So a family friend had to go up close to the Great Lakes for some classes and had a few extra days. He knew someone and they went out fishing and got a lot of lake trout and Cisco. He brought back a bunch and asked me if I would smoke him some. After a lot of reading on here about the best ways to smoke fish (lake trout in particular) here is what I did:
1. Dry brine consisting of 4 cups kosher salt and 1 cup brown sugar. Blended in the KitchenAid for 5ish min. I didn’t use all of this so I bagged the rest and labeled it for future use. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture yesterday either putting into the brine or taking out. Basically I got a big tupperware tub and put down a layer of brine mix (mix) then a layer of fillets and liberally coated them with the mix and continued with that until all fillets were in the tub and coated. Put that into the fridge for 6ish hours and then wash the mix off. I put all the fillets onto plates and back into the fridge for about 16 hours (overnight plus some after I had some chores to do this morning).
Here they are coming out of a 16 hr overnight in the fridge to form the pellicle:
Looking good so far!
Now for some cherry wood:
And to get the smoker up to temp and into the TBS they go!
I didn’t time them (should have but knew I was cooking to temp so wasn’t too worried this time) and they all came off at different times based on their temperature. I pulled one at 145* for me and my wife and the rest my friend wanted taken all the way to 161*. Here they are all smoked up:
I think they look awesome! I tried a small pinch of one and while it was pretty salty I did like the flavor! Next time I’ll have to experiment with a less salty brine mix. Finally I let them all rest and come to room temperature before getting them all vac packed and back into the freezer:
Thanks for looking! Final notes I’d say that cherry wood is going to be a really nice wood for smoking fish. Also I think I’m going to look for a way to brine the fish that doesn’t use as much salt. My wife and I don’t mind but my friend has had heart issues and really watches his salt. He knows what I did and is still really looking forward to getting them though! Also sorry it’s been a while since I’ve been active on here, having a 4 month old at home has taken a lot of my free internet time. I wouldn’t trade any of the time that I’m getting with him for anything though!
Hope y‘all enjoy!
JBPilot
1. Dry brine consisting of 4 cups kosher salt and 1 cup brown sugar. Blended in the KitchenAid for 5ish min. I didn’t use all of this so I bagged the rest and labeled it for future use. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture yesterday either putting into the brine or taking out. Basically I got a big tupperware tub and put down a layer of brine mix (mix) then a layer of fillets and liberally coated them with the mix and continued with that until all fillets were in the tub and coated. Put that into the fridge for 6ish hours and then wash the mix off. I put all the fillets onto plates and back into the fridge for about 16 hours (overnight plus some after I had some chores to do this morning).
Here they are coming out of a 16 hr overnight in the fridge to form the pellicle:
Looking good so far!
Now for some cherry wood:
And to get the smoker up to temp and into the TBS they go!
I didn’t time them (should have but knew I was cooking to temp so wasn’t too worried this time) and they all came off at different times based on their temperature. I pulled one at 145* for me and my wife and the rest my friend wanted taken all the way to 161*. Here they are all smoked up:
I think they look awesome! I tried a small pinch of one and while it was pretty salty I did like the flavor! Next time I’ll have to experiment with a less salty brine mix. Finally I let them all rest and come to room temperature before getting them all vac packed and back into the freezer:
Thanks for looking! Final notes I’d say that cherry wood is going to be a really nice wood for smoking fish. Also I think I’m going to look for a way to brine the fish that doesn’t use as much salt. My wife and I don’t mind but my friend has had heart issues and really watches his salt. He knows what I did and is still really looking forward to getting them though! Also sorry it’s been a while since I’ve been active on here, having a 4 month old at home has taken a lot of my free internet time. I wouldn’t trade any of the time that I’m getting with him for anything though!
Hope y‘all enjoy!
JBPilot
