In thanks to the three people from here that tried to help me with my questions before staring this, and the other people who may be looking for more info that goes beyond pulling the fish out of the smoker when done, I offer this Q-View to the community.
My cousin working in the streams of Appalachia West Virginia harvests a bunch of trout every year, and through my dad who lives up in “them thar mountains” during the spring through fall, this year I got probably 20 or so. I decided to start with a bag of 5 for my first whole fish smoke. These are modest sized fish as you can see, but there was plenty of meat to harvest.
I decided to go with the wet brine. It just seems be more effective and fast at getting flavor in to the core of the meat. But that is an opinion, your mileage may vary.
Brining ingredients
For up to 2 lbs. of fish or fillets
½ gallon water (preferably bottled),
room temperature
1 C. salt (preferably Kosher)
½ C. brown sugar
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup soy sauce
1 t. onion powder
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. ground pepper
1/2t cayenne
Sliced lemon and herbs in the cavity
Brined 2 hours
Smoked at 180° 1.25 hours-ish to 145° or more
-Heat the water so that the sugar will dissolve and mixed marinade ingredients
-The fish had been cleaned and heads removed for me…lucky me! Reading other blogs across the web, I decided to cut slits in the flesh through the skin.
-Back in to the gallon bag I got them in with the marinade, the bag in to a crappy pan I keep just for leakage in situations like this, and in to the fridge. Allowed to brine for about 2 hours in the fridge.
-Removed from the marinade. I did not rinse, it makes no sense to me to do that with a wet brine. I placed sliced lemon, a sprig of thyme, a little fresh parsley and a single sage leaf in each fish cavity. The toothpick was just for the picture, the way I have my phone set up its hard to take one handed pics. I just happened to still have these herbs in pots on my back deck, they survive early freeze; I did not go out and pay a bunch of money for them.
You could tell in just a couple hours the marinade went to work on the fish as it was already softening up and getting a bit more “floppy”? That’s a technical term…for amateur smokers!
Also, I did not concern myself with air drying or pellicle formation. It makes no sense to me with whole fish. I did do that with salmon fillet though…because when the flesh is exposed…pellicle formation, then, makes sense. I used a clean, old towel to dry each fish of excess marinade though. My wife rejects kitchen towels for new ones periodically…I keep them and store them in my garage cooking and prep area for heavy cooking use. They get washed and reused, even when used for shelling oysters.
-In to the smoker. I do NOT preheat the Masterbuilt 30 for short smokes, it doesn’t make sense because the element turns off at temp and in a short smoke, you want a good amount of smoke fast.The smoke you see there is because I had just dropped some peach chips in and had turned the smoker on just minutes before putting the fish in. On any given day the steps could be reversed but the key is starting with a cold electric smoker.
I use water. The water pan is there for a reason. (Opinion…your mileage may vary)
-Allowed the smoker to reach 180 then timed 30 minutes. Fish was already at about 130…flipped and set the timer for another 30 minutes. Fish had just reached 145. I let the smoker roll for about another 15 minutes while I was clearing out some other food prep I had going in the kitchen, then turned it off, opened the door and let the fish rest and cool for about another 15 while continuing to stay busy in the kitchen clearing the way for breaking them down…and keeping an eye out the window lest a coon or a neighbor’s dog or cat happened to be nearby…
-So here’s where almost all other blogs and posts I found on smoking whole fish leave off…what to do now?
-I’m not confident I have determined the best method for this in just my first whole fish smoke but I was able to lift off nearly whole filets either cutting a slice down the back of the fish or even taking a chef’s knife from the cavity side and cutting the whole fish in half through the back.
-What’s for sure is the skin peels off easier from the back with that starting cut...peeling toward the belly. The belly had a little bit of almost a crispy line right at the edge that wants to grab a little tighter to the skin. If a bit of that came off...no prob, I ate some of it and it’s not ideal…but it is edible of course.
-With the skin off I tried both the cutting though the entire spine/back of the fish and just leaving both sides connected. I don’t know that one was better than the other, but with a little intuitiveness and patience you can get the core bone line out. This DOES leave plenty of bone in/on the meat so with the combination of finger tips and even a knife edge or other flat blade a bit of careful cleaning and removing the bones was necessary…kind of like finding pin bones of a salmon fillet but they’re right on the surface and easier to remove just by lifting.
*If anyone has a technique for a “clean lift” of the bone off the meat, please share. I tried asking about this part of the harvesting and so far no one offered any specifics. The bones did come off pretty easy, but not the entire skeleton at once. I have more fish to smoke, so I’ll have a chance to try again.
So there you go. Smoked whole trout all the way from brine to harvesting the meat from the skin and bones.
-So, in summary, this was delicious. A little strong on the fish taste like trout can be but I’m actually not a big fish fan so it may not be strong to a fish lover at all. I like my fish raw with wasabi and soy (sushi/sashimi) (can’t do that with non-ocean fish, parasites are too small to see so freshwater fish MUST be cooked), or smoked like this and served in a variety of ways, or deep fried…who doesn’t like deep fried…anything?
