It’s been a minute since I’ve thrown some salmon in the Traeger. And that’s a shame because it is easily some of best recipes I have ever come up with. For some reason I had the idea of a pastrami smoked salmon on the brain. Probably because I got into my batch of caraway seeds when making these lamb shawarma kabobs, so that’s what I came up with.
I came across this recipe for Pastrami Cured Salmon on BBC’s Good Food site. Then I totally botched it. And it still came out great, maybe even better because I was hot smoking this and there’s was the cured version that’s like the “raw/sushi” vibe.
Mix the rub together and let it rain all over that slab of supermarket salmon. The Traeger/Pellet grill really does the heavy lifting and elevates even the smelly salmon from your average supermarket. But as is always the case, the better ingredient you use, the better the result.
Wrap it up. Shove it in the fridge. And leave it there for two days. This wasn’t intentional but it’s how it went down. And it tasted good so I’m sticking with it.
After two days, remove the salmon from fridge, rinse off the rub and pat it dry. This was when I realized the recipe I pulled was for a cold smoked salmon. Looking back, I might do a version where I leave the rub on.
Then I let this sit in the fridge for another two days. This was also not by design but by busy schedule. The fish did firm up though with those two days. It started to “look” like smoked salmon.
Season and smoke. I brushed the salmon with a little olive oil(I work with Graza so I use their Sizzle) and hit it with a little Everything Bagel Seasoning from Spicewalla and a little kosher salt. I was worried rinsing the rub would leave it underseasoned. So I gave it a little boost, just in case.
I smoked this at 200 degrees till the salmon hit internal temp of 130 in the thickest part of the filet. Looking back, Id smoke this at lower temp and pull it at 115 degrees. I’m curious to see if I can land on a texture closer to cold smoked salmon and the thinner parts were plenty cooked.
I let this rest for a stretch, like two hours. Between the cure and the cook, I wasn’t worried about the food hitting a bacteria danger zone but take caution on this as you see fit. I like to think I have an iron gut.
The smoke flavor was strong. And the final application of seasoning before the smoke was the right move. I’d try this again and leave the initial rub on just to see how it would come out. I’d still give it two days fridge time wrapped and two days fridge time on the wire rack. And I would definitely smoke it at a lower temp and cook it till it hit a lower internal temp, just to see I can find a balance between hot smoked salmon method and cold smoked salmon texture.
But even if I made this the same way again, I’d be happy. This Pastrami style smoked salmon recipe is healthy, easy to do if you have a smoker/pellet grill and it is a blessing to have on hand in the fridge.
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