I was lookin back in the threads and having a hard time finding a variety of recipes to try.The first batch I smoked turned out ok but I wanna try something different with the next batch. I have King, Silver, and a few jacks left to do. Any suggestions?

1/4 cup of each for every Qt. of water:

brown sugar
non-iodized salt
white sugar
soy sauce

brine overnight, rinse, lay out for an hour, smoke 3 pans of alder or apple. keep on racks until done.

simple but tasty.

Been using the following for 40+ years

1 quart of water

2/3 cup of sugar------white OR brown, both are good but prefer brown

1/2 cup of salt, as I've gotten older, I've backed off the salt.....

3 Tablespoons of Seafood seasoning....or Seasoning Salt

1 Tablespoon of garlic power

Marinate 8 -12 hours

rinse

Let glaze over(air dry) for a couple of hours....a fan can be helpful here

smoke, I prefer alder....how long depends on the temperture, and wind......older I get, the "more moist" I like it....start checking at 4 hours(taste test) can always finish in oven.....JUST DON'T OVER COOK.....ugh, ugh, ugh

Good luck........it's all good, some just better than others!!!!!!

2/3 yoshida
1/3 soy
Add brown or white sugar to taste (prefer brown)
Sprinkle garlic salt/powder on fish prior to marinading

Marinade overnight.

I bake my fish for about 20-25 min at 275 degrees. This way it's almost cooked prior to smoking. Line your pan with aluminuminum foil so you don't bake all that sugar onto it. Pain the arse to clean.

Immediately put in smoker for about 3 trays of chips. Only takes about 3 hours in the smoker.

Comes out moist and nicely smoked. Will last almost 2 weeks refrigerated. If you need to keep it longer pack and freeze.

Simple, Fast and tastes great.

1 part pickling salt
2 parts brown sugar
brine 2 days

let air dry an hour on racks
an hour or two before finished smoking, glaze with a honey/brown sugar/mapeline/lemon juice mixture. Then pepper (alot).

I throw it in the oven at 170 for the last couple hours. be sure there's something to catch juice if you put it in the oven.

MUST VACUUM PACK!! I like to over cook it, than freeze it for a month after it's smoked. it gets more flavor, and tenderizes. This also helps if you use too much salt.

p.s. there's no right way to smoke dark fish. If your meat aint orange/red when it goes in the brine, it'll never turn out great.

Agreed! In my receipe posted above, you use less salt but brine longer to achieve the same amount of denaturalization of the proteins and water extraction. The result is a sweeter smoked fish with the use of less salt.

Sugars are hydrophilic, so a longer brine bath with less salt & more sugar will also result in a moister end product.

Any brine receipe can be tweaked like this by reducing the salt and adding to brining time.

Amen. I have pretty much reduced it down to just pinches of sea salt for whatever recipe I am using.

I have found I can only eat one piece of overly-salty smoked fish, but can basically eat pounds of less salty fish in one sitting.

1 Part brown sugar
1/2 Part non-iodized salt
0 to 1/4 part white sugar

I dissolve the salt and sugar with hot tap water, and then throw in a bunch of ice and then top off with cold tap water. With about 2/3 of a gallon of water, this ends up being enough for one fillet from a big B-run steelhead.

Brine overnight rinse, pat dry and then air dry before smoking.

A word of caution: Do NOT smoke anything you cannot cure. I.e., if it has not been brined in salt or sodium nitrite, you can get sick from botulism. This is a basic rule that all charcuteriers follow.

Doesnt anyone use a dry brine?

I have used them all and get more consistent casing with dry. Use whatever brine you like and dont add water

Dry brine for the last 20 yrs
Brown sugar
Rocksalt
Super (not so) Secret spice
pat on heavy, leave for 12 hrs, dust off remaining salt w/ paper towel
Good to go...
Comes out looking like this...

I do the simple dry brine with a few spices as well, always rinse well to get rid of the heavy salt, drain, place on rack to dry and sprinkle with lemon pepper.........good stuff

Dry for me. Only for 40 years though.

Word to the wise.
Ply the smoked salmon cheese ball recipe out of Salmo G.
Then say thank you.

I have used a dry brine but have gone back to a simple wet brine
1 gal HOT water
1 1/2 cups kosher canning salt
1 cup brown sugar
juice of one lemon (you can use the bottled stuff)
1 large onion, chopped fine
4 large tblsp of minced garlic
mix well
Put the fish skin up in the brine and into the fridge from 4-6 hrs
remove and pat dry
air dry for 3-6 hrs depending on air temp.
optional; marinate in soy sauce for 1/2 hr,pat dry
optional; lightly coat with brown sugar or rub of your choice
always smoke with Alder to the way you like it.
Also, i have always had better luck with the bellies and thinner filets
really thick slabs don't ever seem to come out the way I like

4 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup salt
fresh pressed garlic if you like
black pepper
no need to oversalt, just leave it in longer. works for me