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1
The night before, pop some small chunks of wood in water to soak.
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2
Then make your brine this breaks down proteins in the salmon.
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3
Take the water, and add about half the salt, stir until dissolved.
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4
Keep adding salt in 25g increments and stirring until dissolved until the potato (I bet you were wondering where that came into it) floats in the solution.
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5
Make sure to keep track of how much salt you used because you will then add the same amount of sugar.
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The amounts given above are guidelines.
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Pop your salmon in the brine, then go to bed!
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The next day, 2 tasks at once:
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1.
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Take the salmon out of the brine, sit it in front of a fan to dry.
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2.
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Light your BBQ coals (you want enough coals to cover half of your coal space, leaving the other half without coals).
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When theyre glowing, pop your soaked wood atop the hot coals, and put a couple of open heat-proof containers of water in the other (empty) half of your coal space.
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Put in an oven thermometer.
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Pop the lid on, open the vents and leave it until the temperature reads over 150F.
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16
If it gets too hot, i.e.
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17
above 250F, close up the vents.
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3.
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Once it hits 150F pop the (almost certainly dry by now) salmon on the grill.
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20
You want the salmon to be over the water baths (not over the coals).
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Put the BBQ lid on, with the lid vent open.
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22
You want the lid vent to be over the salmon, not over the coals, so the smoke is drawn over the salmon as it escapes through the lid vent.
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Keep an eye on the temperature, the cooler the better, down to 150F.
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Over 250F theres a risk the salmon may dry out, but if you want it to go a bit quicker you can have the temperature higher.
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Like so many things, though, slower is better!
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If it starts getting too cold, open up the vents a bit, too hot close them a bit.
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27
Once the temperature is pretty stable, go have a lemonade!
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Or a coffee, or a margarita.
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Whatever floats your boat!
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30
Check it every 45 minutes.
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Once the salmon looks like the picture, its done!
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With experimentation, you can get this exactly how you like it.
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This is great served on some toasted bread, blinis, in salad, with pasta... You name it!
