Recipe: Indian Candy Salmon for C. Nelson

INDIAN CANDY SMOKED SALMON
Source: Dustin Kovacvich, Head Guide Nicholas Dean Lodge
Terrace, British Columbia

This is a recipe for what we call Indian Candy. Others may call it Salmon Jerky. Made with our fresh Skeena River King or Coho Salmon, it's great whatever you call it.

1/2 gallon of water
1 cup pickling salt
2 lb of the darkest, heavy-molasses type brown sugar
1 cup real maple syrup

Clean and slice fillets of salmon (against the grain) into 1/2" slices.

Mix brine and soak salmon slices for 1 to 2 days.

To smoke, use a mixture of cherry, madrone (we understand it is good with alder substituted if you can't find madrone), and apple in a Little Chief and depending on the weather smoke from 8 hrs to 1-1/2 days (the colder the days the longer the smoke).

NOTE: halfway through the smoke, brush the salmon with a mixture of 3/4 cup honey and 1/4 cup water.

This is also great for beef and venison.

INDIAN CANDY

Salmon fillets
salt
brown sugar

Cut salmon into 1/2-inch strips from fillets of salmon. In a large bowl, mix together salt and brown sugar in a 50/50 ratio making certain you have enough to completely cover the salmon. Place salmon in the bowl and coat evenly with the mix by rolling salmon in through the mix. Leave salmon in the bowl, in a cool place 5 degress C (40 degrees F) for 12 to 24 hours. Remove salmon from the bowl, rinse off excess mix and pat dry.

SMOKING METHOD:
Place salmon on racks and put in the Bradley Smoker. Using Maple flavor bisquettes, smoke at about 50 degrees C to 60 degrees C (110 degrees F to 135 degrees F) for 4 to 12 hours depending on your preference as to texture and taste. The longer the smoking process, the more chewy the Indian Candy will be.

TO SERVE:
Indian Candy is a wonderfully versatile hard-cured salmon product. It is great as an appetizer or a high-protein snack. Great on the trail as well, but watch out for bears - they love it too!

This process will extend the amount of time the fish can be stored in the refrigerator. Traditionally small salmon, such as Coho or Sockeye are used in this process. For a flavor twist add some genuine maple syrup to the salt/sugar mixture.