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.