# Smoking White Fish



## woodcutter (Mar 13, 2015)

I was given 5 Whitefish to try in the smoker. I scaled, cut in half and fileted the belly bones out and the skin is still on. I put them in a weak brine and will smoke tomorrow.

1 gal water

1 1/2 cup pickling salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tbs garlic powder

1 Tbs onion powder

Because of work sleep and everything that fights the smoker the fish will be in the brine about 16 hours.













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More tomorrow.


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## tropics (Mar 13, 2015)

I'll be watching, working a flea market tomorrow.


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## woodcutter (Mar 14, 2015)

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## woodcutter (Mar 14, 2015)

The fish turned out too salty and the color was not what I wanted. It is still good enough to eat. I never had white fish before so I don't have anything to compare it to.













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## gary s (Mar 14, 2015)

Nice looking Fish

Gary


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## smokinadam (Mar 14, 2015)

Woodcutter said:


> The fish turned out too salty and the color was not what I wanted. It is still good enough to eat. I never had white fish before so I don't have anything to compare it to.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


nice looking. My brother went on a guided trip for these and was suppose to get me some to smoke but the guide forgot to do his job and put them on fish. I was going to do them while as that's how majority of the markets here sell them. Spring sucker will be in very soon and I'll post some qview from them.


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## tropics (Mar 15, 2015)

Todd look s good to me.


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## boykjo (Mar 15, 2015)

Nice looking fish.... Your brine had too much salt... I would reduce the salt content by half next time and I bet they'll be perfect

Joe


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## cmayna (Mar 15, 2015)

Sorry to hear it turned out too salty, always a concern I have when doing fish.  As recommended, I'd cut the salt content in half or more.  Whatever you do next time, be sure to take notes.


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## thepackerbacker (Mar 15, 2015)

I am doing some whitefish we caught up on the bay earlier this winter as i type this. I will start a thread soon to show the Q-view and how I went about it. Like you, this is my first time smoking whitefish and have no clue what I am doing. 

SMF is invaluable in situations like this. If someone else comes up short and read what happened, that is one less mistake I will end up making. I looked around quite extensively and there really wasn't any "good, do all your whitefish like this" thread out there, here nor there.

Like you, I am smoking fillets.


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## woodcutter (Mar 18, 2015)

thepackerbacker said:


> I am doing some whitefish we caught up on the bay earlier this winter as i type this. I will start a thread soon to show the Q-view and how I went about it. Like you, this is my first time smoking whitefish and have no clue what I am doing.
> 
> SMF is invaluable in situations like this. If someone else comes up short and read what happened, that is one less mistake I will end up making. I looked around quite extensively and there really wasn't any "good, do all your whitefish like this" thread out there, here nor there.
> 
> Like you, I am smoking fillets.


Well I understand about my brine being too salty but I wasn't expecting the color. A friend had told me White fish is oily so I should go for a longer drier smoke. The fish was turning yellow just like butter and I thought it would eventually start turning amber color. I forked it at one point it was starting to flake. That is when I should have pulled it. I didn't find it to be overly oily at all.


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## crazymoon (Mar 19, 2015)

WC, I dry my fillets one hour at room temp and another hour in the smoker at 120 w/out smoke and get color, not sure what happened to your fillets. As everyone said salt was way too much for that long of a brine time.


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## gary s (Mar 19, 2015)

Maybe your next batch will be exactly what you want

Gary


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## woodcutter (Mar 19, 2015)

CrazyMoon said:


> WC, I dry my fillets one hour at room temp and another hour in the smoker at 120 w/out smoke and get color, not sure what happened to your fillets. As everyone said salt was way too much for that long of a brine time.


I found out that the yellow color is the nature of the White fish.


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## cmayna (Mar 19, 2015)

Mellow Yellow


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## thepackerbacker (Mar 20, 2015)

Woodcutter said:


> I found out that the yellow color is the nature of the White fish.


*check out my thread just did these last weekend also*.... i think CrazyMoon is on to something with the whitefish. Low and slow so they really dry out well, oil/fat is still there so really good. Honestly best fish iv had smoked. Prefer to Salmon or anything else honestly.


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