smoked lake trout question

[brandonweller]

im planing to buy a smoker for lake trout and store bought salmon and im curious ive read alot about sugar and salt as curing the fish would it turn out bad if i just put seasonings and smoaked the fish or would that work my dad and the rest of my family suffer from high blood presuure and diabeties so i obiosly dont want to cause grief to my familys health

 

thanks in advance

[ChrisK]

Brandon,

Although salt and sugar make for tasty flavours I'm sure you could lesson those ingredients and still come up with a nice smoke. Heres a place where I go to get some recipes. Remember there are no rules when smoking fish just creation of flavour.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20186789/Luhr-Jensen-Smoked-Salmon-Recipe#

[GBW]

what kind of wood are you going to use?

 

I get a 450 or 500ML bottle of soy sauce and put it in a large pot.

Add 1L of water

100ML of Honey

4 table spoons of VH brand "sweet chili Thai"

either a had full of hot pepper rings or 2 small jalapeno peppers (cut to rings)

Let simmer but not boil.

Cool and then put fish in a container with enough brine to cover and the rest goes into a spray bottle.

Let fish sit in the brine for 24 hours in the fridge.

heat smoker and get the smoke going and add fish at 200* to 225*

The wood chips I soak for 12 to 24 hours too and when I do fish it's 1/2 apple and 1/2 black cherry. with my propane smoker I'm done in 2 to 3.5 hrs depending on the thickness of the meat. I open the door from time to time to make sure the smoke is going good and when I do this I give the fish a little squirt/spray/mist of the brine I made so the meat is moist and has a lot of ALL flavors used.

Good luck! Cheers.

Geoff

[asdve23rveavwa]

The pickling/kosher salt cures the fish. Lengthens the longevity of the finished product.

 

Wecome to the board, by the way.

Edited August 17, 2011 by FRANKIE65

[Cookslav]

Salt and Sugar cureing is just as much about the texture as it is the flavor...

Uncured fish tends to be a bit drier, and flakey as opposed to cured fish which is more dense, and firm. So as long as you don't mind that texture have at it.

 

Also just bare in mind salt content = more smoke flavor

The carbon in the Smoke tends to bonds to the Salt in the meat...which gives you more of the smoke flavor. So in esssence with out the salt you'll just have less smoke flavor permiate the meat.

 

However that being said the same level of smoke flavor can be acheived with a longer smoke time.

Just bare in mind you'll have to lower your temp or you risk overcooking the fish.

 

Cheers,