BASIC FISH BRINE
Prepare the fish by cleaning, gutting and, if desired, by cutting into
fillets or chunks. Then emerse the fish in basic fish brine for a time
proportional to the weight. Remove from the brine and rinse briefly in cold
water. Hang in a cool airy place for 3 hours or longer if necessary, until
the surface is completely dry. Hang the fish or place on racks, in the
smoke oven. Keep the temperature between 70 and 85 deg. F. and use a fairly
light smoke. In prolonged cold smoking it is not necessary that smoke be
generated all the time. At night, for example, it does not matterif the
hardwood is all consumed, or if the fire goes out. Simply compensate for
the lost time when calculating the total smoking period. The time required
for cold smoking depends upon the time that the fish is to be kept. The
following table will give a rough guide.
: SMOKING TIME KEEPING TIME
: ------------------------- ------------------------
: 24hours 2 weeks
: 2 days 4 weeks
: 3 days 2 months
: 4 days 4 months
: 5 days 6 months
: 1 week 1 year
: 2 weeks 3 years
These times assume a steady of smoke and uniform oven temperatures. Well
smoked fish will for some time at room temperature, but for best
preservation, each fish or piece should be seperately wrapped in waxed
paper or aluminun foil and refrigerated at 35 deg. f.
BASIC FISH BRINE: If liquid garlic and liquid onion are not available,
garlic and onion powder may be subsituted although they do not readily
dissolve in water. Alternatively, garlic cloves and onions may be crushed,
but peel them first. If a stronger flavor is desired, add a little tabasco
sauce to the brine. Dill may be added to the brine, for those who like it.
Two tablespoons of dill salt will be about right. Alternatively, crushed or
broken dill plants may be put in the brine as they are for dill pickles.
The dill flavored brine is particulary good for making smoked or kippered
Salmon. For a subtle variation of flavor, honey or blackstrap molasses may
be subsituted for the brown sugar.
Above excerpted from "Home Book of Smoke-Cooking Meat, Fish and Game
Copyright 1971 by Stackpole Books ISBN 0-8117-0803-9
Posted to bbq-digest V5 #543 by DBrophy627@aol.com on Sep 19, 1997
A Message from our Provider:
“Famous last words: I’ll get right with God later”
How useful was this recipe?
Click on a star to rate it!
Average rating 0 / 5. Vote count: 0
No votes so far! Be the first to rate this recipe.
We are sorry that this recipe was not useful for you!