# Smoked fish recipe.



## Skeeterdone (Jun 21, 2014)

I smoke salmon this way. Thought you might be interested in trying it on some kings. I here all the posts about fish dip. You might want to vary brine time due to thicker fillets. Also double your brine amount due to the larger fish.

Remove skin. Cut into manageable size pieces. 

Put these pieces into the following brine:

Brine:
Put 1 quart of apple juice in a pot on the stove, bringing to low boil & then down to simmer.
Add to this;
6 ounces of soy sauce
1/2 cup of non-iodized salt
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 tsp of Garlic powder
1/2 tsp of Onion powder
1/2 tsp of Cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp of Dried Bay Leaf Flakes (or 2 or 3 fresh bay leaves)

Stir until salt is dissolved. Then add 1 quart of water & ice to cool quickly.


Pieces thicker than 1/2" should be in brine for 6 hours.

Pieces 1/2" thick or less should only be in brine for 4 hours.

After removing from brine, rinse each piece well, pat dry, and lay on paper towels.

Get however many smoker racks you will need. My batches just fit on three racks. Spray each rack with Pam to limit the amount the fish will stick to the racks. Dry the thickest pieces one at a time again with paper towels, and put these pieces on one rack. Dry the thinnest pieces, and put them on a different rack. Dry the rest of the pieces, and put them on a third rack. I put the three racks in my extra fridge overnight (uncovered) to dry & form pellicle.

The next day: (Time to smoke)
Put the rack with thinnest pieces on top position of your smoker, medium on next position, and thickest on third position.
NO water in water pan.
Exhaust vent fully opened.
Put meat probe in center of thickest piece of fish.
Set smoker to 100 degrees.
Put hickory chips & a couple chunks of Hickory in smoking pan.
During smoking, when smoke stops, add Apple chips & chunks.
Use Hickory only for first couple hours.
I try for a light to medium smoke with my Master built electric smoker.
A little burst of heavy smoke doesn't seem to hurt.
Don't need any smoke after first 4 hours.


Keep smoker at 100* for about one hour.
One hour later, bump temp up to 120*--------My internal is about 76*
One half hour later, bump to 140*--------------My internal is about 98*
One half hour later, bump to 160*--------------My internal is about 113*
One half hour later, bump to 180*--------------My internal is about 124*
One hour later, bump to 200*-------------------My internal is about 134*

Remove pieces as they go above 145* internal.
How long this takes doesn't matter, just so they go over 145*.
Some of mine have gone up to over 160*, and it didn't hurt.
If you have to, you can bump your smoker up to 200*, but no higher.

Let the pieces cool for an hour or more in an open top plastic bowl.
Put the bowl in a fridge overnight (uncovered) to cool & air out.

Next day, dump pieces out on paper towels, wipe surface moisture off of each piece, and vacuum pack a couple pieces in each pack. Mark date & freeze packs.


Thawing before eating:
After freezing & thawing, the pieces have a lot of moisture on their surfaces. I found that the best thing to do is rinse each piece quickly, and wipe each piece dry with paper towels. Any piece from that pack that isn’t eaten immediately should be wrapped loosely in a paper towel, and stored in the refrigerator. After the first day or two, you can put the leftover thawed pieces in a baggie to keep from getting too dry. These pieces should keep in the refrigerator for at least 4 or 5 days. I never had any left thawed out longer than that, so I don’t know how much longer they’ll keep in the fridge.


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

Thanks for sharing the recipe.


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