Smoking trout
 

Whats a good brim to soak trout in before smoking ?

You'll want to have a brine mixture of 1.5 cups of brown sugar (sometimes if you want to make it interesting, put in 1/4 cup of maple syrup) and 1.5 cups of salt to a gallon of water.

how long do you let them soak for? THANKS .

I use this in 1 1/2 litres of warm water,

1/4 to 1/2 cup sea salt, non-iodized (depending how salty you want it)
1/2 cup brown sugar (I have also used maple syrup)
1/4 cup vineger (I prefer cider vinegar)
1/4 cup red wine (optional)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic

soak brined portions in fridge at least 12 hours. When you take it out of brine, dry the pieces and let it sit for half an hour until you see a bit of a glaze on the flesh.
Then go ahead and smoke. I use a Big Chief smoker and find that a couple of pans of Hickory Chunks (not chips) does the job for a nice hot smoke.

Just to add to the post, what is a good brine for pike? or should I stick to the same one I use for trout/salmon (above)

I forgot to put the 1/2 cup of soy sauce in there as well

Overnight (12 hours) should do it :bad_boys_20:

Keep it simple:
- one gallon cold water (I use one U.S. gallon, but not much difference if you want to use imperial measures
-2 cups salt (coarse, non-iodized is best)
-1 cup brown sugar (more or less to your preference, I usually omit entirely)
-1/3 cup lemon juice (easiest to use bottled RealLemon or equivalent)

For most fish fillets, marinate one hour. If you catch xtra big lunkers, maybe add up to another hour. For Alberta whitefish and for store-bought BC salmon fillets, I use one hour. Drain and smoke to perfection.

Works great on turkey and chicken too -- marinate 2 hours for turkey.

I don't rinse the fish before smoking, just drain and smoke. That makes the end product fairly salty, which I like, but if you are on a reduced-salt diet then rinse accordingly. If you can't get the temps high enough in the smoker to cook the fish properly, finish cooking it in the BBQ or oven. But smoke for 2.5 to 3 hours first.

Iso, what marinate time do you use for goose and duck breasts? I was soaking them for 12 hours. But, I found myself having to cut way back on the salt because they were drying out too quickly in the smoker, which I put down to too much salt in the brine. I wonder if a short marinate would help fix the drying out problem instead of cutting back on the salt?

I haven't tried brining goose or duck but I would guess that an hour would be a good starting point, try two hours if you find they aren't brined enough or if they dry out. The rather strong brine solution I use works well for a quick-brining, the only real drawback I see is if you don't keep track of time and let things go hours instead of one hour... then they would end up too salty, so a guy would be better off using a less-salty brine and longer brining time that is more forgiving of getting busy with something else and forgetting that you've got dinner sitting in brine.

Yes, that's what I have been doing, much less salt now, only 1/4 cup to 2 litres water and they stay fairly moist.

Thanks guys ,,,turned out great ,candy....:)