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    Home » Articles » Cooking - Recipes

    How to make a Cardboard Box Smoker - GF Video

    by Eric · This post may contain affiliate links, its one way we pay the bills. · 5 Comments

    This post may contain affiliate links, it helps us pay the bills, more info here.

    Frequent Gardenfork Contributor Mike told me about Alton Brown and his Cardboard Box Smoker, so we HAD to make one. It took a while, so the show is in 2 parts. Tell me what you do to smoke food.

    part 1:

    part 2:

    The Smoked Salmon Brine Recipe:

    Eric's Salmon Brine Recipe:

    2 quarts water

    1 tablespoon Cinnamon

    1 cup Brown Sugar

    ½ cup kosher salt - must be non-iodized

    ¼ cup lemon juice

    1 tablespoon black pepper

    Place the fish skin side down in this brine in a flat pan, cover in refrigerator for at least an hour.

    Take out the salmon and place on a wire rack skin side down,

    Drain the brine pan carefully, reserving the brine solids an. Take the brine solids at the bottom of the pan and use a brush to coat the salmon with the brine solids.

    Point a small fan at the brined fish until the brine has pretty much dried on the fish.

    How to smoke salmon:

    Add a large handful of wet hickory woodchips ( or whatever kind you like ) to the cast iron pan on the electric hot plate.

    Place the grate in the smoker and spray with non-stick cooking oil, or brush with vegetable oil. Lay the salmon skin side down on the smoker grate.

    Place a digital thermometer probe in the fattest part of one of the pieces of fish, place another digital thermometer across the grate to read the ambient temperature in the smoker.

    Turn the hot plate on, ( i set mine to HIGH ) close the lid, and let it cook. Check the ambient temperature, you want it to be 160-180 degrees. Adjust the hot plate accordingly.

    Hot plates sometimes turn off by themselves, so one needs to pay attention if you notice smoke not coming out of the smoker. Also, use a heavy duty extension cord, the shortest possible, to plug in the hot plate. Its possible to trip a circuit breaker.

    When the salmon reaches about 140F, it is smoked.

    « Gary Vaynerchuk, WineLibraryTV, and Eric. wow.
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Wesley

      November 01, 2009 at 6:39 pm

      I would be very interested in you trying to smoke some bacon. Great job this time.

    2. Ken

      May 24, 2011 at 7:13 am

      There are many ways to smoke fish. Native Americans used low temp, slow cook methods. The idea was not to cook the meat but to dry it. For smokers likie yours, you set the temp at about 150F changing the chips every 3 to 4 hours. Otherwise, you go do other things. In your case, with cardboard, you have to watch for fire... so you are defeating your purpose. When I was a wilderness ranger in Wyoming, one of my peers was an apache and we smoked trout in a pit in the wilderness covered with wet alder branches. With salt, the meat kept for 7 days in our packs. The fish was not brittle but still mostly dry.

    3. David Stainton

      February 15, 2012 at 3:55 pm

      I've been smoking food for quite a few years and in the beginning I just made jerky, but later I started smoking trout. I'd make a brine from salt and anything else that struck my fancy. Eventuallu I used a handfull of salt, a pint of molasses, ginger, worchestershire(sp) and honey. (Add pepper flakes if you want spicy) Add ingredients to a large pot and a few quarts of water. Bring to boil, then simmer, for awhile. Allow brine to cool completely. Soak meat or fish for 24 hours, rinse and place in front of fan till pellicle forms: smoke till the desired texture (dryness is aquired). Are you interested in making sausage, patties or links?
      Thanks for some great shows

    4. Ted

      June 01, 2017 at 3:09 am

      Great idea. I will try this for the weekend. Thank you for sharing

    5. sarah

      November 13, 2017 at 7:52 am

      yummy i mad fried salmon many times .would love to make it for dinner tonight

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