First Go @ A Cold Smoked Trout Fillet

[sotv]

Managed to pick up a really fleshy looking trout fillet from Morrisons this morning (£11 a kg), never done one before, decided to do the Gin & Juniper cure I do for salmon fillets. I know trout is usually a milder fish than salmon, so having used this particular cure before. i know it isn't overpowering with salmon, so hopefully will work with this fillet as well

Will leave to see how quickly the liquid gets released, but hope to be able to wash cure of after 24-36 hours and leave it for 12 hours to form a pellicle, before cold smoking for around 10 hours

 

On a seperate note picked up a slab of pork belly and have cured it with a simple salt and tellicherry pepper  for some streaky bacon

 

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by sotv

[Justin]

Nice mate, loads of threads on salmon and trout is not different just a bit thinner.  Should turn out lovely. What temp, are you going to use for cold smoking 20c, If so you need a set up  to maintain that overnight?  Ceramic bulb and inkbird is a good set up. Rock solid temps when i use that on the WSM wrapped in bubble wrap. I get smokey oily salmon that way, i slice vac and freeze, defrost quick and always tastes tender and great 

Edited May 7, 2020 by Justin

[Wade]

Are you looking for a gravadlax style of trout or are you looking to do a traditional smoke?

[sotv]

A bit of a hybrid, gravalax type cure for up to 72 hours, just depends how quickly it loses liquid along with a cold smoke once cure washed off and pellicle formed. It works for me on salmon, just seemed too nice a piece of trout not to give it ago for a first effort.

I still have my ProQ that has served me well for cold smoking, but tempted to give the maze and dust ago in my Smokefire, to see how it works. It has no air vents underneath as such like the ProQ, but does have 3 large vents at the back of it. Not sure how it would work for airflow purposes, for something like this.Bbut considering giving it ago with either this or the pork belly I have curing at the moment.

[sotv]

Left it in the cure for just over 36 hours, good amount of liquid came out of the trout fillet, washed all the cure off and left in the fridge overnight to form a pellicle and put it on the smoker this morning for somewhere between 6-8 hours using beech dust. Then leave in the fridge again for around 24 hours to let the smoke settle and then slice and pack.

 

[sotv]

Just finished slicing it up, I am quite sensitive to the taste of salt and where this cure works very well with salmon over a period of 36 hours, the finished trout fillet  took on way more finished salt taste than the salmon does  at the same weight and time cured. Definitely will do it for probably only 24 hours next time or look for a more suitable cure for it.

Still very edible and will use it in warm pastas rather than standalone in a salad or something due to the saltiness for my tastes. The fish is still very tasty and has a very pleasant milder flavour than salmon to it though, i think and it hasn't put me off, trying this fish again in the future

[Justin]

I am with you on salt, maybe tweak the cure to use less salt and rinse more after. Salmon is thicker so i guess Trout is thinner and would benefit from less. Not sure, more @Wade territory

[Wade]

The difficult balance with salmon and trout is finding the method that removes the water but does not leave the fish salty. As you found out, with larger fillets (e.g. Salmon) these are more forgiving than the, usually, smaller trout fillets. You want to use the minimum amount of salt necessary to do the job but have it in contact with the fish for as little time as possible. When I first started to cure salmon and trout I found that it was almost always too salty and so I looked to the commercial smoked salmon producers for advice. When the salt removes the water from the fish the secret is to remove the resulting brine from being in contact with the fish as quickly as possible. If you place the fish in the salt then it has nowhere to drain to - it is better to place the salt on the surfaces of the fish and as it is curing allow the brine produced to drain away. 

You actually need fairly little salt on the fish to do the work - cover the surface of the fish with a fine grain salt/sugar cure and then lift up the fillet and shake gently. What remains on the surface if the fish is sufficient. Salmon I usually leave curing for 24 hours but trout only for 18.

Next to continue the drying process you place it in the smoker at ~20-24 C for ~18 hours with good air flow across the surfaces of the fillet. This warm air flow is what removes the remainder of the water - not the salt.

When giving it the Gin and Tonic flavour be wary about using actual gin because the high alcohol content can affect the texture of the fish. Try using juniper berries in a crisp white wine instead. Go sparing on the juniper berries though as they can easily become overpowering. The mix of the white wine and the juniper gives a very acceptable flavour of "Gin and Tonic"

[sotv]

Thanks Wade, clearly what works well on one type of fish fillet, doesn't works so well on another. Will try another cure for the trout and less time on the next go. Will probably try the wine and juniper version.