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Smoking Chum Salmon

by A Smoker Cooking Enthusiast

We have smoked chum salmon in a Little Chief smoker with great success in the past. The last couple of times the fish has come out with a mushy texture after smoking. They were smoked for approx. 24 hrs.

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Smoking Chum Salmon

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starstarstarstarstar 		soft chum?
by: Anonymous

after your chum is brined and has got its pellicle, preheat your oven at 400. place chum in there for no more than ten minutes, tops. plave fish in your smoker and continue your usual procedures. i have found this to firm up fish nicely, and eliminates the ones that come out "PASTY". ALSO, trie to kill only fish that are not all barred up, and dark. brighter is allways better.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Is The Salmon Past Its Prime?
by: SmokerBill

If your salmon smoking procedure remained the same, my opinion is that the salmon you used the last couple of times was past its prime.

As Pacific salmon (which include chum, king, silver, sockeye and pinks) leave the open sea and go upstream to spawn, their flesh degrades, and the texture becomes soft and mushy.

If your brining and smoking process produced good quality smoked salmon in the past, and you used the same process with the last couple of batches of smoked salmon, I'd say that the only thing that could've caused your mushy smoked chum salmon is the salmon itself.

Regards,

SmokerBill

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