Growing up, one of my aunts always sent my dad smoked salmon for Christmas. Granted, it was commercially smoked salmon, but it was smoked salmon all the same. I seem to remember all of us kids fighting tooth and nail for each scrap of it.

When we would go to visit that aunt, her and her husband would always smoke salmon outside over the coals of alder wood. That was the best smoked salmon! They would make a wooden cage out of green twigs, sandwich the salmon in between, and stand the whole apparatus upright over the fire.

Well, we got the recipe for the brine and have been trying to recreate the process ever since. I don’t believe I will ever come close. However, I still love to try and I think I can smoke some pretty good salmon on my Primo Junior.

I love smoked salmon at Christmas…by itself, on crackers or toast, for breakfast or lunch, even with green eggs, Sam, I am.