I smoke my own salmon. After cutting the salmon, you let it sit in a mixture of salt and sugar overnight. From my understanding, the salt pulls moisture out of

I smoke my own salmon. After cutting the salmon, you let it sit in a mixture of salt and sugar overnight. From my understanding, the salt pulls moisture out of the fish - it's impressive how much moisture is pulled out. The fish starts out sitting in a bowl of salt and sugar, and in the morning the bowl is filled with liquid. You rinse all the salt and sugar off, dry the fish on racks, and then put it in a smoker. I've been told the sugar is used to keep the fish from becoming overly salty, but I imagine it serves other purposes as well. I'd love to know what that is. We've started experimenting with using less sugar, but it seems the fish would get really salty if you cut too much sugar out. Here's a picture of the fish drying: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151063519684708&l=35e73a4cfb https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151063519684708&l=... and after it comes out of the smoker: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151064652569708&l=7debbbedce https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151064652569708&l=...