Northwest Fishing Reports

After buying my smoker i wanted to learn a little more about smoking different foods so i found a book that is superb' hopefully help out any of the other weekend smokerers. Not only does the book cover the actual smoke recepies but give recipes for brining,dry curing, bbq sauces, mops and rubs on all of the proteins. It is also simple and very very easy to follow with temperture and time requirements. Cant wait to try the smoked lamb.
oh and the book is called

Backyard BBQ The art of smokology

I paid 13 bucks on amazon bloody bargin IMO.

Good stuff, Its fun to pre smoke steaks and chicken before they hit the bbq. Lamb is good but if you can master pork butt you got some awesome pulled sandwiches

Does anybody have smoking techniques/brine recipes to share about trout?

I started a thread last year that got some pretty darn good recipes submitted. I had a chance to try all of them, and have to say that they all worked out well. It depends on the flavor that you're going for but after experimentation for trout I like to use a dry brine with a 4:1 ration of salt to dark brown sugar and between each layer of fish I slather it with honey, and brine it for two days. I Like to smoke it with cherry wood, and give it an extra kick of apple at the end, and I smoke it to be firmer than normal. I also de-bone and skin the fish and, depending on the size of the fillets, turns out like sweet fish jerky, or a nice sized trout candy bar, with a nice crust on the outside, and a softer fishy center. I like to eat it like that asian pork stuff and dip it in hot mustard and sesame seeds. It's also good plain or with horseradish.

The other recipe that I like for ttrout is the orange juice recipe that I think markfromsea posted in the other thread. It comes out juicey and moister for putting it into a dip or cracker topping and flakes out really nicely. With the trout fillets is a pain but take the time to get out the little bones that way you can eat it just like candy.

*edit here's the link to that other post http://washingtonlakes.com/forum/viewto ... 8&start=20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks. I have only been able to catch 1 pounders lately. I don't think it would be worth it to fillet those 12-13 in. trout, let alone being a pain in the ace. I may have to re-think my methods.

ShakeNBake wrote:Does anybody have smoking techniques/brine recipes to share about trout?

here are two very good ones,

First:

1/2 Gallon of water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup salt
2 Tablespoons Garlic powder
2 Tablespoons chili powder
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
10-12 trout

soak over night in brine in a glass cake pan, pat dry and lay out on smoker racks for about an hour, preheat and get the smoke going good in the smoker, smoke until desired firmness







my favorite:

SPICY SWEET
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup rock salt
1 Tbl sp chilly powder
1 Tbl sp onion powder
1 Tbl sp garlic powder
1 Tbl sp white pepper
1/2 Tbl sp cinamon
2 Tsp allspice
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ginger

Mix ingedients lay fish skin side down in glass container pour brine over fish
cover and refrigerate for 12 hours. Rince, pat dry & let sit for 2 to three
hours. Smoke to desired texture.

ShakeNBake wrote:Thanks. I have only been able to catch 1 pounders lately. I don't think it would be worth it to fillet those 12-13 in. trout, let alone being a pain in the ace. I may have to re-think my methods.

You'd think that, but if you get enough of them it is. When you filet them and cut out the y-bones you end up with an albeit thin fillet, but it still smokes up into a nice bite sized bit of fish. Like a candy bar or a strip of jerky. I like to smoke them more than fry them up actually, when I save up enough trout to make it worthwhile, it's nice to have on other fishing trips as a snack.

LAst season I caught a lot of trout from the Tilton over a weekend, and they were only 8 to 12 inches with a few larger 17 or so. It's not the same animal that smoking a five pound steelhead is, but still very much worth it. And filleting trout is way easy, one slice, two! It's like perch fillets or crappie, small, but if you catch enough it's way easier to eat that way. and you can save the bones for fish stock.

Good stuff guys! I caught another 5 rainbows today, most in the 1-1.5 lb range. I know a guy who just scales and cleans his, then smokes em whole. They taste great, of course you have to pick through the bones. If I can get his recipe I will post it.

Ill use that recipe.

I wasn't able to find that recipe from that guy so I experimented myself. I found a recipe for a wet brine that hewesfisher posted a while back on the thread mentioned above, I modified it a bit. I brined for 48 hours, smoked for almost 4 hours. The result was good but a bit salty, just a bit. So I would drop the soy sauce. The overall finished product looked good and was tasty. I brought the smoked trout to a party and it was all eaten. The second recipe I posted is another experiment. I thought if I could use less water and make it more concentrated I wouldn't have to brine as long. Here are both of the recipes for whole trout:

#1
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup white wine(I had chardonnay handy)
4 cups H2O
1 TS garlic powder
1 TS onion powder
1 TS Tabasco
* Again, I would drop the soy sauce.

#2
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 cup white wine
3 cups H2O
1 TB molasses
1 TB garlic powder
1 TB Tobasco

I'll use none of those, salt and sugar only. That is unless you are smoking questionable fish and want to hide the flavor.

Thats what Ive been saying all along. I love the taste of fresh fish . Why mask it. Save the masking for Chum and Pink season. JMO

I hear you guys. I normally use a sugar/salt/fresh garlic for salmon. This was for whole trout,I thought I would try this. Especially the littler ones. This worked for me. I wouldn't do this type of brine to a larger fish(salmon or trout) that I could fillet and smoke chunks. I also wanted to create a taste my wife and son could enjoy. I didn't think I would get a reaction for posting this,just trying something new. I also think fresh pink salmon that was bled can taste pretty decent with a basic brine, or bbq/baked. I am very new to smoking fish. I can smoke a mean shoulder/ribs/ham though.

Cheers

Is that an invite to Columbia Basin for dinner this weekend? Can you grind mine up so I can eat it like baby food till I get my new chompers?

Just smoked up the fish we caught at Riffe. This time I paid heed to rseas's suggestion of letting it air dry first, I did 6 hrs, to get the pellicle (sp?). Anyway, I think they turned out well, good flavor. A couple issues and questions.

1) I ran the smoker low at 170-180, which was OK except that it didn't get my cast iron smoke chip holder to really get the chips smoking like I'm used to, although they do seem smokey enough. Makes me think maybe a little smoke goes a long way, especially on a small fillet.

2) Still had some moisture on the fillets (but much improved!), also, the ones along the back wall curled up, I'm guessing that part of the smoker was warmer - would you agree?

Total smoke time was about 2 hrs give or take. I did get the heat up to 200 for about 30 minutes which got me my smoke.

Picture of finished product (image is only showing the left side rack, there's another that's about the same, the whole picturee is posted on my report):