Smoked Fish!

I prefer simple method. 4 cups brown sugar, 1 cup salt. Brine for 12 hours,. Been about 10 years since I've smoked any fish but I did a batch last week and the trusty recipe came out fire 🔥🔥🔥

I prefer simple method. 4 cups brown sugar, 1 cup salt. Brine for 12 hours,. Been about 10 years since I've smoked any fish but I did a batch last week and the trusty recipe came out fire 🔥🔥🔥

Do you use any water to brine? Or is it just rubbing on sugar and salt only?

No water just add sugar, salt and fish in a big Ziploc. I let the last batch brine for about 12 hours   then I rinse with water and let air dry in fridge for about 4 hours on Baking sheets. Then get to smoking

Thank you Doug 

Anything right out of the smoker is the BEST!  Warm.  Certainly some are better than others but the old standby salt/brn sugar/water works well.

I'm a long transplanted Texan, retired in NorCal after 34 years in LA  .  I've got an offset smoker and cook lots of things on it from time to time. I use my little weber grill constantly.  I recently smoked some tuna bellies and they came out really nice.  Smoked trout works for me, too.   I've tried lingcod and the fattier parts (collars) work great.  That previous idea of basting them with olive oil sounds interesting.  I tried smoking CA halibut and it was ok, but there are better ways to cook it, I think.  (grilled or fried). So far for smoking I've used wet-brines with a variety of recipes, sometimes "augmented" store-bought brines.  Local alder wood seems the best smoke for fish and works well for lots of things.  The pix below are from a recent "pandemic smoking session" and has salmon, tuna bellies, trout, and lingcod bellies.  The tuna bellies were my first experiment and I love how they came out. 

I need a smoker, these pics are making me hungry!

Had some home smoked salmon from a friend a few years ago, and it was crazy good.