Big time fish lover … I love to catch them, release them and also eat them!!  But over the years I have never caught, smoked, cooked, or eaten a Steelhead Trout.  Steelhead are ocean-running rainbow Trout and for the most part, it’s not legal to fish commercially for Steelhead.  When I saw some nice Fresh Farmed Steelhead Fillets at Costco I decided to remedy the situation.  Would have preferred Wild Steehead Trout but as the Rolling Stones once sang : “… You can’t always get what you want – but if you try sometimes you get what you need … “.

Each fillet weighed about 2½ lbs.  Notice an old fisherman’s trick to make a fish look bigger.  Both fillets are the same size yet the front one looks so much bigger!

Cut the Steelhead into uniform strips of about 3 inches.

This Brine Recipe is one for Fresh Salmon that I borrowed from kummok on the Bradley Smoker Forum.  Kummok resides in Homer, Alaska.  Brine the fish for 12 – 24 hours in the refrigerator.  Make sure that the fish is held under the brine in order to get complete uniform brining.  You can add 3 Tbsp cayenne pepper if desired.  I modified the recipe to include 1 Tbsp of onion powder.

• 1 gallon cold water
• 1 quart soy sauce or teriyaki
• 1 cup pickling salt
• 2 lbs brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp onion powder

After 12 hours of brining place the fish in a single layer on drying racks and ensure that the pieces do not touch each other.  Dry the fish for 12 hours in the refrigerator until a hard pellicle forms.  Fish will have a tough, shiny coat and will be slightly tacky to the touch.

Inserted the Steelhead Trout into the 110ºF preheated Original Bradley Smoker (OBS) and loaded 9 Alder Bisquettes for a 3 hour Alder Flavor smoke.  Programmed the Auber PID for 1 hour at 110ºF, followed by 1 hour at 120ºF,  4 hours at 140ºF, and 3 hours at 175ºF which will give me plenty of time to complete the Steelhead smoking process.  This is where you should be using a smoker that can maintain the lower temperatures for the best results.  As a general rule, the higher temp you use the more the fish cooks the oils out and the fish becomes dryer/tougher in the process.  If you get white “boogers” on the fish, you’re cooking too high and/or too fast.

Rotated the racks every hour – top to bottom, front to back.  Unfortunately, after 4 hours, during the 4 hour at 140ºF smoking process I experienced a malfunction with the OBS heating elements which predicated that I use an alternate method to complete smoking the Steelhead Trout.  I closely monitor the smoking process with my Maverick ET-732 Remote Smoker Thermometer and soon noticed that the OBS chamber temperature was at 121º vs the programmed 140º.  The temperature was being maintained by the smoking element and an ambient temp of 90+º.

Fortunately I was able to fall back on my MAK 2 Star General Pellet Grill to complete the smoking process of the Steelhead Trout.  Chose to set the MAK controller for a 200º temp since the Steelhead at this point should not cook too fast and develop white “boogers”.

Inserted a temp probe in the thickest piece in order to pull the smoked Stealhead Trout when the Internal Temperature (IT) reaches 140ºF.

Used Alder Wood Pellets.

Pulled the Alder Smoked Steelhead Trout when the IT reached 140ºF and allowed the fish to rest under a loosely fitted foil tent for 45 minutes.  Took about 2 hours in the MAK to finish the smoking process that under normal conditions would have finished in the OBS.

Table is set … You don’t need much when you have Alder Smoked Steelhead Trout.

The Money $Shot$ … I’ll let the photo speak for itself … Bon Appétit

Smoked fish gets better with time.  Vacuum sealed the rest and into the freezer for at least a couple of weeks.  I know it’s hard to wait for it but it’s worth it …