SWISS LACHS salmon fillet smoked on swiss pine wood

To begin, you must place the pine wood smoking board in a water bath for at least 2 hours, in order for the wood to absorb enough water. This ensures that the smoking aroma will develop nicely on the BBQ and that the wood will not catch fire.

The marinade
Mix the juice of half a lime together with the honey and your seasoning mix until all ingredients are well combined.

The salmon fillet
Spread the marinade over the salmon fillet. Then cut a lime into twelve slices. Lastly, cut twelve small parallel incisions in the salmon fillet and place one lime slice in each cut.

The smoking time

If you have a Big Green Egg, the smoking time on the pine wood board is approx. 20 minutes at 120°C.

Place the water-soaked pine wood board in the open BBQ and avoid direct contact with the flame (approx. 200-230 °C) until it starts smoking. To avoid any burning, please make sure that the pine wood board is soaked, not in direct heat, and use a clean and fat free grill.

When thick smoke appears, position the salmon fillet skin-side down on the wooden board. Reduce the heat and smoke the salmon fillet on indirect heat only (approx.. 160 °C) with the lid closed for approx. 20 to 30 minutes.

As with steak, the perfect degree of cooking is determined by the core temperature of the salmon. If you have a thermometer to measure such temperature, the following instructions will give you the perfect salmon:
43°C: almost raw, with a deep orange color and texture like fresh sashimi.
>> 50-54 °C: tender & lightly browned on the outside, with a juicy, slightly glassy texture on the inside.
>> 60°C: cooked evenly through, this temperature should not be exceeded.