4th of July BBQ Recipes: Cherry Smoked Atlantic Salmon from Draper’s BBQ

When I was ask to write a recipe post for the BBQ Smoker Site’s 4th of July BBQ Recipes archive, I immediately said I would do seafood.  This perhaps may strike some of you as odd given that I reside in Western Kentucky, about as far from the sea as one can get in North America.

To come completely clean, I spent nearly 15yrs of my life either on the ocean as a member of US Navy or living near the ocean while I worked as a government contractor.

Making Good BBQ Attainable, Easy, and Enjoyable… the Draper Way

So as much as barbecue is ingrained in me, so is the sea and all of its amazing offerings.  I also love taking something that some folks consider “nontraditional” or “hard to do” and make attainable, easy and enjoyable.  That to me is the most important aspect of a recipe and is the best way to get people to try something that they might not otherwise.

I thought for a while about what fine offering from the sea to use to highlight our reader’s culinary skills.  I could of course recommend some hard to find and expensive fish, but the purpose of this excursion should be to offer up something that the reader will actually cook and that they don’t have to spend a fortune on.  It should be able to feed a crowd if needed.  It should be a product that can be found from the Pacific Northwest to the Heartland to Florida Keys.

So what is the answer?  Salmon.

It’s readily accessible at any bulk store such as Sam’s Club and can usually be found in good quality at a fair price .  To take this thought even further, I intentionally chose a frozen product to work with.

Wait; hang on stay with me on this one…

I know we are all barbecue snobs, and the thought of intentionally buying something frozen just feels odd.  My reasoning for going with a frozen product is that I would rather demonstrate this recipe on an “inferior” product and show you the full potential of the process.  If I can make something good out of a frozen flipper, then you should be able to do a great job on fresh fish.

So let’s start with the ingredients:

-          3lb of salmon, fresh or frozen but skinned and thawed either way

-          3 cups of brown sugar

-          1.5 cups of sea salt (you could use Kosher, but I prefer sea)

-          5 tbs of your favorite rub (preferably Draper’s A.P. Rub of course)

-          1/3 cup of your favorite bbq sauce (preferably Draper’s Smokin’ Sauce of course)

About the Rub

Use a pretty dynamic rub that can stand up to something like salmon.  If you don’t have a rub that fits the bill I would suggest using plain old black pepper.  You are looking for something to help add some contrast to the sugar, salt and salmon flavors.

About the Curing Process

For a cure to work you need to allow at least 2hrs, preferably 4 to 6 hours of cure time.  Beyond 6hrs the fish flesh becomes very, very firm.  This can be a positive or a negative depending on what the intentioned end result is.  I prefer some give to the flesh and a solid flavor so 4 to 6 hours seems to be the period of curing that works best for me.  Be sure to keep the fish and cure in the refrigerator while curing.

The salmon used for this recipe can be found at Sam’s Club.  The brand is C. Wirthy & Co’s Atlantic Salmon Center Cut Filets.  I have used this brand a few times and have always found the quality to be very high and it to be a good product.

Add the sea salt, brown sugar, and BBQ rub into a bowl.

Be sure to mix all the ingredients for the cure together well.  You don’t want any pockets of any one ingredient.  Don’t be afraid to use your hands if necessary!

Notice that the salmon I chose is pre portioned into pretty symmetrical pieces.  If you choose to use a fresh large filet you do not have to portion it.  You can leave it whole.  I like the portions for a couple of reasons.  First they are just easier to handle and find a container for.  Secondly more portions means more surface area for the cure to have an effect on, this of course means more flavor.  Lastly it’s just faster to cook portioned pieces.

Take the cure you mixed up and coat the bottom of a non-reactive dish.  Glass is great but plastic would do fine as well.  You do not need a very thick layer for the bottom, just enough to cover the dish well.

Be sure to leave some gaps between your portions if you are using portioned fish.  You want to pack the cure in between these gaps so the fish is cured on the sides as well.  Note the color of salmon in this picture.  Nice almost flesh colored.  The color of the salmon will change quite a lot during the curing and then the cooking process.

Fully cover the sides and top of the salmon with the cure.  Do not leave any bare spots.  Cover your dish and place in the refrigerator. Do not leave the salmon out at room temperature.

This picture was taken an hour after the cure was packed around the fish.   Notice that the cure is wet around the flesh of the fish.  This is good, this means it is working.  It is drawing out moisture and replacing it with flavor.

This picture is after two hours, note that just about all the cure has dissolved and now looks like someone dumped a glass or two of water into the dish.

Three hours into the cure, and you can see that salmon is really taking it in.

5.5 hours into the cure, and the salmon is about ready to be removed.

The fish removed from the cure.  At this point rinse the fish under cold water removing any excess cure.

Use a paper towel to dry each piece of salmon after you rinse the cure off.  Take a second to note the firmness of the salmon here.  It will have a very steak like quality to it.

Cooking the Salmon on My Big Green Egg

You have many, many options for cooking your salmon.  You could go with a very low heat, high smoke scenario that will yield a super smokey fish with a more tender flesh.  Or you could go the opposite direction with a high heat grilling scenario or anywhere in between.

The beautiful part about cured salmon is that it is very, very flexible and you can make a sushi fan who likes his fish closer to raw or you can cook the day lights out of it until it resembles something closer to steak to make the non-seafood fan happy.

Since I was doing some practice on some whole chickens on our Big Green Egg XL, I opted for the higher heat with high smoke scenario.  I think this also works best for this demonstration since most of you at home will likely be grilling versus smoking.

For this application I had the BGE running around 320 degrees and used a cherry Mojo Brick for the smoke.

A Note About Mojo Bricks

This is the first time I have ever used the Mojo Brick compressed natural wood BBQ brick and HOLY COW that thing puts out a ton of GREAT smoke!  Zero bitterness and nothing but perfectly natural smelling and tasting cherry smoke came out of this brick.  I am a fan of this product, go look them up!

Now… Back to the Salmon

At the 15min mark I sauced the fish; there is no need to flip the fish over during the cooking process unless you just want grill marks on both sides.  Don’t go overboard with the sauce here; you are just looking for some tang to work with the other flavors in the cure and a little more color.

Gotta love those grill marks!

Cherry Smoked Atlantic Salmon That Even Landlubbers Can Enjoy!

As you can see from the photos, this cured and cherry smoked salmon is a meal that even non-seafood eaters can enjoy. It is sweet, savory, smoky, NOT fishy, and just plain good.

I have brought home several Anything Butt trophies with variations on this recipe, and it is a go to page in my book when entertaining.

The thing I hope you take away from this recipe is that barbecue is not just pork and beef, and that grilling is not just burgers and hot dogs.  It can be something very different, something that doesn’t take a lot of effort but can still have a bit of “wow factor” for your guests.

I’m happy to enter this into the BBQ Smoker Site’s 4th of July BBQ Recipes archive.  I hope you and your family enjoy it during the celebration of this country’s Independence.

Shane Draper, folks.  Wow!  He’s given us a doozie of a recipe here, and I will surely be trying this one out soon!  Man, the more we post these 4th of July BBQ Recipes, the more I am amazed at the talent and skill of my BBQ friends.  Shane, you rock, sir!

Ok, dear readers.  If you haven’t done so, please be sure to head on over to the Draper’s BBQ website, to visit them on Facebook, and connect with them on Twitter as well!

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