Mesquite Grilled Salmon

[woodman]

Here's what it looks like:

[Maverick2272]

Now that you have me drooling, how did ya make it? LOL.

[woodman]

Mav,


1.) Use heavy duty aluminum foil, and fold it over into a double sheet. This will give you a cover to fold over any leftovers.

2.) Season with sugar, rock-salt, and MSG. I don't measure, so here is how I gauge the ingredients:

......a.) Start with sugar. Imagine the sugar is actually salt, then sprinkle just enough to where you might think it would begin to make the dish taste "salty"

......b.) add rock-salt right after the sugar, but sprinkle about 30% - 50% more salt than sugar. You'll want it to be just s bit more salty than sugary

......c.) Rub salt/sugar combo into the flesh until only small granules of residual salt remain. (you can tap your finger over the top to taste and adjust as needed)

......d.) Sprinkle very lightly with MSG. A little goes a long way, so if the MSG were salt, you would give it a light sprinkling just enough to taste. (DO NOT rub MSG into the meat!)

Fire prep:

[lot of this is pretty basic that most of you might already know, but there are a few important tricks, here that you may also be interested in, so I posted it in detail]

I use a webber grill.

Clean the chamber of all ash and make sure the vents are ALL wide open.

Remove the top grill and line the bottom (coal grill) with newspaper. Pile charcoal brickettes in the middle of the newspaper and slowly drizzle lighter fluid over the coals. the idea is to let the fluid saturate the coals, so go slowly until the coals are so saturated that they glisten with fluid when you stop.

You'll be able to see it.

...then drizzle a bit of lighter fluid around the newspaper, and all you have to do is toss a match at it and let it burn.

Once the top coals turn completely white, break-up the pile (flatten it out a bit) and incorporate them with the rest of the coals and wait for the entire pile to turn white.

When ALL of your coals are white hot, split the pile in two and position them on opposite ends of the base grill, leaving a void in the center.

Put a few small pieces of mesquite over each side of the coals and allow the wood to catch fire.

Now, remember back in school where you were taught about oxygen and the teacher lit a candle, then covered the lit candle with a glass cup? The flame died, but there was an ember on top that remained at the top of the wick, and it smoked for a bit after the flame was gone. Well, you're just doing the same thing, but on a larger scale.

...so, once the wood catches fire, put your grill over the coals and position your seasoned salmon right over the void where there are no coals. Cover the grill and let bake for 15-20 minutes.

Again, you should have ALL the vents in the grill fully opened or you'll kill the heat along with the flame, and you NEED that heat to cook your fish.

If your Webber comes with more than one top vent (some have 3-4), then just open one. The bottom vent should be completely open, too.

One more thing...

Start your fire, then season your fish right after. By the time the fire is ready for the fish, the fish should be ready for the fire.

[woodman]

Here's a shot of the grill, covered & cooking.

[Maverick2272]

Nice, thanks Woodman!