No bridge today, just the receipe for something else I’ve been doing over the last weeks: creating the perfect cold smoked salmon. (Though smoked salmon on toast is a perfect snack after the game).
To get started, I bought myself a smoker, known as an Oklahoma Joe. These come in various sizes, I got the 13inch model, which is enough to cook for a group of 10 or so guests, maybe a couple more. 
If you throw bigger dinner parties, then there are bigger models. The price is determined by two factors, first the quality of the material. It is all steel, and the thicker the steel, the longer the thing will last. The second is the brand. Interestingly enough, most of them here are built by the same company, which is basically a factory specialized in welding steel constructions together. After that, they are usually rebranded and put in a fancy showroom. Guess what, that doubles the price. The solution is, of course, to go the manufacturer yourself and buy one that hasn’t been branded yet. You don’t get the fancy labels but you pay about half. Here is a link to their site.
The next thing is to learn to operate it. The smoker has 3 compartments, on the right, you make a fire using wood or wood-chips, in the middle you can roast a chicken or meat, and in the standing column you can smoke fish or meat, or anything. There are 2 valves to control the temperature inside, one on the bottom right, the other on the top left. If you open them, air gets inside more easily, more air means more oxygen and the fire will burn better. And a better burning fire, means a higher temperature. The temperature can be monitored with 2 gauges, though they are somewhat inaccurate at lower temperatures and I used a cooking thermometer to get a better reading.
Preparing the salmon
The next thing is to prepare the salmon. I got a nice piece of about 1kg from my favorite fish monger. The skin should be on the fish. You can actually smoke a lot more in one round, a few kilos should easily be possible, but for a first attempt I did not want to spoil too much fish if I got it wrong.
Take the fish, rinse it off, dry it with some paper tools and check for any bones left in the fish.
Get a large tray big that will hold the fish. Put a layer, about 1cm or half an inch of salt on the bottom. Yes, that is a lot of salt. You can use the cheapest salt available, it is only there to draw water out of the fish.
Next prepare a spice mixture. I used a cup of good sea salt, a cup of cane sugar, and a cup of spices. I used rosemary, 5 spice, juniper berries, thyme and black pepper, and put that in a grinder until course. Mix the 3 and put it on top of the salt. (Yes, you put salt on salt…). Put the fish on top of that, with the meat side down and the skin up. But a little bit more on the sides, then put salt on top of the fish as well, such that it will cover the entire fish. Wrap the dish in plastic foil and put in the fridge for 18 to 24 hours. What this will do, is draw lots of liquid from the fish. Salting and smoking are ways to conserve the fish and keep it for a long time. The foil should be fairly air tight, otherwise you are just drawing moisture from your fridge, not from the fish.
The next day, take the fish from the fridge. The salt will now be moist. Take the fish, rinse it off again, dry with paper towel and put it back in the fridge. This time, just lightly covered. The fish will dry out a bit more. Wait another day and you are ready to start smoking.
Generating Smoke
Where there is smoke, there has to be a fire. The trick I used, was to put a few blocks of wood in the firebox of the smoker and light them up, with all valves completely open. That will create a huge fire and the temperature will go up to 100 degrees or more, way to hot to cold smoke something. However, if you wait an hour, you’ll have a nice layer of ashes and temperature will have dropped considerably. Close the bottom valve, wait another half hour or so, until the temperature in the smoke compartment has come down to some 25 degrees.
Now add a cup of wood chips to the firebox. When they catch fire, you may have to stir things up a bit, the temperature will go up again and smoke will come out of the chimney on the left. Keep a close look at the temperature, it should NEVER go over 40 degrees, and preferably stay lower, like 35 degrees. If it is too hot, wait a bit or open the door of the smoking compartment to let in some cold air.
Smoking the fish
Now put in the fish. For the next 8 hours, keep it in the smoker. Monitor the temperature closely, over time it will drop from 35 degrees to 25 in about 40 minutes to an hour. When 
you reach that point, add another cup of wood chips and stir up the fire. Temperature will go up again, but remember, it should stay a few degrees below 40. If it gets too hot, simply open the door of the smoker to add cold air. After a few cycles, you should get a feeling of how much wood you have to add at each go and how long it takes for that to burn.
8 hours later, your fish has been smoked but is not yet ready to eat. Take it from the smoker and put it back in the fridge for a day. Like a lot of dishes, the flavors need time to settle and the fish will taste better after a day or so. If you can wait that long… In fact, salmon smoked this way will remain good for months if kept in a sealed and dry container, though I’m not sure if we’ll ever find out how long.
Final remark: I’ve tried this twice now, once on a rainy day with fairly high humidity outside, once on a dry day. The smoking seemed to go better on the dry day. Obviously, I will be experimenting some more over time, stay tuned for new insights.