Smoking Fish - Procedures and Tips

• Brine & Cure
• Drying
• Wood Choices
• Times & Temps

The first step in your fish smoking duty is to obtain some FRESH fish.  If it doesn't look FRESH or smell FRESH or feel FRESH, it probably isn't, and it will make your finished product taste like garbage (if it doesn't make you sick).  Don't go for anything that is "previously frozen", or anything that smells "fishy", or isn't firm to the touch.  If it's mushy or if its eyes are cloudy (if you have a whole one), it's been sitting around too long.  OK, I think you get the picture.  Now take it home and clean it up.  Make sure to get all the scales and gunk off of the meat, and cut out any "bloody" or dark red areas...these areas have old blood in them and taste awful.  Keep the fish very very cold until you're ready to brine it.

Brine & Cure

What is a brine?  Basically, a brine is salt and water.  For our purposes, we also add some extra spices as well as a pinch of curing salt.  Soaking the fish in brine will achieve a few things:

• It will firm up the flesh to be less mushy.
• It will draw out any old blood, which will improved the taste.
• It will add some saltiness to the fish.  In the right amounts, this is desired.
• It will add some additional flavoring to the fish.  My recipe also adds some garlic powder, black pepper, and lime.
• The cure will ensure that we are protected from the deadly Botulism bacteria, especially since this is a relatively low temperature cooking environment.  *cure is optional, but recommended.

(note: one alternative to brining is "koshering".  In "koshering", you just pack the spices on the fish like a rub, let the fish sit for a while, then wash it off.  Many great cooks like this method, but I prefer brining because I feel that it draws out the blood better.)

Brine Recipe

Warm the water in a large pan until all spices are dissolved.  Cool thoroughly before using (cold, very cold).

Add the cleaned fish to the brine and refrigerate for 1-hour.  Make sure that brine covers the fish completely.  (tip: Weigh down with a plate or use a plastic bag and remove the air).  Do not soak the fish for more than an hour, absolutely not more than one and a half hours.

After an hour in the fridge, remove fish from brine and rinse thoroughly under cold running water (trust me, you won't lose any flavor....if you don't rinse it, you'll have a salt-cake)

Drying

Pat dry with paper towels and hang on a rack to air-dry for 1-2 hours.  An electric fan will help. (tip: at this point, you can also sprinkle your fish with some coarse black pepper)

Let your fish air-dry until the "pellicle" has formed.  This is the shiny, slightly tacky, coating that your fish will get after it has dried.  The pellicle helps the smoke to coat evenly and not get blotchy.

You can't really tell from the pictures, but on the fish in the first picture is still wet (and sprinkled with black pepper).  In the second, the fish has dried for an hour, with the help of a fan, and is dry but shiny.  (tip: when your fish is almost dry, go fire up your smoker)

Let's smoke these babies....