Brining and smoking whole small fish?

[gellfex]

I've done plenty of blue fillets, but never whole fish. I've searched recipes for whitefish, thinking that's a pretty common fish to see smoked whole, but not found much. What I'm thinking of smoking is porgies, AKA scup in New England. A chef/fisherman friend (with a youtube channel, can I link it here?) says they're oily, which never occurred to me. But oily fish smoke best, so I want to give it a go with fish 12-14".

What I'd like to know is how long to brine and at what salt concentration? Also how long to smoke? Seems to me whole fish would take a whole lot longer to both brine and smoke than fillets. I also saw some posts about drying them at 100 before even hitting them with smoke. I did not get a good feel for how to go about this, so I'm asking. I have an MES30 with external smoke generator, so temp control is not a problem.

 

[zachd]

I do trout
2 Quarts water
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup Spiced Rum
1/2 cup kosher salt
1 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon onion salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Lawry's seasoning salt

Brine 8-12 hours


Pat dry put on rack with sticks opening to form pellicle

Smoke at 125-150 for 30-40 mins

Bump up to 220 to finish internal temp 145

 

[AllAces]

Look for smoked eel recipes.