Smoked Steelhead

When I am lucky enough to catch one of these...

It goes straight on the smoker.  If you are not near anywhere you can catch steelhead salmon, you can buy it at a reasonable price at Costco and it works just as well.

First, I prepare a brine to soak the fish in overnight.  My friend Darrell from Seattle was kind enough to give me his dads recipe as well as some nice alder for smoking the fish.  Here is the recipe...

Darrell's Dad's Smoked Fish

Into 1 1/2 gallons of water:

2 cups sugar

1 cup salt

4 heaping tablespoons garlic powder

2 heaping tablespoons onion powder

Brine for 4 hours

take fish out of brine and pat dry

sprinkle lightly with garlic and onion powder

smoke at 150 -160 degrees for 12 -14 hours ramping up to 200 towards end to finish

sprinkle with brown sugar right at end

The modifications that I made to the above are that I let the fish brine overnight, I add a tablespoon of Texas Pete Hot Sauce to the brine, and I allow the fish to air dry on a rack for 1 hour or until the fish becomes shiny.  I also do not add the brown sugar at the end.  Here are some examples...

Before...

After...

As you can see, if you get a little heavy handed with the garlic/onion powder, it will darken.  But, it does not effect the flavor.  The skin pulls right off the bottom and the finished product vacuum packs and freezes well.  

We eat as is, or make an outstanding fish dip that we can eat with a spoon...

Thanks for stopping by...

Bill