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For most of the country, smoked trout means smoked whole trout, not the big slabs of fillets Salmon Nation is accustomed to. So if you catch trout generally smaller than 18 inches, this recipe is for you.
(Note, if you are looking for ways to smoke larger fish, use my smoked salmon or my smoked lake trout recipes.)
There are any number of ways to smoke trout, and this is my method: I’d be interested to hear if you do anything differently.
First, you need trout. Obviously. I prefer fish from about 10 to 20 inches, gutted and gilled. Any species will do, but in a perfect world it’d be brook trout, which are actually a char and have vivid orange meat. Another excellent choice is a kokanee, which is a landlocked sockeye salmon that rarely grows larger than 20 inches. They also have pretty orange meat.
But mostly I use rainbow trout from the Sierra Nevada. You can use store-bought rainbows if that’s all you can get.
To salt or brine? That’s a decision largely based on how many fish you are smoking, and what sort of containers you have. If I am only smoking a few fish, I will dry salt them. If I have a mess o’trout, I will make a salt-sugar brine and soak the fish in that.
How long? For dry salting, generally about 1 to 2 hours. Brine? You can go a lot longer, and it will create a more cured, salty and firm product the longer you leave it. I like a day-long brine, i.e., brine in the morning and remove around dinnertime.
You then need to dry the fish in a cool place. I set them in the fridge in a rack overnight. You need this step to create a tacky, sticky pellicle on the outside of the fish. This helps the smoke adhere to the trout. Skip this step and it won’t be as nice.
How to set them up? You can hang your trout as I do in the picture, but you will need to leave the throats intact, like the fish on the left. That one stayed fine while smoking. The ones on the right fell, so I moved them to the rack.
You will want to put a little stick in the fish’s cavity to prop it open — this allows the smoke to permeate the fish better. I use rosemary twigs, but any twigs will work.
What wood? Something mild. I prefer alder, but oak or fruit woods are good choices, as is maple. But honestly, if you are in love with mesquite or something heavier, go ahead and use it — you won’t be smoking your trout very long anyway.
I like to get a slow ramp up in temperature for my smoked trout. I put the fish in cold in a cold smoker (I am using a Traeger these days) set on a low heat. If you want things to move even slower, set a tray of ice in the smoker. You never want the temperature to get beyond 225°F because at that point you’re barbecuing fish, which is nice, but not what we’re after here. I like the temperature to be somewhere between 175°F and 200°F.
How long to smoke? At least an hour, and to me, 90 minutes to 2 hours is ideal. I would not go more than 4 hours with such little trout. You want decent smoke time, but you don’t want trout jerky.
You can eat your smoked trout warm right out of the smoker, or chilled. They will keep a little more than a week in the fridge, and freeze nicely. If you are freezing some, stuff paper towels in the fish’s cavity to keep out air, which can cause freezer burn over time.
Smoked Trout or Kokanee
Ingredients
- 4 whole trout, gutted and gilled
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
Instructions
- Mix the salt and sugar with a gallon of water and stir to dissolve the salt and sugar. Submerge the trout in this brine and put in the fridge, covered, for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.
- Remove the trout from the brine (discard the brine), pat dry with paper towels and set on a rack over a baking sheet in the fridge for at least a few hours, and up to overnight. You can also set the fish to dry in a cool, breezy place for a few hours.
- Put the fish in the smoker, hanging or on the grates, and get a nice cool smoke going. Slowly let the temperature rise to 200F and hold it between 175F and 200F for at least an hour, and up to 4 hours; I prefer 2 hours. Do not let the temperature get above 225F. If it does, set a tray of ice in the smoker.
- When your trout are smoked, you can eat them warm or chilled.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Had some leftover frozen trout no one wanted, so I tried your recipe. Brine over night, then open in fridge over night. Used serpentine charcoal method with apple wood chips for smoke. Did brush the skin with Yoshiko sauce (but not the meat). Smoked for 3 hours. Used a grill, but not a real good smoker. Kept having to adjust to keep it under 225f.
I have to say, in the end, surpassed all expectations. Wife and daughter, who are not big fish eaters, thought it tasted really good.
Thanks,
pat
I don’t have a smoker but had some trout and decided to try this recipe using my little portable Weber Smokey Joe portable grill. It was delicious! As good as any smoked fish I’ve bought at a fish market, and much fresher. This may be my new summer hobby! Thanks so much for the great recipe!
