The Dry Cure

Quickly scanning the recipe in Michael Ruhlman’s Charcuterie book, I gathered the salmon and other necessary ingredients and set to work on the Dry Cure late Thursday night.   Still not reading the details, I did come to realize at this point, that I was going to be tight on time- 36 hours for the cure, 4-24 hours to sit (I decided then to go for the minimum!), 6 hours to smoke.   Still didn’t read the entire recipe.

Packed and ready to go

Tightly wrapped and weighted down, the salmon went into the refrigerator until about 7:00 AM Saturday morning.  Now, over coffee, I read through the entire recipe.  And found out that I was in big trouble.  The salmon was to be Cold Smoked for 6 hours- this meant that the temperature was not to exceed 90 degrees.  WTF?   What chance was there that I was going to be able to do that with the gas barbecue and wood chips I was planning to use?  

The Glaze

Quickly, I went to Google looking for an alternative method for making smoked salmon, hopefully one that would allow me to have a rip roaring fire!   No such luck.   I did, however find a page that allowed the temperature to go to 100 degrees.   And another that suggested a brown sugar and rum glaze before smoking the salmon.  And this one only called for smoking the salmon for 30-60 minutes.  Hmmmm. I think this is when I figured I could go at this with a creative crossing of fingers and hoping for the best.  And, yes, that is a rum and brown sugar glaze dripping off the salmon.

The Temperature

After letting the salmon sit for a couple of hours with the brown sugar glaze, and letting the alder chips soak in water for 30 minutes, I fired up one burner of the gas barbecue and set the chips over the flames (to be referred to hereafter as the hot spot).  Once the temperature reached 100 degrees, I turned the burner off and placed the salmon on the farthest point from the hot spot and let it sit for fifteen minutes.  Then I fired the burner up again, let it get to 100 degrees, and turned it off.  This I did every 15 minutes for the next 5 hours.  With the exception of one time, when I forgot that I was supposed to be watching the thermometer, and the temperature climbed to almost 200 degrees. I feared that we would be having bagels and salmon jerky at this point.  An even bigger concern is that I was going to make the whole family sick on improperly cooked fish, so my husband and I each had a slice soon after it came off the grill.   I figured we would know before everyone got there the next morning if it was food poisoning in the making.

The Lox

The final product was tender, slightly smoky, sweet, with a bit of a tender crust from the brown sugar glace.  It was the least fishy salmon I have ever tasted, probably because I smoked it for so long.  I’m guessing Ruhlman’s recipe is not intended for bagels,  but rather for a glass of crisp white with some cheese and crackers- this one worked beautifully for the bagel brunch, and would have been good as a snack with a glass of wine, too.  And, I’m thinking of a Salmon Three Ways Pasta recipe I made once.  This would have been good in that, too!

The Sponge

Luckily, by now, I figured I needed to read through the bagel recipe with that same cup of coffee that got me through the smoked salmon recipe, so I was ready to make the sponge the night before the brunch!  I used
Bruce Ezzell’s Bagel which I found on Michael Ruhlman’s blog.  

Bagel Makers

I had help with the rolling, hole punching, boiling and toppings.   Again, it was great having three generations participating and getting pleasure out of this!  

After the Boil

They aren’t the prettiest things, eh?   We had more “belly buttons” than holes, even though we tried to open them up, they kept puffing up.

Everything!

Everyone had an opinion on toppings, so we went with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, silvered and oven roasted red onions with poppy seeds, salt, and the everything bagel- equal parts poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried garlic flakes, dried onion flakes, and kosher salt.

The Spread

It was a wonderful brunch- Lox, Bagels, whipped cream cheese, scrambled eggs, and as a surprise for the family, I made my mother-in-laws luchen kugel- a fat filled dairy and noodle pudding with raisins that we had not had in years.   We had little leftover- just 2 dozen bagels (we made 4 dozen), which I had no problem sending home with everyone!   I had reports that the bagels were still good on day three, and a sad call from my son who said he stopped at the local bagel shop on his way to the airport today, and his bagel just wasn’t that good.  I’m guessing this is subtle pressure to make another batch!

No caption necessary

 The salmon was gone- and we will make at least twice as much next time.  Right after I get a Bradly smoker so I can properly maintain just under 90 degrees.