HELP....... MUSHY SMOKED TROUT !

[headgames]

 well I did the process from our Quebec friends of the Cognac brine  and 6 1/2 hour smoke at 135 degrees ........   every thing was well ........... I wrapped them individualy in saran wrap and refrigerated them for a day ...............  I had 5 FRESH trout and 7  from the freezer.......... these are raincow trout fron 11-16 inches in length ......... sampled one today at lunch .. OUTSTANDING .. had one at supper  mush mush MUSH ! ........... apparently I can see by skin color the fresh trout are awsome and the prefrozen are mush ................ so do I smoke them fresh and then freeze the SMOKED trout or If I smoke frozen trout and have a mushy texture ?  thanks

[tsquared]

I haven't smoked trout for awhile--I usually have salmon on hand. I've never had any problems with smoking previously frozen salmon fillets. Can you give us more details about how they were frozen? Were they Foodsaver'vacumn sealed or some other way?
T2

[Habanero Smoker]

Most of the time I can only get frozen trout. Also I have frozen the smoke trout and thawed them without any problems. The only thing I can think of is that I take the fish up to 140°F. Since I smoke them at a low temperature I take them out after they reach that temperature; because the internal temperatures will not rise all that much, after taking them out of the BS.

I use the following smoking/cooking method. Preheat the BS to 110°F to 120°F.  Place trout (make sure the pellicle has formed on the surface) in the BS; reduce heat, and start smoking at 110°F for the first hour. Then increase temperature to 140°F for 1 hour; and finish at 175°F, until the trout reach an internal temperature of 140°F. I apply 2 hours of apple. Depending on how much of a load you have, the whole process should take 2.75 hours to 3 hours from start to finish. They won't be as moist, but I never had them turn mushy on me.

[Wildcat]

I do not know if your freezing method may cause the problem, but it can make a difference in taste.  Here in Florida I have done a lot of salt water fishing and some of the fish do not taste very good after freezing unless done properly.  We have a simple soluton here.  Take a large plastic baggie, put fish in and fill with water so that all of the fish is covered with water then freeze.  Fish can be kept for a year or longer this way and not lose any taste.

[headgames]

I do my normal with any fish I get ......... grab a gallon zip lock bag.............  fill with fish ........ fill with water .............  as you zip it shut squeeze out all air .........pached and frozen solid with no freezer burn.......... I think it may be the internal temp thing .... after 6 hours  internal temp was 118 ........  I like the thought of finishing at 175.......... I perfer a solid moist but not dry texture..........I may have goofed no that I think about it . When they came outof the smoker at  3am (yawn )  I wpapped in saran wrap and put in fridge ,I suppose I should have just shut the smoker off and let cool slow and fridged in the morning ...  may have trapped the rest of the moisture under the skin and caused it to condensate to make mushy. have 13 fresh trout in fridge right now ........ not going to freeze . 1  20 " rainbow .

try and point out the error in my ways /..   thanks  :)