Smoked hot or cold, salmon is always a delightful delicacy.
When I discovered Oven Head Salmon Smokers in Bethel, on the Passamaquoddy Bay in New Brunswick, I couldn't believe my luck. The moment I had a taste of their cold smoked salmon, all I could do was gush, grin and ask for more.
This is a small but hugely successful mom and pop operation owned by Debbie and Joseph Thorne. For the Thornes, it all starts with fresh Atlantic salmon, harvested from their home province. After the fish are cleaned, filleted, washed, trimmed and brined in salt and water, the three- to five-pound fillets are laid out on large racks and placed in the smoke ovens to dry for a few hours. Then the ovens are stoked up with maple sawdust and chips, and the magic begins.
It's important that the chips never catch fire; they have to be dampened down and more chips have to be added at just the right time. This means that Joseph doesn't get much sleep when the smokehouse is running, since the cold smoking process usually takes 36 to 40 hours. But he wouldn't have it any other way: he's been doing this since 1987, and he is a perfectionist.
The main difference between cold and hot smoked salmon is the length of time involved in the smoking process, and the amount of heat that's applied. In the cold smoked process, the fish is really cured rather than cooked, as the temperature in the oven never goes above 20°C (68°F). After about 30 to 40 hours, the result is a salmon that looks raw but can be thinly sliced and melts in your mouth. In contrast, hot smoked salmon uses a higher temperature (more like baking the fish), takes much less time and the result is drier and flaky. It's still mighty good, but the texture is different. Hot smoked salmon is also less expensive than cold smoked salmon.
Meanwhile, Debbie has her own forté. She's created a salmon pâté that's winning rave reviews. She's also perfected their salmon jerky recipe, which is marinated in a special Teriyaki sauce before the fish is smoked and dehydrated. But that's not all. One day, a regular customer asked the Thornes if they would consider going kosher; they took up the challenge. Going kosher was easy, as far as smoking the fish was concerned, but it required a lot of research to source the kosher ingredients required to make the pâté and jerky. The actual certification process was also rigorous, but they pulled it off. A rabbi now visits on a regular basis and all their smoked salmon products are certified kosher.
This is just one success story about smoked salmon that's produced in Atlantic Canada. Finding small family-operated companies that pour their hearts and souls into making these sublime products is easy. Most make both cold and hot smoked salmon.
A few families also have other salmon products like gravlax, jerky and pâté, while others have multiple smoked items including herring, eel, trout-even smoked lobster tails!
If you visit any of the food artisans listed here, you won't be disappointed. If you won't have a chance to visit every business on this list, don't despair - you can always order online.
- Oven Head Salmon Smokers, Bethel, NB
- Wolfhead Smokers, Letang, NB
- Bidgoods, Goulds, NL
- J. Willy Krauch & Sons, Tangier, NS
- St. Mary's River Smokehouse, Sherbrooke Village, NS
- Medallion Smoked Salmon, Charlottetown, PEI
