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doubledown
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06/12/2017 09:29PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
Wondering if anyone has any experience setting up a primitive smokehouse for trout smoking. We'll be up there for a week this year so I am happy to hang back at camp to smoke fish, read and nap.

What is your setup and what kind of wood do you prefer that is available?
 
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Savage Voyageur
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06/14/2017 06:27AM  
I have read of people doing this before. You would want to use hardwoods not anything Pine. You could use a old canvas tarp and make a stick frame, like a teepee. Then you would need to use a Y stick to hold the fish with smaller sticks woven in the main stick to hold the fish fillet.
 
marsonite
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06/14/2017 07:33AM  
Haven't done it, but here's my idea. If you have a big pot, rig up a rack inside of it for the fish fillets. On the bottom of the pot, put your smoking wood. You are going to need a non-resinous wood. Punky aspen with the bark removed is a good one, or maybe alder. Then put the pot on the fire grate and build a fire under it. Heat control is going to be tricky. I would say start with a small fire.

I know a guy that used a setup like this to smoke suckers. I believe he had a propane burner but the idea is the same.
 
doubledown
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06/14/2017 07:25PM  
Thanks for the advice guys.
 
06/17/2017 08:11PM  
If you give this a try I hope you can get some photos and report back. I'm really interested in trying this and have read up a bit but always backed away mostly because of the time involved. Are you thinking of brining the fish?
 
Arcola
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06/21/2017 07:19AM  
A friend of mine does this at a reenactment I attend. He uses a simple tripod with a rack of sticks tied bout half way down. Wraps with a piece of canvas. The tripod is around 3x3 at the base. Keeps the fire small and smoky. I've smoked with Maple and the end result was wonderful. Birch without the bark will be good too. The Beavers will have your wood already peeled if you look around the shore. ;)

Kent
 
doubledown
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06/23/2017 12:43PM  
quote Jaywalker: "If you give this a try I hope you can get some photos and report back. I'm really interested in trying this and have read up a bit but always backed away mostly because of the time involved. Are you thinking of brining the fish? "


Jaywalker,

Yeah. I'm planning on doing a brine. I'll probably do it in a ziploc overnight and have that submurged below 45' of water to replicate a fridge as much as possible. If it works, I'll post pictures.
 
marsonite
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06/23/2017 06:56PM  
quote doubledown: "
quote Jaywalker: "If you give this a try I hope you can get some photos and report back. I'm really interested in trying this and have read up a bit but always backed away mostly because of the time involved. Are you thinking of brining the fish? "



Jaywalker,


Yeah. I'm planning on doing a brine. I'll probably do it in a ziploc overnight and have that submurged below 45' of water to replicate a fridge as much as possible. If it works, I'll post pictures. "


Dry brining also works well. Here's one way to do it: Simple smoked salmon with dry brine
 
BuckFlicks
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07/28/2017 03:05PM  
I'll second this. I've completely stopped wet brining any meat, unless I'm going for a different flavor profile like Asian.

It works particularly well for salmon, so I would assume it would for trout as well... and that sounds darn tasty. Now I want to smoke some trout.
 
doubledown
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07/31/2017 08:47AM  
Well I gave the dry brine a test run last week with some coho salmon out of Lake Michigan. I turned it into jerky (made in the oven). It tasted great and I think I can achieve the same result over a slow smoky fire.

As our trip approaches, I am having second thoughts about spending most of a day smoking fish so that will have to be a game day decision. I may opt with short brine and a hot smoke i/o cold smoke.

I'll let you guys know the results.

I second the comment about wet brining (or marinade) being a great way to achieve a specific taste.
 
doubledown
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08/21/2017 02:06PM  
Well guys...I didn't end up smoking fish this trip for a couple of reasons...we only caught a couple of lakers and we had two rookies on the trip so I didn't have enough free time to just sit around smoking meat.

One a separate, somewhat related note, I did cure about 3 pounds of venison jerky using dry brine & wet marinade recipes and they were great "dude fuel" all week. It took a lot of time as I do all my curing in my oven, but it was well worth the result, especially considering we stayed on Ima Lake the first two nights and couldn't find any fishing honey holes at all (it was full moon and we night fished!).

Hoping to resurrect this post in a year with smoked trout results.

Thanks for all the advice.
 
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