Cider Mill Brined Steelhead Trout

[ACW3]

Ever since tasting Cliff’s (aka Tenthunter) Cider Mill Bacon at the Fall Gathering, I wanted to try his brine on some steelhead or salmon.  For those who attended the Fall Gathering and sampled Cliff’s bacon, you may remember what I am talking about.  The taste was really off the charts.  Just the right amount of salt and sweet.  My previous dry brining attempts (I used Alton Brown’s recipe) were okay, but they were too salty and something was missing.  Cliff and I spent some time talking about it and I decided to go for it after finding a really nice piece of steelhead at Sam’s Club.  The one question I had was whether I needed to add the cure to the brine since I was doing fish.  Cliff did a little research and got back to me.  Since I was going to cold smoke it, he recommended that I use the cure.  I cut the fillet into three pieces and let it marinate for four days in the brine.  I did rinse the pieces with fresh water before drying it and air drying it.  I let it air dry to form the pellicle, which it did nicely, and then put it on my MAK with my A-MAZE-N-PELLET-SMOKER using alder pellets.  Smoked the trout for four and one-half hours.  It came out smelling really good.  I let it sit in the refrigerator for a day before I vacuum sealed it.  I’ll give it some time, probably a few weeks, before I break out the bagels and schmear and slice it for breakfast.  Here are a couple of “teaser” pictures.  I’ll report back when I open and slice the steelhead.





Art

   

[CDN Smoker]

Simply in aww those look so good.

[muebe]

Look great Art!

Nice color on that fish

[fishingbouchman]

Look great Art!

Nice color on that fish

Great color

[Smokin Don]

Dang Art, I am having a Hoppin Helles right now and you don't know how good that looks to me!!! Sure would taste good!!! Don

[sliding_billy]

Time for me to reminisce about NW Pennsylvania.  Fishing the lake Erie tributaries when the Steelhead were running was one of the great things about living in that area.  Those amazing pics just brought that all back.

[HighOnSmoke]

Looks awesome Art! Next time I do salmon I will use the Cider Mill recipe.

[RAD]

Art, you are making my mouth water. Can you share the amount of spices and cure you used and the weight of the fish before cooking? Did you heat the brine or did you do like Cliff and mix cold? How long did you let it let it air dry after you rinse it?

[hikerman]

Looks great Art! Nice job! Now the hard part....the wait.   

[TentHunteR]

Art... THAT LOOKS AMAZING!!!

My wife (who loves salmon) now wants me to try this.

I love Steelhead trout; I need to check our local Sam's club.

[TMB]

Looks really good Art!  I missed the bacon somehow at the cookout      So I only get to imagine how this fish would taste

[Scallywag]

Looks great!

[SmokinKat]

Oh my, that looks fabulous!   Looking forward to seeing the end results-- that sounds spectacular!

Art, you are making my mouth water. Can you share the amount of spices and cure you used and the weight of the fish before cooking? Did you heat the brine or did you do like Cliff and mix cold? How long did you let it let it air dry after you rinse it?

Yes, if you wouldn't mind sharing the recipe, I would love to give that a shot on my MAK too!!

[ACW3]

Thanks everyone for the comments.  The fillet was a shade over 2 pounds.  I made a half-batch of Cliff's Cider Mill Brine, cold.  It ended up being more than I needed for the fish.  If I were doing 2 fillets, I would make the whole recipe.  I followed the recipe to the letter.  I believe it was at least 6 hours of air drying.  Here is Cliff's Cider Mill Bacon Brine Recipe.

"Ingredient Amounts
4 quarts Filtered or Distilled Water
2 quarts Apple Cider
1¼ cups Pickling Salt (250 grams by weight)
1 cups Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Sugar (regular)
6 tsp. Curing Salt #1 (Prague Powder #1, Insta-Cure #1  - contains 6.25% Sodium Nitrite)

Instead of heating my brine I just pour everything into a big stainless steel stock pot where I can stir it vigorously without making a mess. No waiting for the brine to cool means I can use it right away.

Very Important: If you heat your brine to dissolve the salt/sugar, then DO NOT add curing salt until AFTER the brine cools! Heat can deactivate Sodium Nitrite/Nitrate."

Art

[pz]

Wow that looks good!