Why do people love bacon? For many, their mouths water just thinking about it. The combination of salt, sweetness, fat, and smoke is the secret. But this combination isn't exclusive to pork belly. A nice fish also becomes delicious when prepared in the same way. Add a nice white wine, and life is good.
When smoking, you must remember that the fish doesn't easily absorb flavors after smoking. So, before smoking, the fish needs to be brined. This is done in much the same way as making ‘gravad lax’. We remove the bones from the fish fillets and generously sprinkle them with salt and sugar in a 1:1 ratio. Make sure each fillet is covered with a thick layer of this mixture. You can also add herbs to the salt mixture, such as fennel seeds and juniper berries. For making gravad lax, you let the fish marinate for 2 to 3 days, turning the fish every day. You will see the moisture drawn out of the fish, making the flesh firmer. But for smoking, we don't go that far. After about an hour in the brine, the fish can be rinsed off and patted dry. Then place the fillets on racks that can go into the smoker, skin side down.
While smoking the fish, we keep the temperature around 40 degrees Celsius. This prevents the fish from cooking too quickly and keeps it nice and juicy. In our smoker, we have a tray that we fill with charcoal. We let it burn for a while to bring the smoker up to temperature. Then we fill the smoker with the racks of fish, throw in a few pieces of applewood and some wood chips on the charcoal, and cover the tray almost completely with a lid. This tempers the heat and switches it to smoking and gentle cooking. We leave the fish in the smoker for about 6 hours. In the meantime, we occasionally check to ensure everything is going well and add more wood chips or charcoal if necessary. After about 6 hours, we take the fish out, remove the skin, and portion it to serve in the restaurant. The flavor is smoky, slightly salty, and sweet. Umami. No one thinks about bacon anymore when we serve the fish with confit salsify, pickled vegetables, fried sea lettuce, and a foam of razor clams.