ADVICE

[Jim O]

A friend was ice-fishing and gave me about 6-8 trout about 12" long. They're cleaned ,not fileted, and skin on.

Any suggestions as to how to smoke. I don't particularly want to brine them.

Thanks

Jim O

[viper125]

Guess if it was me. I would sprinkle some of my favorite rub on. or maybe try a different rub on several. Let sit in the fridge a few hours,Place fillets in a 135 degree F (57 degrees C) preheated smoker. Apply two hours of smoke; preferably apple or cherry, raise temp to 160 Degrees and continue to cook until fillets reach the texture you like or IT of 140 degrees.

[Habanero Smoker]

It depends on what you want as a final outcome. You can use your favorite trout recipe that is oven cooked, and smoke/cook it in the Bradley at around 225°F, until you reach your desired doness.

Or here is a good hot smoke recipe for trout:

Smoked Trout

For thin fillets either cut back on the salt or the brining times.

[pmmpete]

Many people smoke small fish whole, with the skin on.  I think the disadvantages of that are (a) there is a big variation in thickness of the meat, so the tails may be crispy while the shoulders are still soggy, (b) the skin and the ribs keep smoke from getting to the meat, and (c) when you go to eat the smoked fish, you have to separate the backbone and the ribs from the meat, which can be messy and can crumble up the meat.

When smoking small fish like Kokanee Salmon, I prefer to fillet the meat off the backbones, remove the ribs, and smoke them with the skin on, because (a) it produces little slabs of meat with pretty uniform thickness which are easier to brine, and easier to smoke to a uniform internal temperature and level of dryness, (b) The brine and smoke get into the meat more easily and uniformly because the fillets are thin and aren't protected by the ribs, and (c) smoked fillets are really easy to eat.  You just peel off the skin and chow down.  I figure you're either going to mess around removing the bones before you smoke the fish, or mess around removing the bones after you smoke the fish, and I'd rather remove the bones with a fillet knife when I'm all set up to process raw fish, than remove the bones with my fingers when I just want to eat some tasty smoked fish.

Here's a picture of some Kokanee fillets drying and developing a pedicule, in preparation for smoking them. In Georgetown Lake, where I do a lot of Kokanee fishing, a 10 inch Kokanee is a big Kokanee, but there isn't any limit, because Fish, Wildlife & Parks is trying to reduce the Kokanee population so the fish will have enough food to grow bigger.

[La Quinta]

I smoke fillets  but I take the skin off now and grill it hot I learned that at the last So Cal smoke out...holy cow...crispy grilled fish skin? Amazingly tasty...