smoking fish

[island guy]

I picked up a old smoker from a friend. If I'm to smoke some fish what do I do to prepare them for the smoker? Soak in a brine? Dry pack? Any info would be appreciated!

[KSW]

What I do is use equal parts of sugar, brown sugar and salt. Rub on the fish and let sit covered in frig. over night. (Do not use anything metal to store fish in with the brine.) Wash fish off. Then you can precook the fish in oven then put in smoker or put them straight into the smoker. It's the best smoked fish I've had.

KSW

[Dan DAN the fisherman]

Be creative. My last brine, that I smoked 20 lake trout with, was a mix of a 3lb box of pickling salt,2 gallons of apple juice, 2cups of brown sugar, 1 bottle of liquid smoke, pepper corns, garlic,lemon pepper and enough water to cover fish. Used a large plastic storage container. Left thawed fish in well mixed brine for 24hr. Smoked with apple wood. Came out MOST EXCELLENT.

[ewirz]

Here's a recipe I found very similar to what KSW wrote:

Step 1 - Preparing the fish

It's important to start with a good product. Too many times I've seen someone on the river catch a dark fish and say "there's one for the smoker"... don't be that person... don't waste your time and money... start with good fresh fish, or fresh frozen fish... all the brine and sugar in the world won't help a dark fish that has a soft, mushy flesh.

For this recipe, I start by filleting the fish and removing the pinbones. (to find out how, see our "How to fillet salmon" section here.) Once I've got nice clean fillets, I take each fillet and cut the flesh vertically, down to the skin, but not through the skin. What you want to create are what I call "candy bar" strips... strips of flesh about 3/4" to 1" square, but still attached to the skin... see below.

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I then take each fillet and decide how big I want the final product to be...sometimes I like to leave the fillets whole for a "presentation fillet" for a special occassion... Thanksgiving, someone's wedding, etc... but most times I cut the fillets into a couple of smaller, more managable pieces.

Step 02 - Preparing the dry brine

This brine recipe is one of the simplest you will find. People tend to get crazy with all sorts of ingredients in their brines... white wine, tabasco sauce, paprika, apple juice... try them if you'd like, but I prefer a simple brine that I can memorize.

Here are the basics:

4 cups dark brown sugar

1 cup non-iodized salt (canning & pickling or kosher salt)

10-15 cloves of garlic

I prefer dark brown sugar over light brown sugar because I like the color that the dark brown sugar imparts on the fish (a nice dark red), and I think it might taste a little different, too.

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For the salt, I use non-iodized canning salt. In the past I had used rock salt, and I would use 2 cups of rock salt to every 4 cups of sugar... but every once in a while, I would get a batch of smoked salmon that had a metallic taste. One day I mentioned this to a friend, and he asked me if I was using rock salt... he reminded me that rock salt has impurities in it, and that's probably what was giving me the metallic taste. As a result, I have now switched to canning salt, and the metallic tastes are gone. But, the canning salt is ground much finer than rock salt, so I've cut back to 1 cup of salt for every 4 cups of sugar.

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For the garlic, try to use fresh garlic, and run it through a garlic press... if you're like me, you hate to peel garlic... especially 10 or 15 cloves of it... that's OK, let your wife do it, just promise her you'll do something else. If you can't negotiate that, I have substituted dry garlic flakes (like the Frontier Herbs ones sold in bulk at QFC). In this case, I use about 1 teaspoon for every clove, or about 10 teaspoons total. You could also try using the chopped garlic sold in a jar, or dry garlic powder, but I haven't had much luck with these... they have a different, more bitter taste, and aren't as potent.

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Put it all in a big bowl, and mix it all together. OK... so you're asking, "How much fish will this recipe handle?" Well, that depends on how heavily you cover your fish... to tell you the truth, I usually just keep a bunch of ingredients on hand... I mix up a batch of brine using the measurements above, then I start covering my fish, and if I need more dry brine, I just quickly mix up another partial batch.

Step 3 - Brining the fish

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Now it's time to brine the fish. Cover the fillets liberally with the dry brine mixture.

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Once the fillets are coated, stack them in the bottom of a non-metallic pan... in this case, I'm using an enameled pot. You can cover the bottom of the pot with brine, but it really doesn't matter... once the brine starts to work and some of the water from the fish is extracted, the whole thing turns into a gooey mess.

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I usually place the first fillets in the pot skin side down, and then alternate them as I continue... so all the fish lays flesh to flesh and skin to skin.

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Once all my fish is in the brine, I cover the container and put it in the fridge for about six hours. The amount of time you keep the fish in the brine and the amount of salt you use in your brine mixture will determine how firm the flesh of the fish becomes, and how salty the taste of the end product will be.

Step 4 - Rinsing the brine

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After the fish has sat in the brine in the fridge for six hours, take the pieces out one by one and rinse them gently in cold water.

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You don't want to scrub them or disturb the flesh, you just want to get the heavy deposits of brine off.

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Once the fish is rinsed off, drain it the best you can and set it out on a rack to dry at room temperature. I use the rack from my smoker because it's convenient, but you can use cookie cooling racks as well... just realize you'll have some explaining to do when the next batch of chocolate chip cookies tastes & smells like coho.

You need to let the fish dry at least a couple of hours. I usually dry them for four to six hours, depending upon the thickness of the fillets. You don't want the room temperature to be too hot or too cold, what you're trying to do here is dry the fish out and form the pellicle on the surface of the flesh. Good airflow around the fish is helpful, you can even use a small fan to help the process if you'd like. If you're using the racks from your smoker, set it up so the thicker fillets are on the lower shelves, and the thinner fillets are on the upper shelves... this will even out how they dry once they're in the smoker.

Step 5 - Smoking the fish

The next step is to smoke the fish. There are lots of different smokers out there, and lots of them do a good job of smoking fish. I prefer the electric smokers because they are much more hassle-free than the charcoal or wood-fired smokers. With an electric smoker, some people even get as fancy as to run the smoker on a timer... so in case you didn't plan ahead, you don't have to wake up at 3am to shut the smoker off.

A couple of words about small, uninsulated smokers... first of all, they are weather-dependant. In other words, if you're smoking fish on a warm August day with no wind, it will take less time to finish than it will if you're smoking on a cold, windy October night. On a warm day it might take six hours to achieve your desired result, and on a cold night it might take ten or twelve hours.

You should also be aware that some electric smokers have bigger elements (higher wattages) than their smaller counterparts... and therefore the bigger ones have more consistent results.

When using an electric smoker, you should always try to avoid using an extension cord if at all possible. But, if you must use an extension cord, make sure it's a heavy duty grounded cord (14 gauge or bigger) and use the shortest one possible, to avoid any voltage drop.

As always, USE COMMON SENSE. Don't set up your smoker indoors. Don't set it up on your deck. Set it up on a firm, level, non-flammable surface, out of the wind, and clear of any houses, garages, wood piles or other flammable objects.

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Preheat your smoker for 15 minutes to get it up to temperature. Put your rack of fish into it, and add your wood chips to get it smoking. The amount of wood chips and what type you use are completely up to your tastes. For this recipe in a Big Chief Smoker, I use one pan of alder chips at the start, and one pan of apple chips after one hour... then I let the fish sit in there and dry out for another four hours or so, for a complete smoking/drying time of about six hours. Again, this is done to taste, and due to wind and temperature fluctuations, I check on the appearance of the fish after about five hours, and make a judgement from there.

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Here is what the fish looked like after six hours in the smoker... notice that the thin tail pieces are up top and the thicker shoulder fillets are at the bottom.