Smoked Steelhead, Part Deux...

I love smoked fish.  It is actually one of the things I was looking forward to most when we upgraded our smoker equipment.  Around to holidays I like to slow smoke all types of fish to have throughout the year for stews, dips, and just to snack on in the summer.  One of my favorite types of fish for the smoker is steelhead.

Steelhead is a close cousin to a salmon.  It is sort of like a cross between a salmon and a trout.  I think they have more complex flavors than your garden variety salmon.  Slightly more fatty than a salmon, it is perfect for smoking.

So, to smoke one of these taste treats, I made a batch of brine.  I played around with my usual brine to try something different, and here is what I came up with:

Steelhead Brine

6 cups Water
½ cup Salt
⅓ cup Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Tbsp. Pepper
⅔ cup Sugar
½ cup Brown Sugar

Bring to a boil and cool...

This is the time of year where I love my alternate freezer...

While the brine was cooling, I rinsed and patted dry my fillets...

Then, the fish go for one last overnight swim in the brine...

The next day, I lit my smoker and brought to a temperature of 150 F.  While I was waiting on the smoker to come to temp, I removed the fillets from the brine, rinsed with water, patted dry, and placed on a cookie rack until shiny.  This takes about 1-2 hours.  Allowing the fish to dry a bit and take on that shiny appearance allows the fish to take on more of the flavor of the smoking wood...

I placed some Alder (courtesy of my friend Darrell in Seattle) in the ash pan and put the fillets on the top rack...

I shut the smoker door and came back 12 hours later...

The white that you see is the fat rendering from the fish.  That is a good indication that you are close to done.  At this point, I tried a suggestion that my friend Mark in MN told me about...  I drizzled some honey on one of the fillets and started to ramp the temperature up to 180 F.  Note:  Darrell has also suggested using brown sugar.  I will try this the next time I smoke up some steelhead...

The ramp time for the temperature is slow.  I went from 150 F to 180 F over a two hour time frame.  Once I hit 180 F, I removed the fillets.  The shiny one out in the front is the honey glazed fillet...

I let the fillets cool for about 15 minutes, then flipped them over and peeled off the skin.  At this point, it comes right off the meat...

I then broke the fish up into equal portions, vacuum sealed, and put in the freezer for use at a later date...

I was very happy with this batch of steelhead.  The taste was wonderful.  What Alder does to steelhead should be criminal (in a good way).  Most of the fat is rendered, but there is just enough that mingles with the smoke flavor.  Serve with cheese, crackers, and some good dipping mustard, and you have a great appetizer that everyone will enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by...

Bill

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