Fish Smoking Share - So Far, Worked Great With Salmon, Striped Bass and Bluefish

[hansel wenczel]

Next batch - pictures.  Anyway, I have had great success with fresh, quality salmon, striped bass and bluefish.  Wanted to share, it's not hard.

Wood - 50/50 apple/cherry mix

Brine - Apple juice, water, pickling spice, brown sugar, kosher salt, fresh dill

For 5 lbs of fresh fish filets (skin on)

Mix in a blender:

1 cup water

1 cup apple juice

juice of a lemon

juice of a lime

2 tbs pickling spice, bruised

1/4 cup of chopped fresh dill

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 tbs kosher salt

• Cut filets into approximately 8 oz pieces
• Brine 4 - 8 hrs
• Remove from brine, let spices stick to fish, place on pan skin side down, let dry for 45 mins
• Spray smoking/jerky rack with cooking spray
• Get smoker to 225 degrees Fahrenheit
• Smoke fish 1 - 1.5 hrs at 225 degrees Fahrenheit depending on thickness of filets, looking for that sweet mahogany hue, if you have a water pan, you should be ok with fattier fish like salmon or bluefish, but if no water or leaner fish, consider mopping or a spritz of olive oil in the second half of the smoke time
• Allow fish to cool under a fan and wrap as soon as possible

Leaving the spices stuck to the fish ensures that every bite will be a little different than the last.

Looking for comments, ideas or other tried-n-true recipes

 

[plj]

That sounds pretty good. My boys brought home some bluefish last weekend from the Jersey shore (its in the freezer now), I dont care for bluefish but I've never smoked it so I think I'll give your brine recipe a try, it does sound good.  Thanks for posting it!
 

 

[rfgrillmaster]

I am smoking salmon on my Weber gas grill using the A-MAZE-N-PELLET-SMOKER 5X8 for smoke. My problem is I want to smoke the salmon at 150°-175° but I can't get my grill lower than 200°. I've got the front controller on low and the back burner shut off. I raised the lid by 2" but I still get 200°.

Any insight would be appreciated.

RFGrillMaster