Smoked Lake Erie Perch Fillet

[TrickyDick]

A friend had a fish fry on Sunday and thawed too much fish. I offered to take some from him to avoid wastage. Well I got sick And couldn't tackle until tonight. Been thawed, covered in fridge since Sunday afternoon.

1.) Is it still OK to use?
2.) last time I tried to smoke fish (Spanish mackerel) I ruined it by over-brining. What's a decent brine process? What I have now is 2.5 Tablespoons Salt (is canning salt OK) per Cup of water to cover fish for 15 minutes per 1/2" thick (most of these filets are 1/4"-1/3").
3.) after the brine, do I need to let a pellicle form and if so, can it be patted dry to accelerate the pellicle formation?
4.) how long would it take to smoke? I am planning to set one fire pot to smoke, cover the exhaust vent on that side and set the fish on a frog mat on the opposite side (fire pot off) with an amazin' tube-smoker below and the fish a few racks above.

Thanks.

TD

 

[TentHunter]

I can't answer all your questions, but I can try to answer some of them.

1.) Is it still OK to use?

As long as it's not slimy and doesn't smell real fishy, it should be fine.

2)...

a) Is canning salt OK?

b) What I have now is 2.5 Tablespoons Salt (is canning salt OK) per Cup of water

Canning/pickling salt is actually optimum. It's made for brining, and it's a clean, Kosher salt (by Kosher I mean it meets Kosher Dietary standards and carries the Kosher seal).

But... WOW, 2.5 TBS salt per cup water?

That seems incredibly strong to me, and may be why it was over brined last time.

I use 3/8 cup (or 6 TBS) per half-gallon as a standard brine for hams, bacon, fish... That brine strength (about 5% salinity) would let you brine the fish more gently for at least a couple hours. And because of equilibrium, the MAXIMUM salinity will be 5% no matter how long it's in the brine. For reference, 5% salinity is about as salty as lower-sodium bacon, so adjust to your liking from there

3.) after the brine, do I need to let a pellicle form and if so, can it be patted dry to accelerate the pellicle formation?

Yes, but DON'T obsess over the pellicle! I pat my brined-cured meats down with clean paper towels, and you can actually feel the pellicle starting to form as you pat it dry. After you pat it dry and let it sit on a rack under your stove hood with the vent turned on for a little while. As long as it feels at least a little tacky, smoke will stick to it just fine.

4.) how long would it take to smoke?

I can't answer that one. It will depend on how dry you want your perch, and how you plan to use it. Will you be flaking it up in salads? Eating it for a meal?



Hope this helps at least a little.

 

[Big Poppa]

great info Tent!

 

[TrickyDick]

Thanks. Like a dope, I ended up over brining, again. The time I spent setting up the smoker and stuff was what did me in. I should have done this as soon as I added the brine to the fish. I've got them soaking in ice water to draw some out. Will see how it does. Since I got he fish for free my only loss is a little time and effort and couple pounds of pellets. Still hate to waste food though.

 

[TentHunter]

Like a dope, I ended up over brining, again.

How much salt did you use?

 

[TrickyDick]

Sorry, I was I a rush to get the fish done and had to go with my original plan before hearing back. They'd been thawed a few days in fridge before I could get to them because I got sick.
I used 10 TBS in 1 quart for 12 minutes. Then I brought them outside and farted around with setting up the MAK too long and they sat in the brine for about 25-30 minutes. Tasting confirmed too salty. I added some ice to the pan after I pulled them off at IT between 140-145. Let them sit a couple days in the ice and it drew out some salt. I think they'll be good. I was going to make a fish spread:
12 oz flaked fillet
1/2 cup each: sweet relish, mayo, minced fresh onion, minced fresh celery.
Serve with crackers and hot sauce.

Didn't have the stuff on hand to make it last night, so maybe over the weekend. I'll let you know how it turns out. Next time I'll refer to this thread and follow Cliff's method.

 

[Salmonsmoker]

TD, You'd be much better off reducing the amount of salt by a whole lot, and extending your brine time. You'll have a longer "window" for the proper salt content you like. Like high alpha hops that can easily over- bitter your beer with a very small miscalculation in amount of hops vs. low alpha hops that would take a much larger dose of hops to over-bitter a beer, and therefore much easier to control the margin of error.

 

[TentHunter]

Good deal; it sounds like you were able to save it.

I'm getting ready to use my Cider Mill Bacon Brine recipe to cure some salmon. Art (ACW3) did that with some steelhead, then cold smoked it.

Now he knows my wife is a huge fan of smoked salmon, so he brought me a pack of it when we met up at the Fall Gathering in Georgia back in September. I've gotta tell you it was without a doubt the best tasting smoked salmon (or in this case steelhead) we'd ever eaten.

I would never have thought to use that brine recipe for salmon or steelhead. The exchange of ideas is why I love these forums.

