Smoking Fish

[essexsmoker]

Crikey, not cheap then. Do you get to actually do it or just watch?

[wade]

With the tour you just watch however with the Masterclass you are given a side of salmon and personal tuition from Daren Matson on how to carve it. The price includes the salmon side (which they will vac pack in pack sizes of your choice), and you keep both the Granton smoked salmon carving knife and also the rosewood cutting board.

[essexsmoker]

Do you not go through the smoking bit?

[wade]

From the joining instructions...

"You will begin with a tour of Forman’s famous London smokehouse, showing you the process of producing the world’s finest smoked Scottish salmon. Also included is a 30 minute talk on the history of H.Forman & Son which goes back over a hundred years. Following on from this will be a 30 minute smoked salmon carving demonstration on the factory floor by the Guinness World Record Holder, who previously won a carving competition against Gordon Ramsay.
If there is an exhibition on at the time you will have a tour of the Forman’s smokehouse art gallery, a spectacular contemporary art project space on the top floor of the smokery. Afterwards, you will take a seat in Forman’s onsite riverside restaurant and bar which has an incredible view of the Olympic stadium and a viewing gallery into the smokehouse. It is here where you will enjoy a smoked salmon tasting platter to share.
At the end of your experience you will receive a complimentary packet of smoked salmon to take away and you will have the opportunity to purchase more items."

[wade]

Blimey, that is a lot. Yep see you there.

See you tomorrow

[derekmiller]

See you tomorrow

yep, see you there.

[wade]

I always have a problem uploading photos here so to see the post with photos included you can check it out here: http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/237224/smoking-fish-an-old-dog-can-still-learn-new-tricks

During my visit to Forman's salmon smokery on London last week I managed to spend some time with Darren Matson and discussed in detail the various techniques they use for smoking their salmon. They specialise in producing a mild "London Cure" salmon and the end result is exceptional (well it has to be for them to supply the likes of Harrods and Fortnum & Masons) - however several of the steps they used were somewhat different to mine. In the continuous process of refining my own technique I decided to try to incorporate some of their methods with mine at home.

As it happens the Smoking Gods were with me and later Friday evening I got a call from one of my regular fisherman to ask if I could do something with the 10 large trout that he and a couple of friends had caught that day. This was an opportunity I could not refuse. He brought them round and they went in the fridge overnight. The next morning I started to prepare them.

Variation 1. Whereas I would usually fillet and pinbone the fish before curing, they simply split the fish and removed the backbone. The fish is cured with the rib cage and other bones sill in.

Variation 2. They cut away a number of small patches of skin along the thickest part of the body to help the cure penetrate evenly through the fish

Variation 3. I usually cure my fish singly in the cure however they stack their fish up to 3 high. This saved a lot of space.

For the cure they use crystalised rock salt as they say the type of salt (rock or sea salt) makes little difference to the end result - and they do not use any sugar in their cure. Here I stuck to my own cure combination of 50% Dead Sea salt and 50% sugar. By stacking the fish as they do I only needed to use about 1/3 of the amount of cure that I would usually use when curing them individually.

They were left in the cure for 24 hours in the fridge before being thoroughly rinsed with cold running tap water to remove all remaining traces of the cure mixture. They were then patted dry with paper towel and stringed.

Variation 4. Usually I smoke my large fish horizontally as I found that they distorted under their own weight when hanging. They showed me how the addition of a simple skewer placed at the top of the fish supports the weight during the drying and smoking

The fish were then smoked for 36 hours. Formans only smoke for 24 hours but I wanted a slightly smokier end result than their London Cure.

Variation 5. Whereas I usually smoke at a low temperature for longer, Formans smoke their salmon at 25-28 C (77-82 F) to help speed up the drying process. I set the smoker to 26 C (79 F) for the 36 hour smoke.

When I took them out of the smoker they looked and smelled very good. A great colour, nice firm oily flesh and the skewers had really helped them to keep their shape. They were then put into the fridge overnight to rest.

Slicing next day was really straightforward. The rib cage was easy to remove, with no wasted flesh, and the pinbones came out easily too.

Variation 6. Where I would usually cure and smoke mine filleted I would leave the outer pellicle on when I slice. Formans always remove the pellicle before slicing - so I did too. The pellicle trimmings are not wasted though. These they use in their smoked salmon pate.

I then sliced the trout using the traditional "D" cut. The slices were then weighed onto boards and vac packed.

We all often get used to doing things in the same way time after time. My trip to Formans though gave me some great ideas to tweak and improve my method - and I will now be incorporating these changes into my standard smoking technique.

[Midlandsman]

Great report. Thanks for posting this Wade.

MM

[derekmiller]

Nice one Wade, it was good to say hello.

I can only describe it as an eye opener, will certainly change the way we do it next time, if I remember it all.....
Derek.

[essexsmoker]

Great post. Thanks wade.