Oregon Fly Fishing Report – Small Stream Outfitters & Guides

We’ve been tinkering with this brine and smoking process for a few years now and this mixture of ingredients produces consistently excellent smoked salmon that appeals to nearly everyone’s tastebuds!

Small Stream Outfitters Smoked Salmon

3-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup of Worcestershire sauce

1 ¼ cup brown sugar
2 tbls chopped fresh herbs, thyme, sage, rosemary
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup course kosher salt

2 cups warm water
10-15 pounds ½”-1.5” thick salmon filets

Mix water and salt in large mixing bowl and stir until dissolved, add remaining ingredients and fish. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours but up to overnight.

Remove filets from brine and rinse well in cold water. Pat filets dry with cloth kitchen towels. Place on smoking racks and elevate so that air can circulate. Top with course ground pepper and a few red pepper flakes if you like a spicy smoked salmon. I like to air cure the filets for a couple hours to remove any excess moisture and to let the sugars set up a bit. Once they are firm and tacky to the touch, place in smoker.

Smoke 6 to 12 hours. Time will vary due to thickness of filets, humidity and air temperature. Allow lots of extra time if it’s below 55 degrees outside. I like about 2 pans of smoked alder chips added in the beginning and middle of the smoking process, but you can use a little less or a little more depending on your taste.

Let us know how this recipe worked for you! Post a comment on this story.

A batch of Jack Coho filets air cure before heading to the smoker.

It’s well know among anglers that Spring Chinook, along with chrome fresh Sockeye are the tastiest of all Salmon. And so when the river was kind enough to relinquish three hatchery springers to us on Friday, we decided to take full advantage and prepare a little Springer Sushi. It’s a rare occurrence that we take fish home, but on occasion when we are lucky enough to be scouting with friends and the catch happens to be of the hatchery variety, well…. yum. We’re firm believers in the principal that all wild fish should be released carefully and hatchery fish and designed to go home with anglers.

Since this meal was so delicious, I thought I would pass along the sushi process, which is surprisingly easy and oh so tasty.

Spring Chinook Sushi
Preparing the fish. Make sure you bleed the fish immediately when you harvest it and keep the fish whole and on ice until you filet it. Filet each side as normal leaving the skin on but removing the rib bones. For sashimi, I like the area of the fish just behind where the pin bones stop and before the tail gets too narrow. The slices from a 15-20 pound fish in this area are just the right size. Take a single filet and slice down the lateral line and then remove the skin. 1/4 of a fish will feed 2-4 when served with rice. Trim the filet a bit to make a more uniform piece of fish, in this process remove and bones and dark grey flesh. The remaining meat should be firm, full of color and odorless. Wrap the filet in cling wrap and freeze overnight. Some people like to brine the fish also, to kill additional bacteria. It’s really your choice, but if you brine make sure you rinse the filet throughly before serving. The next day thaw the filet slowly in the fridge. When almost thawed is the best time to slice it. Using a very sharp knife cut 1/4 -1/3″ strips at a 20 degree angle off the filet. The angle will give you those lovely fat rings. After slicing, place the springer slices in a bath of ice water. You can use a little fresh lemon and rice vinegar in the water if you wish.

Preparing the Rice
Cook as much premium grade sushi rice as you need using 3 parts rice to 4 parts water. This recipe is for 3/4 cup of rice and 1 cup water.
In a separate pan combine 1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tbsp caster sugar (I used organic cane sugar), and 1/2 tsp salt. Warm until the salt and sugar dissolves. Mix the vinegar mixture into the rice and let cool.
Preparing the Sushi
With all your ingredients at the ready, pat and dry your pieces of fish with a paper towel and dab the underside of each piece with a bit of wasabi (a little goes a long way) Then form the rice using your hands or a bamboo mat into shapes slightly smaller than your pieces of fish. Arrange and have wasabi, soy sauce and pickled ginger at the ready.

Enjoy and keep those platters coming, your guests can’t get enough.

Tight Lines,
Small Stream Outfitters