Smoked Steelhead with Q-View

heubrewer

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Jun 9, 2014

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Chicago Area

• Mar 7, 2015

• #1

Have not posted in a while. Since the beginning of the year I have been smoking steelhead once per week on my MES.

Steelhead is nice as you can put a whole fillet on one rack.

Brine is very simple as mentioned before

4 cups water
6 tbs salt
2 tbs brown sugar

I put each fillet in a bag and split the brine between them. I brine for about 1 hr

Smoke at 230F until an internal temp of 155F.

I have went back to using alder, you just can not beat it with salmon.

The steelhead is on the smoker now

image.jpg

• heubrewer
• Mar 7, 2015

 

Last edited: Mar 7, 2015

brooksy

Master of the Pit

Mar 17, 2014

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Hawthorne, fl

• Mar 7, 2015

• #2

Nice sides of salmon!! Can't wait to see the final pics!

 

heubrewer

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Jun 9, 2014

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• Mar 7, 2015

• #3

Just out of the smoker.

Took it to 160F this time so it could be in the smoke a bit longer.

Mentioned it before but alder is simply amazing with salmon

image.jpg

• heubrewer
• Mar 7, 2015

 

Last edited: Mar 7, 2015

cmayna

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• Mar 7, 2015

• #4

Brooksy said:

Nice sides of salmon!! Can't wait to see the final pics!

Click to expand...

I'm totally confused here. Salmon?   Steelhead?  which is it?    They are different birds.  Also, HEUBrewer, how long did you smoke it at 230?  Whatever fish that is,  looks great and I can't argue about using alder.

 

Last edited: Mar 7, 2015

heubrewer

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Jun 9, 2014

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• Mar 7, 2015

• #5

It is steelhead trout,

It only takes about an hr or so to bring it to 160F. I start with a cold smoker, add slamon and wood then set to 230F

Takes longer to brine and cleanup than to cook.

 

Last edited: Mar 7, 2015

brooksy

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Mar 17, 2014

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Hawthorne, fl

• Mar 7, 2015

• #6

My bad! Might be the color on my phone but those look like salmon fillets. Didn't even pay attention that he said steelhead [emoji]128521[/emoji]

 

heubrewer

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• Mar 8, 2015

• #7

Steelhead and Salmon belong to the same family. In my opinion the taste are the same

 

nymjk

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Sep 5, 2012

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10

Long Island, New York

• Mar 19, 2015

• #8

That's what I thought until we did a family taste-off.  The winner in this side-by-side challenge was skinless farmed salmon over the (skin-on) steelhead for flavor (although, predictably, the steelhead retained more moisture).

 

cmayna

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• Mar 19, 2015

• #9

HEUBrewer said:

Steelhead and Salmon belong to the same family. In my opinion the taste are the same

Click to expand...

Not exactly. Steelhead is a ocean going trout, and steelhead trout are a unique species.

However, the species (Oncorhynchus myskiss) belongs to the same family (Salmonidae) as do all salmon, other trout and chars. So, if someone says Steelhead is a salmon, that is not correct, but if they say it is from the family Salmonidae, they are correct. Just a little confusing.

Steelhead trout do bear some similarities to some Pacific salmon. According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, steelhead are born in freshwater streams where they spend the first one to three years of their lives. Then, they move out to the ocean where they spend another one to four growing seasons. The steelhead then return to their native freshwater streams to spawn.

“Unlike Pacific salmon, steelhead do not necessarily die after spawning and are able to spawn more than once,” says Fish & Wildlife.

Oh and flavors are very different. 

 

Last edited: Mar 19, 2015