Northwest Fishing Reports

Ive used this with salmon and 3 types of trout. You couldnt tell the difference and its better than anything out there!

Brine:

4 cups dark brown sugar
.5 cup kosher salt
LOTS of fresh garlic cloves crushed.

MIX:

All ingredients above and cover the tops of fillets. Let sit for 8-12 hours in the fridge.
Rinse and dry the fillets and smoke :D

so the white meat trout will tastelike salmon smoked sweet ialmost got s full smoker then thanks for the tips

In this brine, they taste EXTREMELY close! Very tasty stuff.

My recipe is pretty close, same amount of brown sugar, but 1 cup of kosher salt and 2 Tbls of pepper. I'll also use 2 Tbls of garlic powder if I don't have any garlic.
Same brine time with mine, depending how thick the fillets are and I dry it for 8 hours.

Good stuff.

Thanks for the recipe. I'll try it once I make or buy a smoker.

The old saying is. There should be enough salt if the pieces float in the brine. If you plan on eating it imediately it wouldnt matter. I sometimes seal it and store it. Salt is acting more of a preservitive then a flavor. Even better then salt for me is Soy sauce.

Come on Ralph, you kow as well as I do Soy Sauce = salt.....

I use a similar recipe but salt the fish BEFORE adding it to the brine. I lay all the fish out on the counter pre cut to the size I want then sprinkle them salt directly onto each piece of fish, use a liberal layer on each but don't go too crazy or you will have salt-mouth bigtime at the end haha. Let the salt sit on the fish for about an hour, it will liquefy and cover the fish. Ten I just start layering it into a 5 gallon bucket with the first layer having the meat side up and layer it meat to meat and skin to skin all the way to the top sprinkling liberal amounts of brown sugar in between layers to completely cover the fish. Leave it in the fridge for half a day, then take it out stir it all up (at this point it will be liquid) then put it back in the fridge another half a day for 24 hours of total brine time. Pull it out, do a flash rinse under cold running water just to remove the excess sugar on the outside, set it out on the counter, sprinkle with cracked peppercorns and allow it to air dry about 3 hours or until tacky. Then into the smoker for 4-6 hours depending on thickness. I like to use alder and apple woods to smoke and usually do 3-5 chip trays (I like it extra smokey, most people only do 2-3 trays).

I've tried smoking fish before; I can never get them to stay lit....

Wow, I can't belive how much time I spent on such a lame joke.

Sunday's Lake Stevens Kokanee meet the smoker!

wow. Now that looks good! Dont think I have ever had smoked Koke. Well, dont think I have ever had Koke in general. Looks great though! Im doin up a bunch of rainbow and cutthroats today. Been in the brine since yesterday. I added some fresh cracked pepper to it

Soy sauce is salt. I just use Soy instead of adding additional salt. In my recipe from Luhr Jensen it says to put in soy and salt. I go soy only. Thats what I meant by the use of Soy Sauce.

Kokanee is by far my favorite fish to put in the smoker! If you haven't tried it you are really missing out on something special.

Sockeye bellies, hard smoked with a little too much sugar.....

This sounds like a good recipe to try. I generally leave my trout whole and use a liquid brine. If I ever get some big enough I'll def fillet them out and try this.

I just tried this recipe with rainbow trout and it is def good! It's not what I'm used to at all, way more sweet than salty. I'll be making this again!

Salmon bellies? Bodo don't you be giving away the secret. I often end up cleaning a lot of other folks salmon at the cleaning stations just for the belly and collar trims. Saltwater caught salmon only as the salmon burn up their belly fat getting up the rivers and whats left gets rancid.

Glad ya like it Yooper. Did you use half or one cup kosher? You can always use a tad more, I just prefer mine a little on the sweeter side as I think of it as my candy lol.

I used the half cup as I was making another batch of saltier trout with my recipe at the same time. I like them both, they're just different.