Recipe: Information on Curing Salmon (Alton Brown)

This is an exert from one Alton Brown's (from Food Network) vacation in Alaska. I thought it was very informative (however it's long) but using his techniques, you could use lime juice, lemon juice, or a combination of both to cure your salmon. Just let me know if you are adventurous enuff to try this, and how it turned out. DH just smoked 2 salmon (cut into steaks) for a family gathering Saturday. MMMMM

[voice over] A "cure" is nothing more than a mixture of salt, a cup of kosher in this case, and usually an equal portion of sugar just mixed together. Now, I like to split the sugar between half a cup of dark brown and half cup of white. Herbal additions are okay, but I'd rather spice things up with a tablespoon or two of crushed black peppercorns. Oh, and you're going to need some wide, heavy-duty, foil.

1 Cup kosher salt
1/2 Cup dark brown sugar
1/2 Cup sugar
1 Tbsp crushed black pepper

And there we have a cure. Now if you were to dissolve that in water, you would have a brine. But we don't want to add a lot of liquid in this situation, so we're going to go with it dry. Now, why add this in the first place? Well, for one thing it is going to season the meat which is good. Another thing is that it's going to draw out a good bit of liquid. And that's good, too, because in the process, it's going to denature some of the proteins inside the meat which paradoxically is going to allow it to hold on to moisture during the long smoking process which doesn't seem right, but it is. And last, but not at all least, it is going to create a film of protein on the outside of the meat called a pellicle. And as we'll see later, that is a very good thing indeed.
So, we begin by moving fillet A over next to fillet B and simply flipping it over. That makes room for a nice big chunk of wide aluminum foil. Ah. And that is going to be the base-a few inches longer than the fish on either side. That's good. Now just peel off the film off of the fillet and move it back over to the foil like that.

Now, sprinkle on some of your cure, just up and down in the shape of the fish. Just going to make sure some of this gets on the skin side. And then just roll fillet B back over. Now, completely cover this with cure. Just sprinkle it on and don't be shy with it. Because we don't want too much cure down here where the meat is thin, just kind of brush upwards and pack it down as you go. Same thing on this fillet. Same exact action. Just sprinkle it all on.

Now we're going to rotate this fillet so that the head-ends line up with each other. Roll one onto the other. Now, peel off the film that used to be on the bottom exposing the last side of the salmon. And this where you can use up the rest of your cure. Reapply your film. Pack it down, kind of feel if the two sides are even with one another because that will make a difference. There.
And just bring the two sides of the foil together. And I usually start at the head. Just kind of crimp it nice and tight up at the head. And kind of draw it up tight. You want a little bit of pressure on the fish. This will also help to move the juices down towards the tail where we're going to leave a little bit of room. There. Just kind of leave that open like that. That's going to let juices out. Good. Now, we need to find some weight.

Until refrigeration came into us in the 20th century, salting or
"curing" was the most common method of food preservation.

SCENE 4
Twin Rods Inn
When I cure at home I always sandwich my newly made salmon sandwich in between a couple of pans like, uh, half sheet pans or cookie sheets, maybe, but my resources are a little on the meager side here. Oh, maybe not too meager. [rips wooden shelf from the closet] Ah. Yeah, that shelf ought to do nicely. Just slide my fish right on to here. Now if you were doing this at home you would put this in your pan and move it straight to the bottom shelf of your refrigerator. But a cooler will do just fine, too. Of course, we need a lid for that. So, uh, will you look up here. [rips another shelf from the closet] Yep. That will do it. Right on top.
Now I also need some weight. You see, compressing the meat will make it take the cure better and will end up with a finer texture at the end. I would usually use soup cans or a couple of bricks but hey, I don't see any problem with letting our fingers do the walking [finds two large phone books]. Sweet fit.

Into your refrigerator, of course, for 24 hours. That's the time that I think it takes the cure to really do its voodoo. You could get away with 12, but don't push it any further than that. Now realistically, you should experiment. Of course, the amount of time that the salt's in contact with the meat is going to affect the overall flavor. Oh and remember, half way through the curing process, you want to flip the fish over and put the weight back on. And of course, there is going to be some juice coming out there so make sure your pan can handle it. Tomorrow we smoke.