Cold-smoked trout or salmon fillets

Preparation stages

1. After rinsing the fillets in clean water and removing the bones with tweezers, place them (skin side down) in a dish on ½ cm of Guérande salt for 24 hours.

2. After 24 hours, brush the skin side of the fillet to remove any salt crystals that have stuck to the skin.

3. Make your own mixture of salt and spices to suit your tastes. You can take inspiration from our spice mix at the top of this recipe. Make sure you use enough salt mixture for the quantity of fillets you have…

4. Gently massage your mixture into the fillets (flesh side), leaving a few millimetres on the surface of the fillet (vary the thickness slightly depending on the thickness of the flesh of the fillet, but make sure you do it evenly).

5. Vacuum-seal the fillets for 12 to 24 hours to allow the mixture to ‘infuse’ the flesh.

6. If you don’t have a vacuum sealer, cover the fillets with 1 to 2 cm of salting mixture (more ingredients consumed because less concentration) and increase the salting time slightly…

7. Once the ‘salting’ time has elapsed, remove the fillets and rinse them in clean water to clean the flesh and lightly brush the skin side to remove the slime.

8. Leave the fillets uncovered in the fridge to dry out for 24 to 36 hours …

9. For smoking, make sure the temperature of your wood-fired oven is below 20°C (ideally, the top and bottom temperatures should be between 10 and 15°C…

10. Place the fillets on a stainless steel (food-grade) grill so that the air can circulate evenly around them (avoid them sticking together).

11. Fill the smoke generator with food-grade sawdust (beech wood) (grain size 1mm). Place your grill on a raised surface (the smoke must pass around the fillets) so that the heat source is away from the fillets… The temperature when cold smoking must not exceed 25°C. Place the smoke generator in the wood-fired oven. Light the smoke generator using a tea light or a cooking torch. This may take a little time depending on the humidity of the sawdust… The sawdust must not catch fire!

12. When a fine smoke appears persistently, stop lighting and let it smoke… depending on the smoke generator, the humidity level and the draught, 8 to 12 hours may then elapse… Close the door of the wood oven and open the draught damper slightly to limit the flow of air entering the oven and to keep the smoke in the oven as much as possible.

To ‘accentuate’ the smoking flavours, you can carry out a 2nd smoking cycle (according to your taste).

Finally, leave Sous Vide to rest for at least 24 to 48 hours before serving (in the fridge).

If you don’t have a vacuum packing machine, cover the fillets with cling film in the bottom of your fridge (near the vegetable crisper).

Don’t hesitate to make several, because if it takes a bit long to prepare… It’s so good that your guests ask for more!

Enjoy your meal…

Good to know:If you’re lucky enough to have a garden, you can reuse the cooled ashes in your vegetable garden or at the foot of your rose bushes. Ashes are rich in elements that promote plant growth.