Smoked fish

One of the things I've missed most since leaving Texas in 2006 is great bar-b-que. So I bought a charcoal grill with a smoke box and started experimenting at home with all different kinds of smoked meats. I found that one of the best things to put on the smoker is fish. It’s delicious crumbled into scrambled eggs, mixed with cream cheese as a spread, layered on buttery toast or with just a simple squeeze of lemon or lime. I've tried many different variations, different kinds of fish, different woods and different techniques with varying degrees of success. So here is everything you ever wanted to know about smoked fish.  

First, let’s talk about the fish. Smoked salmon is by far the most popular and I've tried several different kinds of salmon from farm raised to wild caught, from Atlantic to Alaskan, from small, thin fillets to big, thick pieces. It's all delicious and every type and cut yields something slightly different. I tend to prefer fillets on the thinner side and I like the wild caught sockeye or Coho salmon.  It’s a little more expensive, but I think it’s worth it.  

Steelhead trout fillets

Bluefish is my personal favorite.  It’s a strong flavored fish and will really stink up your house if you cook it fresh, but the brine and smoke alter its flavor and it’s just wonderful in a spread. Bluefish is not widely available outside of the northeast US, but sometimes a good fishmonger can get their hands on it if you ask. Steelhead trout is also excellent on the smoker.  It looks a bit like salmon but has a lighter flavor and is much less expensive than salmon. I tried smoking whole trout with good results. The texture was flaky and that fresh water river-bottom flavor was enhanced by the smoke.

Smoking does not lend itself to every kind of seafood. Thin, delicate, light-fleshed fish like snapper or flounder is not a good candidate for the smoker. Likewise, thick and moist fish like sea bass tastes lovely with a hint of smoke, but its texture isn't as appealing as a thinner, dryer fillet. Shellfish is very nice with a little bit of smoke, but it requires a completely different approach and is really meant to be grilled quickly with the smallest exposure to wood smoke. Its delicate flavor can easily be overpowered. The best results I've had so far are with dark, robust and moderately thin fillets of salmon, steelhead trout and bluefish.  Leave the skin on it so it retains its shape while smoking.  

Before any fish fillet goes on the smoker, it needs to be brined, which is integral to the best finished product. Without brining, you're really just grilling the fish with a little smoke. Brining changes the texture of the flesh, making it more resilient. The two most important factors are the strength of the brine and the length of time the fish spends in it. I've tried brining for just a couple of hours, up to 8 hours and overnight. The longer the fish sits in the brine, the more firm it becomes and the more flavors it picks up. The fish brined for just a few hours didn't get the full benefit of the chemical metamorphosis that brining produces and it didn't change much in texture. However you can over-brine your fish, which makes it mushy. From my experience, 8 to 14 hours is the perfect amount of time for brining, depending on the thickness of your fillets. Thinner fillets will get the full benefit of the brine after 8 hours. Thicker fillets need the full 14 hour soak.  Always brine your fish in the fridge.

I've also tried a number of different ingredients in the brine.  Really, the only things that matter in a brine are salt and sugar and most of the time you can't really taste anything else in the final product. But I have added things to the brine that resulted in subtle flavor differences. White wine adds an acidic flavor and soy sauce adds a musty flavor that works well. Lemons, limes, oranges and clementines can also add flavor if you use enough.  Bay leaves, cloves and ginger added in the right proportions can come through in the flavor as well but again, I had to add a lot of them to have any results. For 6 to 8 fish fillets, I use 6 quarts of water, 1 1/2 cup of kosher salt and 1 cup of sugar. I also add 1/4 of a cup of soy sauce and any other flavorings. Bring your water to a boil, add your brine ingredients and let them steep until the water is room temperature. Then add ice to cool everything down. Do not add your fish to the hot brine. You'll cook it and that's not good at all. Once your brine is cold, add the fish and put the container in the fridge. I smoke my fish on a wire rack that I can lift on and off the smoker surface easily. I like to take my fish out of the brine, place it on the wire rack and dry it well, season the surface with ground pepper and let it sit out at room temperature for at least an hour before I smoke it. This creates a shine on the surface of the fish when it's cooked.  

The last variable is the wood.  I've tried hickory, oak, apple, cherry and peach. The cherry and peach woods are expensive and I couldn't really tell a difference from apple wood. The hickory was a bit stronger, the oak a little less prominent and mesquite is far too assertive for fish. Apple wood is the absolute best for this purpose. It has a light smoky flavor that doesn't overpower the fish. Luckily, it is inexpensive and easy to find at any hardware or home improvement store.  

Smoked salmon and bluefish

As with smoking any meats, it’s important to keep the temperature of your smoker at about 225 degrees. If it's too hot, you'll have fish jerky. Believe me, I've done this and when I opened the lid of my smoker and saw 8 black, shriveled pelts of carefully prepared bluefish, my heard sank. So, take care to keep the dampers on your smoker mostly closed and keep an eye on the temperature. Place your fish as far away from the heat source as you can. Soak your wood in water for 20 minutes before putting it on the fire. I just drop handfuls of wet wood chips directly on the coals, but I know some people prefer a pan or foil bundle to burn their wood more slowly. Check your fish after an hour to make sure it’s not burning.  You should have perfectly smoked fish in about two hours, depending on the thickness of the fillets and placement on the smoker.  

You can store your smoked fish in a container in the fridge and it’ll keep for a little over a week. You can wrap it in plastic wrap, put it in a plastic bag and store it in the freezer for several months. You can also break it up into large pieces, pack it tightly into a glass jar and fill it with olive oil. This will keep in the fridge for about a month and the olive oil adds richness to the fish. So, there it is, smoked fish in all its glory. Trial and error, experimentation and variations have led to what I think is a pretty detailed lesson in smoking fish. I hope you find it helpful. And please share your results with me. Maybe you've tried something I didn't think of.