Preference?

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sb59

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Dec 27, 2013
464
24
New Jersey
Little poll. Smoking fish fillets. Particularly salmon and large trout ( 5lbs. plus ). Skin on or off ?

I plan to try both to see which I like better. 
 
With salmon fillets skin on. With trout fillets smoke with skin on. Then remove immediately when done. If not it's like peeling wall paper...........
 
Depends on what I'm doing. For grilling I leave the skin on. For lox, skin off. For poaching it depends on my mood. The skin and the underlying fat hold a lot of the stronger flavors, so if I want a lighter flavor I remove it. It's also that layer of fat that contains most of the omega 3's, so if you're eating for your health I'd leave it on.
 
MD,

When I skin my Salmon pieces to make Jerky or nuggets, I save the skins,  marinate them for 5-6 hours and then fry them in a cast iron skillet outside on the 3rd burner.  When nice and done, I scrape the meat still attached and spread it over crackers with cream cheese or just eat it as I scrape. Belch.

I have to smoke some filets next weekend or two and plan to remove the skin off of a couple pieces to see how they smoke.  To me it would be just like the nuggets but much bigger.  Might be real tasty.
 
Pretty new at this, but I thought I would offer my $0.02.

Mackerel - always leave the skin on. It keeps the fillet together, they are thin enough that the flavour goes right through them, and if it sticks to the rack (I have a pretty low tech set up) I am only losing the skin.

Salmon - I have done both, and will probably continue to do so. For chunks, I take the skin off to get the smoke evenly through the whole filler, but for a big fillet I will leave it on to keep everything together. I plan to try making cold-smoked salmon bacon at some point, and I will def leave the skin on during the first try to hold it together and to make it more sliceable.
 
And if you mess up,  you just go back out there and catch another Salmon Hog.
yahoo.gif
 
It's been a while since I started this post & have tried both ways with some fillets from large trout 5 to 7 lbs . I think I'll stay skin on only because they handle easier and don't stick to the wire racks as bad as skin off. Unless I try to make some fish jerky. Cmayna, I'm hooked on your salmon recipe, it's great for trout too! 
 
Other than marlin, which has skin that is just too tough to eat (though try I have), I just LOVE the skin of all other fish, and even more than the fish itself! And so, my vote is for the skin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DELICIOUS stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ESPECIALLY SALMON SKIN! So good!!!!!!!

Happy new week! Make it amazing!!!!!!!! Cheers!!!!! - Leah

 
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