This is for those of you who didn't have anyone to teach you how to smoke fish. I don't like to part with this recipe but here goes. I made this up thru trial and error. Below 142 F is smoking in my opinion. Look up FDA guidelines for food safety. I personally eat it at 145F but I suppose you could get sick so go by FDA guidelines to be safe.
Here's what I do.
Wet brine for smoking fish
1 ½ cups of non-Iodized salt, (I use at rock salt)
1 cup garlic powder
3/4 cup onion powder
1/4 cup fine ground black pepper
Liquid smoke to taste, try 1 tablespoon with your first batch.
As with any smoked fish people have an opinion, this is not sweet and the amounts of salt and time spent in the brine have an effect on the taste. If you find the fish is too salty you can soak it in fresh water an hour at a time changing the water and “leach out” the salt, if you haven’t smoked it first. If not salty enough just add salt ¼ cup at a time and let it soak a little longer.
So try a piece at a time and experiment.
It will smell good enough to drink when you get it right.
You can also cut the recipe down to 1 Quart and just put a fillet or two in a gallon ziplock and suck all the air out with a straw at the corner before sealing and agitate it every 30 minutes for a few hours and try that.
Just look up cups to teaspoon conversions or something. Let me know how it turns out. The thinner the piece (like the tail) the saltier it will be. I like to mix with cream cheese and chives and dip with ritz crackers.
And again GO BY FDA GUIDELINES.
Don't blame me if you eat raw fish and get sick or get parasites.
