Indian Candy - trout

[bpnclark]

I made the Indian Candy recipe on some trout last weekend. Has anyone tried this on trout? Its so salty no one will eat it. Is it because trout is too thin or do you really have to wash it off?

I used two large trout, and when I started deboning the fish, it kind of fell into large strips. They sat in the freg in the brown sugar/salt mix for 24 hrs. The following day the mix was liquid. Smoked them for 5-6 hrs at 120-135......

 

[Quarlow]

Holy beep'n clark LOL, that would be way to much brine time for trout. Yes you should have washed it out some. I have never done trout and someone who has will chine in but I would say 8 hrs would likely be enough. Did you mean you smoked for 5 to 6 hrs or that was the time in the smoker. I would not do trout with that much smoke and if you meant overall that might even be too much time all in all. What was the fish like ? was it dry or was your texture good ?

[bpnclark]

I dry brined it for 24 hrs but it turned to liquid. Smoked it for 5-6 hrs and the texture and color and everything about it looks great, but all you taste is salt. It would be awesome if it tasted like sugar, but it only taste like salt. Not even smoke. I rinsed it off, but it was a quick rinse. But I'm sure even a longer rinse wouldn't have saved it.

I'll try to post some pics tomorrow......

[Quarlow]

Ok so I dry brine too. What was your salt to sugar ratio?

[bpnclark]

50% Brown 50% Kosher.....and covered........

[Quarlow]

Yaa way too much salt for trout in my opinion. Even on my salmon that gives you a saltier fish. I go 60/40 sugar to salt and even add some more sugar about half way thru. Have you tried Kummok's wet brine. It is very popular and easy to adjust to your taste. I haven't used it yet but the next time I do smoke salmon I will be trying it out.

[bpnclark]

I've done the cognac/onion/sugar brine (dont know what its called) and a few more from here, but I was looking to do something different. I had a lot of trout on my hands last weekend and wanted to make some of this "candy".

Next time I think I'm going to do the 60/40 or even a 70/30 and not leave it over night. The 5 hrs smoking time turned out pretty good, but one bite of this stuff and its like eating a salt stick......

[pmmpete]

I have never smoked fish using a dry brine, but have smoked a lot of fish using wet brines.  The length of time you leave fish in a wet brine depends partly on the salt concentration in the brine, and partly on the kind of fish (oily or lean), the thickness of the fillets, and whether you have left the skin on the fillets.  When using a brine recipe for the first time, some trial and error will be required to figure out how long to leave the fish in the brine to produce the flavor and saltiness which you prefer.  You can reduce the trial and error by calculating the salt concentration of the brine produced by the recipe, or by adjusting the salt concentration of the recipe to a concentration which you are familiar with.

Here are some suggestions I made about how to calculate and standardize the salt concentration of brines in a thread named "Brine Time," which was at the top of the list when this thread was started:

Brine recipes which call for a specific volume of salt, such as 1 cup of kosher salt in half a gallon of water, are less accurate and predictable than brine recipes which call for a specific weight of salt, because different kinds and brands of salt have different densities.  If you check the volume-to-weight conversion tables for salt in various books and internet sites, you get a pretty wide range of weights for a cup of regular table salt.  10 oz./cup is about in the middle of the range of weights for table salt.  Warren Anderson's book "Mastering the Craft of Making Sausage" lists weights of 22 grams/tbsp (i.e. 12.4 oz./cup) for regular salt and 12 grams/tbsp (i.e. 6.8 oz/cup) for kosher salt.  amazingribs.com contains the following conversion table for different kinds of salt:

1 tsp Morton's tables salt equals:
1.5 tsp Morton's kosher salt
1.8 tsp Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt
1.8 tsp Morton's pickling salt
3 to 4 or more tsp sea salt

Because of these differences in the density of salt, a brine recipe which specifies the quantity of salt by weight will be more predictable than a brine recipe which specifies the quantity of salt by volume.  There are charts which specify the volume of water and weight of salt required to prepare brines of different salinities.  For example, a brine which is 60 degrees SAL (salometer degrees) will contain 15.837 percent salt by weight.  That is 1.568 pounds (25.088 oz.) of salt per gallon of water, or .784 pounds (12.544 oz.) of salt per half gallon of water. There is a good article on making brines and salinity at http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-making/curing/making-brine which contains such charts.  See also "Preparation of Salt Brines for the Fishing Industry," Oregon Sea Grant Publication ORESU-H-99-002, which is available at http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/sgpubs/onlinepubs/h99002.pdf .
 
Another way to prepare a brine with a specific salinity is to use a salinometer to measure the concentration of the brine, and to adjust the concentration by adding water or salt.  However, that takes a lot of trial and error.  It's faster to use the weights of salt specified on a salinity chart.

It is difficult to predict the salinity of Kummok's salmon brine because his recipe specifies a volume of salt rather than a weight of salt, and because different brands of soy sauce contain different concentrations of salt.  The only way to determine the salt concentration of Kummock's brine recipe for any specific kind of salt and specific brand of soy sauce is by mixing up the volumes of water, salt, and soy sauce which he recommends, and then measuring the concentration of the mixture with a salinometer, before adding any other ingredients such as sugar.

However, you can estimate the salt concentration produced by the water and salt components of Kummok's brine recipe based on the weight-to-volume conversion ratios described above.  Based on the conversion ratio for regular table salt of 10 oz./cup, a cup of regular table salt in half a gallon of water would produce a brine which is about 50 degrees SAL.  However, kosher salt weighs less per cup than regular salt.  Based on Anderson's conversion ratio for kosher salt of 6.8 oz./cup, a cup of kosher salt in half a gallon of water would produce a brine which is about 35 degrees SAL.  Kummok's brine recipe calls for 1 cup of pickling salt in a gallon of water, so if you look just at the salt and water portion of his brine recipe, based on Anderson's conversion ratio for kosher salt, the recipe would produce a brine which is about 18 degrees SAL.

A brine doesn't need to be 60 degrees SAL in order to salt fish for smoking, but the lower the salt concentration in the brine, the longer the fish needs to stay in the brine to reach a desired degree of saltiness.  Longer brining times increase the chances of bacterial growth and spoilage.

The advantage of being accurate and consistent about the salt concentration of your brines is that you can learn how long fish of a certain species, size, thickness, and with or without skin should be left in the brine to produce the degree of saltiness which you like.  If a batch of smoked fish comes out saltier than you prefer, don't leave the next batch in the brine as long.  When I try out a new brine recipe, I adjust the salinity of the water and salt portion of the brine to 60 degrees SAL, because I know how long I like to leave different kinds of fish in a brine of that concentration.  For example, I leave thin little Kokanee Salmon fillets in a 60 degree SAL brine for one hour, and I leave medium sized lake trout fillets in that brine for two hours.

[Wazzulu]

I agree with the 60-40 and make sure you wash them well. Or even maybe give the a quick soak in water before you dry them.