Adjusting brine for skinless steelhead

A
Anyfishisfine
It's been 20 years since I smoked salmon, and I think I messed up.

I prepared my steelhead by deboning and skinning it, and then when I was looking up brine recipes remembered that I've always left the skin on, and that seems to be how most people do it.

I'm thinking I can still salvage this by cutting back on the salt, but I'd love any suggestions as to how I would adjust the 4 to 1 sugar/salt ratio for this.

Perhaps leaving it in the brine for 6 hours instead of 12 might do it?

I have a big pile of meat and would hate to ruin it.

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
H
halibuthitman
Congrats on the fish! Myself I would not adjust anything, just rinse it very well out of the brine and make sure you spray your racks with cooking spray, I don't think you messed up... its just going to be tough to handle.:cool:
 
T
Thuggin4Life
Yeah what he said. Bfishin started smoking some of his batches of salmon and steelhead skinless. He doesn't change a thing other than he is very careful handling it since the skin isn't there to hold everything together. A well greased rack will help it from ripping apart when you take it out. Also the tail end will come out more like jerky, very good.
 
A
Anyfishisfine
Excellent. Thanks!
 
H
halibuthitman
so?....... how'd it turn out?:cool:
 
A
Anyfishisfine
halibuthitman said:
so?....... how'd it turn out?:cool:

I just made the brine and am letting it cool.

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup pickling salt
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup honey
1 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp pepper
 
T
Thuggin4Life
Sounds good. Put a few small/thin pieces on the bottom rack and smoke them as long as it takes for the big pieces. you wont regret it.
 
A
Anyfishisfine
I brined it for 6 hours, rinsed and patted it dry before letting it air-fry for an hour. It turned out I'm spending the night babysitting this since it's a new smoker and I'm not sure yet how long it will take, but it's looking awesome.

At 3 hours I basted it with:

1 cup water
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp red pepper
1 tsp coarse black pepper

I've never done that before, but it has a really nice sweet/spice hot combo that I hope will add some character to the finished product.

It soaked right in and created a nice glaze

I'm coming up on 4 hours now and has a nice deep red color. I'm going to let it go a little longer, but it's starting to look done.

This smoker cooks hotter than my little chef did, so I don't think I'll leave it overnight like I normally do.

I can't wait.

BTW - When it was air-drying my dog had a go, and managed to score a chunk (bad dog!). I got it away from him, but he did swallow a bit. Should I be worried about him getting salmon poisoning from that? It had been in the brine, so perhaps that killed the parasites, if any.
 
H
halibuthitman
Anyfishisfine said:
I brined it for 6 hours, rinsed and patted it dry before letting it air-fry for an hour. It turned out I'm spending the night babysitting this since it's a new smoker and I'm not sure yet how long it will take, but it's looking awesome.

At 3 hours I basted it with:

1 cup water
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp red pepper
1 tsp coarse black pepper

I've never done that before, but it has a really nice sweet/spice hot combo that I hope will add some character to the finished product.

It soaked right in and created a nice glaze

I'm coming up on 4 hours now and has a nice deep red color. I'm going to let it go a little longer, but it's starting to look done.

This smoker cooks hotter than my little chef did, so I don't think I'll leave it overnight like I normally do.

I can't wait.

BTW - When it was air-drying my dog had a go, and managed to score a chunk (bad dog!). I got it away from him, but he did swallow a bit. Should I be worried about him getting salmon poisoning from that? It had been in the brine, so perhaps that killed the parasites, if any.

I think your dog will be fine, when I lived in AK my lab and britney ate thousands of pounds of the crap off the bank of rivers and the lab only got the throw up fits once, the salt really probably helped... more importantly.. the dog gulped it and wouldn't give it back? probably a sign that its delicious!!!
 
T
Thuggin4Life
Not to hichjack a thread so how did it turn out? And what kinda smoker did you use? All this skoker talk made me take out some steak for a dinner of 4. Dry rubbed them with seasoning 2 hours ahead of time. Fired up the smoke with just the chips for 20 minutes to get em going. set the water pan and the meat in and smoked them for about an hour i think. the steamer helped cook them. hd time to make all the fixens for dinner while the meat cook and when it was all done i had some of the best steak I have had in a while. Just bought some chery chips so I had to use the smoker for something. It a smokehouse propane smoker with the sater pan and chip pan and temperature gage. Looks like it wil smoke/bbq anything and so far so good.

But back to the hijacking Someone told me dogs up north dont get the fish poisening thing as often and are almost imume to it. Also if you dog gets it once i heard they wont get it again. just currious because I have a siberan husky who has licked a trout and I know the water that builts up in the bottom of my boat has all kind of fish nasties in it an she has licked that as well. Also what arethe symptoms?
 
A
Anyfishisfine
A
Anyfishisfine
I've updated this for a fish I caught today.

Anyfishisfine said:
2 Bottles of Steelhead Extra Stout beer
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup pickling salt
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup honey
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp pepper
1 tbsp Cayenne Pepper

I'll report back how it turns out.
 
G
GDBrown
So we want to hear about the fish not receipt! What, Where and how big?

Pictures we want Pictures......

Congratulations....

Is it my turn yet?
 
A
Anyfishisfine
27", super bright Sandy Summer. It was a first cast fish for that hole.

Last weekend I took a friend and he got 2 within 10 minutes. He had never caught steelhead before, so I was letting him borrow my stuff, trying to get him addicted and it worked out. Here is video of that:

 
G
GDBrown
That's better! Now will you take me with you next time?

Great video..
 
T
Thuggin4Life
was gonna reply then realized it was an old thread. nice video. nice fish. sonds like a good recipe. as time goes on youi will find less is more in a smoke brinne some of the ingredients never absorb into the meat. i heard a good beer in place of water really makes a good bring. for a peppery taste try to add it after rinsing the meat. make it look like peppered jerky.
 
A
Anyfishisfine
GDBrown said:
That's better! Now will you take me with you next time?

Great video..

Any time!
 

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