This whisky-scented smoked salmon combines the virtues of hot smoking and cedar planking. The dry brine in a sugar-salt mixture seasons the fish wonderfully. Cedar planks are available at grill stores and cookware shops. For gas grilling, place drained, soaked wood chips in a disposable aluminum pan directly on the burner of your grill.
This an OMG recipe. I have made this twice now, once fort a friend who is a very good chef/cook. He was very impressed. We are having this for our Thanksgiving dinner. I follow the recipe and I smoke mine with some cherry wood. What a great result. Thanks.
I followed the recipe as written and it came out bland. The final step was very poorly written. I should have gone with my own knowledge of working with cedar planks, because using the written instructions only confused me. Before that, though, there was not enough salt. A normal cure is 2 parts sugar to 1 part salt. Using 1 cup brown sugar to 1 tablespoon salt left the salmon too dry and insufficiently seasoned. If I make this again, I will go with what I know and modify the recipe appropriately. Otherwise, I'll go back to Steve Raichlen's other smoke salmon recipe I like.
Fantastic! Made exactly as directed. Served slightly smaller portions than suggested (2-3 oz of salmon per person) along with roasted root vegetables (carrots, red potatoes, and red onion) and homemade mustard-creme fraiche sauce. Grilled asparagus would also be a great accompaniment. Plan to make again to serve to company.
I used fresh wild king salmon. I don't keep scotch at home but used bourbon whiskey instead and it was FANTASTIC! About as good as food gets.
