Best way to smoke trout?

[Willis]

lets hear your ways of cutting and smoking trout to get the most out of them, I have done it once but they dint turn out so well.

[benny boy]

Ive only smoked trout a time or two and have some marinating in the fridge right now. I like to make the fish pretty sweet and start by filleting the fish to get all bones out. The in a quart jar I take about 3 cups of brown sugar, a cup or white sugar, and a half cup salt, put in the jar and thenfill the rest of the way with water. This is a similar recipe to another on the recipe thread, Smoke until finished with a good chip such as alder or apple. The last batch I used hickory and it was pretty good as well

[Dullhook]

For the bigger fish (kokes or trout) filleting seems to work best. Make sure that the rib section is cut out.

http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/IMGP0200.jpg

For the smaller fish, just chunking them up seems to work fine. Here's a batch of smoked Kokanee.

http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/IMGP0075_edited_resize.JPG

If you go to the recipe board (top of the page) 5-Cents and others have some excellent recipes for smoking fish and making the brine. They come out perfect every time. :food:

[Smalma]

I smoke a lot of kokanee and really like a dry brine.

Fillet the fish and layer them in a some sort of container - a large crock is ideal. Place a layer of fillets flesh side up; sprinkle liberally with non-iodized salt (rock, kosker, pickling, etc) continue alternating fillets and salt. Let stand in a cool place (refrig) over nite. In the morning I rinse each fillet under running cold tap water. Rinsing each piece to the desired saltness - may require a lick to see if the saltness is correct; takes a little practive. Pat the pieces dry, spread out on paper towels on cookie sheets, cover each with brown sugar and lemon pepper to taste. Allow to air dry for an hour or so forming a nice glaze while you get the smoker ready. Smoke to desred hardness using at least 3 or 4 pans of chips; in my little Chief or big Chief it usually takes about 4 hours or little more if chilly and damp out.

enjoy with your favorite beveage and expect it to disappear quickly.

Tight lines
Curt

[5-Cents]

I tried smoking a trout once but it was pretty harsh and hard to keep lit! :D

[GarySt]

I smoke a lot of kokanee and really like a dry brine.

Fillet the fish and layer them in a some sort of container - a large crock is ideal. Place a layer of fillets flesh side up; sprinkle liberally with non-iodized salt (rock, kosker, pickling, etc) continue alternating fillets and salt. Let stand in a cool place (refrig) over nite. In the morning I rinse each fillet under running cold tap water. Rinsing each piece to the desired saltness - may require a lick to see if the saltness is correct; takes a little practive. Pat the pieces dry, spread out on paper towels on cookie sheets, cover each with brown sugar and lemon pepper to taste. Allow to air dry for an hour or so forming a nice glaze while you get the smoker ready. Smoke to desred hardness using at least 3 or 4 pans of chips; in my little Chief or big Chief it usually takes about 4 hours or little more if chilly and damp out.


That's an interesting way to brine the fish. I'll have to try that as I like it a little sweet, and it sounds like the sugar is not wiped off before smoking, so it should give it quite the sweet punch. Thanks for sharing..hadn't seen that method on the board before

enjoy with your favorite beveage and expect it to disappear quickly.

Tight lines
Curt

[newbergfishjunkie]

I'm sure everyone has thier own way but the brine and soak time is what works for me.
Brine:
1/4 cup salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
tbsp pepper or lemon pepper
some dried onion
4 bay leafs crushed
2 quarts cold water

Mix all dried ingredents and and to cold water. I use a qt or gallon size plastic freezer bag to soak the fish. Depending on how you cut the fish dictates how long you soak in the brine. Small whole cleaned trout with skin on...about 12 to 24 hours. Fish with meat exposed.... 6-10 hours. Place the brined fish in the fridge turning every few hours. After brining remove fish and wash off all brine and let the fish air dry before putting into smoker. Put in smoker until meat is firm turning every few hours.

the more you do the better you'll get. Adjust brine ingredents and time to your liking. Enjoy

[McSteelie]

I brine with the 1/2 cup non-iodized salt (substitute about a tablespoon or so of lawry's seasoned salt for some of the salt) ,1/2 cup sugar to a quart of water. Brine for about 4 hours. Rinse fillets, pat dry and place on smoker racks. Let air dry for a couple of hours until the fillets become shiney and tacky to the touch. Place in the smoker with a pan of Hickory Chips. About an hour later refill the pan with 1/2 hickory and 1/2 cherry chips. When that is gone, add a pan of all cherry chips.
Dry in smoker to desired dryness. Enjoy and share. Always share with co-workers and friends. They will come back and want you to smoke stuff for them for shares. I have gotten deer to make jerky from, Alaskan Sockeye Salmon and a couple of weeks ago Pheasant (use a different brine, and hickory and apple chips for Pheasant).

[Smalma]

Gary -
The dry brine I use results in the salt pulling water from the fish making its own brine. With this method I seem to be able to achieve a real consistent product though as mentioned practice does make prefect. I would add that this method probably is not for you if your prefer your smoked fish to be lox-like.

