We Learned How to Smoke Trout! Here’s the Recipe

The Fishing Trip that Keeps On Giving

As I mentioned in my recent Trout Tacos post, the Grill-Meister recently went on a deep-sea fishing trip off the coast of Biloxi, Mississippi and brought home some bounty from the sea.

Today’s culinary adventure is smoking some of the trout he caught. The Grill-Meister is a wizard at smoking salmon (see Tom’s Smoked Salmon), but this is our first time to tackle trout.  After looking at some recipes online, I developed the brine recipe, marinated the fillets overnight, drained, dried and got them ready, and the Grill-Meister took over at the smoking point.

Smoked Trout

Ingredients

• 16 oz. apple juice
• 1 tbsp chili oil
• 2 tbsp cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup white win
• 2 tbsp Zippy Southwest seasoning mix, or your favorite (Old Bay is good)
• 3 lbs. boneless trout fillets
• Wood chips for smoking (the Grill-Meister used mesquite)

Cooking Instructions

Combine all of the ingredients except the trout in a large glass baking dish, and stir to mix. Add the fillets, pushing them down into the brine to make sure all of the fish is covered, then put a layer of plastic wrap directly on top of the brine and fish to make it almost airtight and keep the fish submerged. You may want to cover it with another layer of plastic wrap to seal it well.  Refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.

Remove the fish from the brine and dry it on a layer of paper towels, then let it sit on a rack for about an hour to come to room temperature. Get your smoker and wood ready per the instructions from the manufacturer, and heat to 190°.  Smoke for about 2 hours, keeping the temperature at around 190°, or until done. Cover and chill until you are ready to use it.

Three pounds of smoked trout is richness! How to serve it???

Smoked Trout, Plated, Al Fresco

Here’s one way: flaked, with dipping sauces fresh from our foray to the farmers market today.

Our sauces are shown below; we love to support our local vendors.

The spicy cocktail sauce for our smoked trout is Big Bayou Cocktail Sauce (with Jalapeño). Yum! The green sauce is from Pain Train, their special, once-a-year version with roasted Hatch chiles.

You can find these vendors at:

• Big Bayou Cocktail Sauce
• Pain Train Salsa

…and as always, any product recommendations are my personal opinion and should not be considered as advertisements; Glover Gardens is not a commercial endeavor.

Copyright 2017, Glover Gardens Cookbook