Democratic Dad Blog

How to smoke a Trout

June 29, 2010 on 6:10 am | By admin | In Recreation and Sports | Comments Off

I get lots of people asking me how to smoke trout.

As I used to be a chef in my pre-turangi fishing guide days and as I have done a fair amount of fish smoking, I find the secret to a good smoked trout lies in the curing of the fish and this counts the same for either hot or cold smoking. This curing process is fairly simple but it does take time and this is where most people go wrong they try to rush the process.

It is also important to get the ratio of sugar and salt to fish right and if you stick to this simple formula in my recipe you will always get a good result regardless of what flavoring you use.

Marcel’s – the turangi fly fishing guide - smoked Trout recipe: 

• 1 whole trout

• Rock salt

• Brown sugar

• Flavorings i.e. Cracked black pepper, chopped dill .crushed mustard seeds , lemon zest (You can really experiment with different flavorings to get the taste you like)

Step 1 : Fillet your trout, I do this by getting a sharp flexible filleting knife and cutting right behind the gills straight down to the back bone, once you reach the bone you need to pivot the blade so that the knife blade is laying flat against the backbone and the sharp side of the blade is pointing towards the tail. Then using a slicing motion with downward pressure cut the fillet off towards the tail. Turn the fish over and repeat the same process. Now you should have two nice fillets, make sure you wash them well to get rid of any of the dark blood found close to the spine

Step 2 : Here is that formula I spoke about, weigh the fillets and then per kilo of fillets use 80 grams of rock salt and 120 grams of brown sugar. Mix the salt and sugar well in a bowl and set aside.

Step 3 : Place the fillets skin side down in a flat tray with raised sides, then sprinkle on the flavoring of your choice (my favorite is chopped dill and crushed mustard) now sprinkle on the sugar and salt mix using all of it and distributing it evenly over the fillets. Place in the fridge for about 12 hours. The sugar and salt mix should now have turned to liquid and the curing process is done

Step 4 : Now it is time to hang and dry the fillets, first wash the fish under running cold water to get rid of the curing brine then hang the fillets in a cool place to dry over night. You will know there done when there is a fine and shiny skin on the flesh

Step 5 : The fillets are now ready to be smoked, there are 2 ways to do this hot smoked or cold smoked. They give quite a different result hot smoked trout is cooked right through and is flaky, and cold smoked trout is still raw with a delicate smoky flavor. To hot smoke you simply place a small amount of sawdust in the smoker, put the fillets on the rack and place over the sawdust, then put the lid on the smoker and light the burner the fish will be done in about 20 mins To cold smoke you need a larger smoke house with the smoke being generated outside of the smoke house and then fed into the smoke house through a pipe to allow the smoke to cool; this process takes about 6 hours.

Enjoy – and please remeber, the turangi fly fishing guide!