For any salmon or steelhead I’ve done, I’ve just brined in salt only (1 cup table salt/gallon) and cooked on the Traeger ‘smoke’ setting until 145 IT. Anyways turns out great.
These days, with my brand of pellets, I run pretty steady at 157-160 on the smoke mode.
I’m trying your recipe on some smaller trout. Any harm in running the ‘smoke’ mode vs. 185 on the Treager?
I’ll big into the smokey flavor in fish…. as, well, I don’t really like the taste of anything fishy. lol.
Fantastic! I made with some small kokanne I caught and it was easily the best fish I’ve ever made. I used the dry salt method for 2 hours and 90 minutes at 150-175 F with apple wood.
How many trout can I do with this recipe? I have a bunch.
Todd: As you can see in the recipe, four. But you can double it.
This looks fantastic and I’m dropping my trout in a brine now. Ever can your fish like they do with salmon? I can’t find a trout adapted recipe for doing this. Obviously this takes a mess of trout – I only have about 8 I’ve kept frozen looking for the right recipe. Any advice would be appreciated!
Matthew: Use the same recipe for salmon and trout. They will can the same. Definitely be careful on pressure and timing. I do not pressure can smoked fish very often.
When trout are removed from brine is it normal that they are slimy?
Matt: A little, yes. Rinse them off and pat dry.
I have used your smoked salmon recipe many times and was looking to add in a few trout filets this time to my salmon (will give the trout less smoking time). Noticed that your brine recipes for trout and salmon are very different. Is there a reason why the trout brine is substantially more dilute? Thanks!
Can I gut and gill the trout, freeze them, and thaw to smoke at a later time?
Denny: Yes you can.
Thank you for the recipe. It was my first time smoking trout.
Thanks as always for this recipe. When you freeze these fish, do you freeze them whole or do you debone the meat and freeze it?
Matt: I tend to freeze them whole because they are so small. But if I think I can get a nice fillet, I do that.
Hi Hank, I am new to smoking, infact my smoker is due to arrive in a couple of hours time and it will not have a thermometer that will allow me to control the heat. My question is how long should I smoke my fish, average weight 2.5 lb and how will I know when it is cooked fit to eat?
Terry: Very hard to tell. Almost impossible, in fact. Smoking is an art, and you need to be attentive to it until you learn the idiosyncrasies of your smoker. But, that said, with fish you want a very cool smoke, never more than 200F, and you need to start looking at it within 45 minutes. You rarely need to hot-smoke fish more than 3 hours in any case.
I’ve been following Hank’s recipes for several years now. This is a great recipe. I concur with placing something in the body cavity to keep it open for smoke to get inside the fish, but I take it a step further. I put several sprigs of fresh herbs from the garden in there, from mouth to rear of cavity. It keeps the body cavity open for smoke access, and I think the fresh herbs provide a nice aroma to the fish. I have used rosemary, thyme, and sage.
Great tips ! Thanks !
Easy and delicious! I marinated in a clip bag in the morning. Came home from work and started up the smoker. Patted the fish dry and opened up the cavity with toothpicks. Cooked at 225F-ish (110C-ish) to an internal temp of 145F (63C). PERFECT ?
Wished I had seen this before I stuffed and baked mine. Next time then!!!
I am smoking my first batch of trout tomorrow. Do you have a particularly good method to remove the flesh from the bones. Perhaps it might be the same as when pan frying trout. Your info will be appreciated
W.E. Greaves: The meat comes right off the bones, if you lift it off from the head towards the tail.
how can i do the dry brine style i just bought 1 trout to try and a whole salmon fillet for my father.
I loved it. I wish I could post pictures. I tried the tip about swapping out a little bit of the brown sugar for garlic and pepper. Can’t wait to try this again.
Hank, I tried this yesterday and it was fantastic! I followed the directions as closely as time allowed. I didn’t quite get the pellicle I was hoping for but it didn’t seem to have a negative impact on the final product. Partly due to a slow warm up in the smoker.
I used 1/3 C of each kosher salt and brown sugar and made up the difference by adding 2 TBL each of a Garlic & Pepper and Teriyaki Jerky seasonings from Excalibur (via Walton’s Inc.). I figured the salt/sugar content would be close. The finished product was excellent with mild flavors boosted by the seasonings. This recipe will be on my regular rotation for years to come. Thank you for sharing your skills and knowledge!