Cold Smoking of Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) Fillets with Smoke Condensate—an Alternative Processing Technology for the Production of Smoked Salmon

Abstract

Two different protocols for the production of cold smoked salmon were investigated. All fillets were dry salted (18 h, 4 degrees C) before being allotted to a smoke condensate/liquid smoke protocol (SCP), which included drenching (1 min) in smoke condensate [1:3 (v/v) smoke:water] and drying (150 min, 28.4 +/- 2.2 degrees C) or a wood chips protocol (WCP) that included drying and smoking in a regular smoking chamber (23 degrees C, 480 min) using wood chips for smoke production. Quality assessments were performed on the smoked fillets at day 0 and after 7, 14, and 31 d of storage (3.4 +/- 0.7 degrees C). Application of the SCP resulted in a significantly higher (P<0.01) processing yield (89.6% +/- 0.7%) as compared to the WCP (88.6% +/- 0.5%). On day 0, the SCP fillets were significantly (P<0.01) less light (L*) and yellow (b*) and had a lower chroma (C*) and hue (h*) compared to the fillets processed with WCP. From 7 d until the end of storage time, small differences in color were observed. After 31 d of storage, the SCP fillets had a significantly higher (P<0.05) intensity of oily texture and lower intensity of salty and smoke taste. Texture profile analysis (TPA) showed few significant differences between the processing protocols, although the WCP fillets were significantly harder than the SCP fillets when recording the force at 60% compression of the fillet height. The use of smoke condensate and drenching technology is a way of producing cold smoked salmon with quality characteristics quite similar to those found in commercial "traditional" products, although processors who want to use this technology have to optimize the drying step and the smoke condensate formulation to their specifications.

Refined Liquid Smoke: A Potential Antilisterial Additive to Cold-Smoked Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka)

“…Higher L* values (45.4 to 61.8), and variable a* (13.4 to 34.2) and b* (16.9 to 33.7) values are reported in European CSS in comparison with the CSS used in this study (6,7,9,37). This difference is likely due to the use of different species of salmon, which is farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), as compared with wild sockeye salmon (O. nerka) in our study.…”

Preservation of Fish by Curing

“…Cold smoking has been applied to different fish species such as salmon, rainbow trout, cod, tuna, etc. (Dillon and Patel, 1993;Lyhs et al, 1998;Birkeland et al, 2003Birkeland et al, , 2004aBirkeland et al, , 2008Emborg and Dalgaard, 2006;Birkeland and Skara, 2008). Cold-smoked salmon and trout dominate the market of smoked fish products.…”

“…It is quick and much easier to achieve a uniform smoke flavour than the traditional cold-and hot-smoking processes (Varlet et al, 2007a). It has a higher processing yield and similar textural properties compared to traditional smoked salmon (Birkeland and Skara, 2008). Undesirable compounds (e.g.…”

Antimicrobial Activity of Salmon Extracts Derived from Traditional First Nations Smoke Processing

“…In the present study, Pacific salmon, a relatively fatty fish (7), were smoked with the traditional procedures of Tl'azt'en and Lheidli T'enneh First Nations communities, which does not involve strict control of smoke density, temperature, or smoking duration, all of which are commonly controlled in conventional smoke processing (6,15). We were interested in quantitatively examining the PAH content of the resulting product and in determining whether traditional smoke processing produced antimicrobial effects similar to those observed in conventional smoke processing.…”