 

[TrickyDick]

TD, You'd be much better off reducing the amount of salt by a whole lot, and extending your brine time. You'll have a longer "window" for the proper salt content you like. Like high alpha hops that can easily over- bitter your beer with a very small miscalculation in amount of hops vs. low alpha hops that would take a much larger dose of hops to over-bitter a beer, and therefore much easier to control the margin of error.

With small fish, it'd be easy to just fry one up and test the salinity, but how to do for bigger fish?? How do you know when it's brined long enough??

 

[TrickyDick]

Good deal; it sounds like you were able to save it.

I'm getting ready to use my Cider Mill Bacon Brine recipe to cure some salmon. Art (ACW3) did that with some steelhead, then cold smoked it.

Now he knows my wife is a huge fan of smoked salmon, so he brought me a pack of it when we met up at the Fall Gathering in Georgia back in September. I've gotta tell you it was without a doubt the best tasting smoked salmon (or in this case steelhead) we'd ever eaten.

I would never have thought to use that brine recipe for salmon or steelhead. The exchange of ideas is why I love these forums.

That sounds delicious! I can only cold smoke in winter months when it's also chilly outside, otherwise might not be safe in FL. I'm hoping that dry cue chamber can pull double duty as a cold smoker. Need a cold smoke source. Bradley smoke generator with cold smoke adaptor requires like 6-8' of ducting to cool the smoke....

Let us know how you brine the salmon. I tried once with a couple planks plus weights and was really more of a dry cure with plain salt and sugar (no insta cure). I LOVE smoked salmon too. Be a good addition to the CURING sub forum.

FYI, big sale on food prep gear on that outdoor/ hunting website that starts with "C".

 

[TentHunter]

Let us know how you brine the salmon.

The Cider Mill Brine is what I use for my bacon: http://www.pelletsmoking.com/searching-cure-26/20-lbs-apple-smoked-cider-mill-bacon-6281/,

I'll brine it for 4 days, then cold-smoke it for 4 - 5 hours using either Apple or Alder pellets in my A-Maze-N smoker tube.


Since this uses cure #1, it'd be safe to use this recipe to cold-smoke even when it's not cold outside.


The Steelhead Art brought me was so dang delicious. The best way I can describe it is it was like steelhead or salmon bacon. We made a spread with some cream cheese... WOW!!!

 

[TrickyDick]

Sounds really awesome Cliff! I can only imagine. I made the fish spread from the smoked perch tonight, and it turned out really really good. I think my buddy who gave me the fish will enjoy his half of the results. Thanks for the advice!

 

[TrickyDick]

Recovering from Sinus surgery this week. Had packing removed today and feeling a LOT better. Went to Sam's Club with my wife and nabbed a small steelhead fillet. Going to try your cider mill recipe with my new cold smoker (soldering iron + tin can with holes poked + pellets)!

Thanks for sharing the recipe!
TD

 

[TrickyDick]

So how do you know when the cold smoked fillets are done??

 

[TrickyDick]

Well I wasn't sure how to tell when my cold smoked Steelhead filet was finished or not.
Since I only had one filet, I decided to halve TentHunter's Cider Mill Bacon Cure recipe:
1qt water
2c cider (I used some tropical V8 blend as I had not cider or even apple juice..)
5T Pickling Salt
1.5 tsp Cure #1
2T Sugar
1/4 c Brown Sugar

I cured mine for a total of 6 days, it was a pretty thin filet. I used a 1 gallon ziplock and evacuated the air before sealing with the filet inside.

I patted dry and ran a fan on it until tacky to touch, then I put in my grill, and used a soup can/soldering iron cold smoker with Apple pellets. I monitored the grill temp, and the rise from the cold smoker was 5º or less. I live in FL so temps are not true cold smoke range (80-85 typically), but that's how the cookie crumbles.

I do have a photo that I'll try to upload showing the finished product. Yesterday I took a bit from the tail end and crumbled onto a toasted bagel with cream cheese. It was darn tasty, though I do say it was a bit on the salty side. Maybe on a ten scale, with 5 being perfect balance of salt, 10 being inedible, I'd give this a 7. Not sure where I went wrong. Could it be the thinner tail part had more sale penetration? It seems it should equilibrate throughout the flesh given enough time.

Also I was not sure how long to smoke it. One older soldering iron died in the process, but I had a backup. I think I did about 2-3 cups with of pellets total over about two days - I think that there is probably a better was to regulate a slower even smoke output with this setup, but I've not figured it out yet. The soldering iron in the perforated soup can maybe should just be used to ignite the pellets and then let them smoulder on their own, or use chips instead.

I'll try to post a pic from my droid phone....

TD

 

[TrickyDick]

Here's the photo.

The tail section was somewhat leathery. The thicker part near the top (dorsal) side of the fish was a bit oily, the mid and lower part looked less dry, and still a bit fleshy.

TD

 

[TentHunter]

The leathery section would just be called fish jerky!

It sure looks good, Dick! I like the Tropical V8 idea since you didn't have cider.

 

[TrickyDick]

So the thicker parts are much less salty, and quite tasty on a bagel!!