I hope this helps someone who was looking for a little more detail, and I appreciate any comments and suggestions from more experienced fish smokers out there to improve on what I now know.
My cousin working in the streams of Appalachia West Virginia harvests a bunch of trout every year, and through my dad who lives up in “them thar mountains” during the spring through fall, this year I got probably 20 or so. I decided to start with a bag of 5 for my first whole fish smoke. These are modest sized fish as you can see, but there was plenty of meat to harvest.
I decided to go with the wet brine. It just seems be more effective and fast at getting flavor in to the core of the meat. But that is an opinion, your mileage may vary.
Brining ingredients
For up to 2 lbs. of fish or fillets
½ gallon water (preferably bottled),
room temperature
1 C. salt (preferably Kosher)
½ C. brown sugar
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup soy sauce
1 t. onion powder
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. ground pepper
1/2t cayenne
Sliced lemon and herbs in the cavity
Brined 2 hours
Smoked at 180° 1.25 hours-ish to 145° or more
-Heat the water so that the sugar will dissolve and mixed marinade ingredients
-The fish had been cleaned and heads removed for me…lucky me! Reading other blogs across the web, I decided to cut slits in the flesh through the skin.
-Back in to the gallon bag I got them in with the marinade, the bag in to a crappy pan I keep just for leakage in situations like this, and in to the fridge. Allowed to brine for about 2 hours in the fridge.
-Removed from the marinade. I did not rinse, it makes no sense to me to do that with a wet brine. I placed sliced lemon, a sprig of thyme, a little fresh parsley and a single sage leaf in each fish cavity. The toothpick was just for the picture, the way I have my phone set up its hard to take one handed pics. I just happened to still have these herbs in pots on my back deck, they survive early freeze; I did not go out and pay a bunch of money for them.
You could tell in just a couple hours the marinade went to work on the fish as it was already softening up and getting a bit more “floppy”? That’s a technical term…for amateur smokers!
Also, I did not concern myself with air drying or pellicle formation. It makes no sense to me with whole fish. I did do that with salmon fillet though…because when the flesh is exposed…pellicle formation, then, makes sense. I used a clean, old towel to dry each fish of excess marinade though. My wife rejects kitchen towels for new ones periodically…I keep them and store them in my garage cooking and prep area for heavy cooking use. They get washed and reused, even when used for shelling oysters.
-In to the smoker. I do NOT preheat the Masterbuilt 30 for short smokes, it doesn’t make sense because the element turns off at temp and in a short smoke, you want a good amount of smoke fast.The smoke you see there is because I had just dropped some peach chips in and had turned the smoker on just minutes before putting the fish in. On any given day the steps could be reversed but the key is starting with a cold electric smoker.
I use water. The water pan is there for a reason. (Opinion…your mileage may vary)
-Allowed the smoker to reach 180 then timed 30 minutes. Fish was already at about 130…flipped and set the timer for another 30 minutes. Fish had just reached 145. I let the smoker roll for about another 15 minutes while I was clearing out some other food prep I had going in the kitchen, then turned it off, opened the door and let the fish rest and cool for about another 15 while continuing to stay busy in the kitchen clearing the way for breaking them down…and keeping an eye out the window lest a coon or a neighbor’s dog or cat happened to be nearby…
-So here’s where almost all other blogs and posts I found on smoking whole fish leave off…what to do now?
-I’m not confident I have determined the best method for this in just my first whole fish smoke but I was able to lift off nearly whole filets either cutting a slice down the back of the fish or even taking a chef’s knife from the cavity side and cutting the whole fish in half through the back.
-What’s for sure is the skin peels off easier from the back with that starting cut...peeling toward the belly. The belly had a little bit of almost a crispy line right at the edge that wants to grab a little tighter to the skin. If a bit of that came off...no prob, I ate some of it and it’s not ideal…but it is edible of course.
-With the skin off I tried both the cutting though the entire spine/back of the fish and just leaving both sides connected. I don’t know that one was better than the other, but with a little intuitiveness and patience you can get the core bone line out. This DOES leave plenty of bone in/on the meat so with the combination of finger tips and even a knife edge or other flat blade a bit of careful cleaning and removing the bones was necessary…kind of like finding pin bones of a salmon fillet but they’re right on the surface and easier to remove just by lifting.
*If anyone has a technique for a “clean lift” of the bone off the meat, please share. I tried asking about this part of the harvesting and so far no one offered any specifics. The bones did come off pretty easy, but not the entire skeleton at once. I have more fish to smoke, so I’ll have a chance to try again.
So there you go. Smoked whole trout all the way from brine to harvesting the meat from the skin and bones.
-So, in summary, this was delicious. A little strong on the fish taste like trout can be but I’m actually not a big fish fan so it may not be strong to a fish lover at all. I like my fish raw with wasabi and soy (sushi/sashimi) (can’t do that with non-ocean fish, parasites are too small to see so freshwater fish MUST be cooked), or smoked like this and served in a variety of ways, or deep fried…who doesn’t like deep fried…anything?
I hope this helps someone who was looking for a little more detail, and I appreciate any comments and suggestions from more experienced fish smokers out there to improve on what I now know.
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