a cool smoke. Also make sure you have lots of ventilation in your smoke house, you want the smoke to flow up and out, not get stuck inside.
Smoke for approximately 10-12 hours; check your fish and fire often. Make sure no pieces have fallen and that your fire did not go out. It is a tedious task and takes careful attention. You want good flow, perfect smoke, minimal heat, and a consistent fire.
10-12 hours later, your fish will look perfectly copper red, slightly oily, and a little firm. Take a back strip, bring it inside and cook it in the microwave or pan fry to try the smoke. If it has enough smoke for your liking, then it is done! Keep in mind, once in the jar, the smoke intensifies.
Bring your strips inside and cut them into 2-inch pieces. Separate your belly and back pieces. Clean your jars and start boiling your lids. Fill yours jars with equal parts belly and back. Once all the jars are full, put the freshly boiled lids on, seal the ring almost hand tight and put them in your pressure cooker… WHICH ALWAYS HAS 2 QUARTS OF WATER! Seal your pressure cooker and exhaust it for 10 minutes, then put the pressure on for 10 pounds. Once the cooker has reached weight, cook for 90 minutes.
After 90 minutes, turn the heat off, and let your pressure cooker cool down and drop to ZERO PRESSURE before you open it. After all pressure is released, open your cooker, take the jars out, and put them onto towels or some place to cool. You will hear popping sounds—that is your jars sealing. Once they cool, check each jar lid by pressing on the center. If you get a pulse, put that jar in the fridge or eat it right away—those are NOT shelf stable.
There are many, many ways to enjoy this shelf stable treat; eat it right out of the jar, prepare a spread or dip, use it on a charcuterie board, use it in soup, on pizza, pasta, whatever your fishy heart desires. Just enjoy one of the finest products on this planet, Copper River smoked salmon.
