I looooove smoked salmon. Its been a staple in my marathon training for both marathons: Saturday long run followed by iced coffee and an everything bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese. Yum.

But as it turns out, salmon isn’t all that sustainable of a choice. I’ve read a lot on the subject and even the sustainably fished wild Pacific salmon are dwindling in numbers. Then you look at menus, recipes, and grocery stores and its actually stressful to see how much salmon consumption is being pushed and how much salmon is for sale despite the negative impacts on the worlds oceans.

Solution? Artic Char! I know I’ve mentioned it before, but to sum up: Artic Char is farmed in a way that is sustainable meaning the fish are properly fed, tanks are clean (ie no sea lice eating their faces off), and the risk for escape, and thus procreating with wild species, is minimal. 

So on Saturday, I decided to cold smoke some artic char for my morning bagel…on Tuesday. Yeah, turns out it takes two days to cure. Other than the wait, cold smoking is beyond easy. I looked up a recipe, but I didn’t have any dill so I left it out because herbs just add flavor they don’t have a chemical necessity. And my piece of artic char was infinitely smaller than the amount of salmon the recipe was calling for…so I winged it. I must say, it turned out rather well. A bit salty, but good. The texture and aroma were right on.

So how do you cold smoke artic char? Get some artic char, place on a piece of plastic wrap big enough to wrap around the fish. Then cover with a rather large amount of salt (like cover the fillet) and good portion of sugar*. Then rub this lightly into the meat. Most of it will dissolve, but there should still be some on the surface. If you want to use some herbs, throw on some fresh dill and some dill seed. Then wrap it up and place on rimmed baking sheet. Place another baking sheet on top of the fish and weight it. I used actually hand weights, but cans of tomatoes will work. There should be about 8-10 pounds of pressure on top of the fish. Place this in the refrigerator for 48 hours.

*I realize this all may seem a tad casual as curing often has to be an exact science so has to eliminate the risk of food bourne pathogens, but artic char, like salmon, can be used for sushi and eaten completely raw. So, in smoking it we’re just altering the state the of the meat, not trying to render the inedible edible.