Originally Posted by
OCDshaver
Not exactly. Cold smoking is not that hot. To cold smoke, you don't want the temps to get much hotter than say 90 degrees. 140 is way too high. When cold smoking salmon, you don't want to cook the fish at all. Once the fish starts to get beyond 100 degrees, the texture begins to change. Your process is unlike that of traditional smoked salmon but it is common to your area in the north west. A dry cure pulls water out making the flesh more dense for slicing thin. And the wet brine you are using is probably what is making establishing a pelickle so difficult, hence all the effort to dry it after brining. But your end result is probably very different from what I try to do.