To add some special sweetness to your finished product something you might want to try is just as you pull the fish from the smoker (still warm) at a dollop of honey (I like fireweed or clover) to each piece allowing it to spread and soak in. The final result will be sticky but it will tickle your sweet tooth.

Tight lines
Curt

[flyingd]

Something that I tried in the drip pan. I put a liter or 2 of root beer in the drip pan and it gave the fish a nice sweet taste.

[King13fisher]

I use to make a concoction with many of the similar ingedients listed in previous replies...have now switched to straight Yosidas teriyaki...very simple and works great...filet the trout, place the filets in a container and cover with Yosidas...place in refer and let soak over night...smoke with alder wood until done to your liking...the wife likes it a little more like jerky than I do...works well with kokes also.

[arlie]

One cup brown sugar, one cup of white sugar, one cup of soy sauce, 1/4 cup of salt, garlic?, cayenne?, and one whole onion. Add a pint of water and soak fish in the fridge for 24 hours. I don't rinse them but you can if you want, throw them on a smoker and smoke them as you would any other recipe. This was suppose to be a prize winning Alaskan brine and I believe it.:)

[deeptrout]

grandmas recipe for basic brine....add whatever flavor you like, but start here and you can't mess it up too bad.
Get a large glass pickle jar, no wood bowls, no metal bowls or spoons, just glass, I have a large food service pickle jar about 18 inches deep. fill it about half full with cold water, hold a raw egg in your stirring hand and dump in pickling salt ( no Iodine) with your other hand, mix it till the egg in you r mixing hand wants to float. mix in enough salt that the egg floats with about a dimes diameter above the surface. thats the basic brine, 24 hours in there and the fish will be ready to smoke.
I like to add molasses and cheap brandy to the mix, enough molasses to make it look like clean 10-40 pennzoil, enough brandy to make the fridge smell good when you open it. I think the brandy 'cuts' the meat, and allows the sugars in faster, I sometimes pull the whole thing a little early when the brandy was a little heavy.
rinse the fish clean and set on the smoker racks to dry and get a little sticky to touch before puting in the smoker. Hickory is the way to go in my opinion, but I will experiment and have had some others have prepared with apple etc that was way good. I still end up back with hickory.
I have two smokers, and if the catch was small enough, I use my smaller 'space saver' model luhr jenson. I don't know if itis still on the market, but if it is get one. It does a nice job, is fairly quick, and is less affected by wind and cold weather. If I hammered em or have a salmon or two, I use the big cheif and count on rotating the racks and taking about twice as long as the space saver would have taken in the same weather.
everyone has a recipe, thats mine. Grandma did it that way when salt and smoke was the only way to save meats for long periods of time, what works works, and I like doing it the old fashioned way.
If you do try it and like it, please pm me and I will pass it on to gram, shes 84 and would get a kick out of it.

[summoner7]

My :twocents: on smoking trout:

Don't use teriyaki in your brine unless you know what you're doing.

Use small batches of fish and brine so you can vary the ingredients until you find the combination that works best for you.

I don't like to waste the catch, so I've choked down some not-so-good smoked trout a few times before I learned these two things. :)

[genghis]

Perhaps you fish smoking afficianados can help me with this:

I have always wondered about the big big difference between the more common sort of smoked fish and lox. I'm not a fan of regular smoked fish. I first encountered it in Europe as a much younger man while traveling. It is standard fare at breakfast in pensions and hotels.

But lox is so different. It's sushi really. I can eat it forever as I can salmon sushi. Although I've pretty much given up sushi as I just don't trust the market any more. Who knows what it really is or where it came from?

So anyway. If lox (you know, the good stuff) is smoked they must just wave over the smoke for a minute or so cause the stuff is raw fish. Or so it seems.

Thanks for any help anybody can give me. :)

[Gillfish3]

I tried smoking a trout once but it was pretty harsh and hard to keep lit! :D

You stoll my answer. I got to ge quicker next time.

George
Gillfish3

[McSteelie]

Perhaps you fish smoking afficianados can help me with this:

I have always wondered about the big big difference between the more common sort of smoked fish and lox. I'm not a fan of regular smoked fish. I first encountered it in Europe as a much younger man while traveling. It is standard fare at breakfast in pensions and hotels.

But lox is so different. It's sushi really. I can eat it forever as I can salmon sushi. Although I've pretty much given up sushi as I just don't trust the market any more. Who knows what it really is or where it came from?

So anyway. If lox (you know, the good stuff) is smoked they must just wave over the smoke for a minute or so cause the stuff is raw fish. Or so it seems.

Thanks for any help anybody can give me. :)

I believe lox is cold smoked (it only gets the smoke not the heat).

[Incredible_Bulk]

Yup, LOX is cold smoked. You can SORT OF mimic the effect by putting the inner rack of your smoker on top of the smoker itself, and put the fish on the top rack, kind of like you would smoke cheese. It still gets a little bit of heat, but serve cold and you won't notice.

Ben

[tbox]

I tried smoking a trout once but it was pretty harsh and hard to keep lit! :D


:applause::applause::whistle: