Day 1)

1) Make sure the fish is healthy and doesn't have any soft spots or discoloration.  What is barely noticeable when fresh will stick out at the end of this process.

2) Check for pin-bones in the salmon and remove. Skin the fillets.

3) Spread the salmon portions out in a single layer on greased sheet pans, skinned side down. Typically this amount of salmon will require 3 sheet pans.

4) Take the cure and sprinkle over the fish, making sure to evenly distribute the cure across all sides of salmon.

5) Take cure seasoned salmon and put them in the walk-in on either the protein rack or Freya rack and leave UNCOVERED for at least 6-8 hours.

Day 2)

1) Take cured salmon and rinse under cold running water, making sure to remove any excess cure. Rinse well or product will be too salty.

2)Pat salmon dry with paper towels. Portion the salmon into 2.25 to 2.5 oz fingers. Have a manager or Freya experienced cook demo the size and shape of the portions. Portions under 2oz should not be used and saved for other applications.

3) Place rinsed salmon on meat resting racks. Return to walk-in and keep uncovered.  This step is to make sure the fish can dry fully before the smoking process.  If this step is neglected fish will be discolored as the smoke is absorbed in the water and fish will get splotchy and the smoke won't be able to stick to the fish flesh.


Day 3)

1) Plug in the smoker, fill the chip plate with DRY hickory and cedar chips and 8 ea juniper berries (wet chips will add bitterness and will discolor fish), place cover on smoker.

3) While smoker is priming, place portioned salmon on well oiled smoking racks (if you don't know what these are, ask. Not all racks will fit the smoker.) 

4) Fill smoker with salmon except for the bottom two rungs of the smoker rack. This space is kept empty to allow smoke to diffuse and any salmon too close to the chips will pick up too much color and overcook.

5) Keep salmon in smoker until the chips run out and smoke stops, about 20 mins.  Refill the chips and rotate salmon racks and shuffle the racks depending on color.  If bottom is darker, place towards the top of the smoker. Lighter pieces get moved towards the bottom.

6) At the end of the second round of chips the salmon is done.  Salmon should be fully cooked, have a rich pink-brown appearance and should flake when bent. If not finish in  250 degree oven until internal temperature of fish reaches 120 degrees .

7) Remove racks from smoker and cool in walk-in to 41F or below. Once cool, repackage salmon into a 4in deep half hotel lined with parchment. Place salmon into pan neatly, generally you can fit 24 pieces in a layer with parchment between each layer. 100 pieces should fit in a single 4in deep half hotel pan.

8) Label, date and wrap pan to send to Cafe.