He made me some smoked Rainbow Trouts today. I beheaded them, cut them in half, and brined them for about an hour. Then he smoked them for a couple of hours on exceedingly low heat.
The finished flesh is creamy-tender like a poached fish and does have a mildly smoky flavor. But that’s not really what I was going for…I think I should have gone the rest of the way and filleted them ahead of time. Then presumably we would have a more dry, salty smoked fish with a little tooth to it, which is what I really wanted.
Oh well. At least the skin and bones grabbed the smoke. I’ve saved them to make a concentrated fish stock for adding to recipes later.
Don’t throw those bones away. They’re money.
The Connecticut Brisket Research Center 