Abstract
Smoked salmon is one of the fish products traditionally consumed in Europe. The conventional smoking process includes brine or dry salting, smoking and drying at low (20-30°C) temperatures. The salting stage is one of the critical steps to obtain a safe and high quality product.
The increase in salt content in salmon tails poses a significant problem during the salting process since the tail region becomes too salty and dry. The purpose of the study was to establish a solution to the challenge of the salmon tail part getting dry and too salty. The lab experiment used Atlantic salmon fillets from Isfjord Norway AS, a seafood processing industry in Orkanger, Trøndelag. The experiment aimed to determine the amount of salt after salting for different times using different methods. In this study, salmon fillets were salted by brine and dry salting techniques. The amount of salt, dry matter, water, ash, fat and the water holding capacity were determined in the laboratory.
The result shows a clear relationship between thickness and salt uptake. The thicker the fillet, the lower the salt uptake. Specifically, the study established a high concentration of salt in the tail section of salmon fillets in the dry salting method. The salt content influences the ash, although a significant correlation was not found for all the fillets. Moreover, in the dry salted fillet’s tail parts, the salt content was slightly higher as the fat content was lower than in the head and middle part of the same fillet. Salting with high concentrated brine reduces water holding capacity, which results in hardness in the fillet. The salt uptake in the dry salted fillet was higher than in the brine salted fillet for the same period of salting, indicating that dry salting is faster than the brine salting.
In conclusion, the study established a link between the salmon tail parts, thickness, salting technique, time and lipid content and water holding capacity.