Cooking Goldeye

[slingshotz]

Originally Posted by fisherwoman

And I used ionized salt, it was all I had on hand.
And I did not cold smoke the fish, if that is the plan, the salt is a must. I cooked mine at 200F for 2.5 hours.

That really messes up the flavour if you use ionized salt. The brine needs to be that salty to change the texture of the meat, as long as you do not leave it over night, the fish doesn't really absorb that much salt. Also it makes a big difference if you can dry the surface of the fish out after the brining. Buy yourself a big bag of sea or kosher salt for brining, it makes a huge difference. I love smoked goldeye but I also love oily fishes like mackerel and herring, but I'd agree it's not everyone's cup of tea.

And the scientific reason for brine for those geeky types is the following (completely plagiarized from another site ):

Of all the processes at work during brining, the most significant is salt's ability to denature proteins. The dissolved salt causes some of the proteins in muscle fibers to unwind and swell. As they unwind, the bonds that had held the protein unit together as a bundle break. Water from the brine binds directly to these proteins, but even more important, water gets trapped between these proteins when the meat cooks and the proteins bind together. Some of this would happen anyway just during cooking, but the brine unwinds more proteins and exposes more bonding sites. As long as you don't overcook the meat, which would cause protein bonds to tighten and squeeze out a lot of the trapped liquid, these natural juices will be retained.