# Smoking some rainbows for my Pops I need a lot of info



## mc73 (Nov 28, 2009)

my pops got caught some rainbows today and wanted me to smoke them for him but I'm not sure how. Any recipes out there I can knock  my pops socks off with. What temps and roughly how long will it take. All sugestions are welcome. Thanks in advance


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## mr mac (Nov 28, 2009)

Assuming we're not talking metaphors and trying to smoke the phenomenon that causes a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere but the fish, then maybe we can help!  
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






Smoking fish is a great thing and trout is one of my favorites!  I personally like to keep things pretty simple when it comes to fish and allow the smoke to do most of the flavoring for me.  Beyond that I use soy sauce, brown sugar, honey, pepper and a little lime juice and smoke it at about 200 degrees over apple for about two hours.  It always comes out flaky and moist!


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## mr mac (Nov 28, 2009)

Here's a post that looked real good for the salmon.  It ought to work well for your rainbows!


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## gnubee (Nov 28, 2009)

What size are they? I have caught rainbows and steelhead, (same fish) from 6 inches long to 23 lbs. 

If small do them whole with the heads tails and fins cut off.

If large fillet them.

If you can get it, green alder is the best wood for smoking fish in my opinion. 

I have a little chief that is perfect for doing fishies because it smokes at the perfect temperature for them. You can find a really good brine recipe on the little chief website. You brine them for about 4-6 hours. Fish do not need the longer brining times that meat and poultry do. 

You can also chop them up into large chunks for brining but then you have to pick out the bones as you eat them. 

Heres the link to the recipes I like Little chief recipe #2 for trout , kokanee, and salmon. on page 12 of the little chief recipe book.
I also like the delux recipe for salmon right below recipe #2 

MY ONLY PROBLEM WITH THIS IS THAT I DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT TEMPERATURE RANGE THE LITTLE CHIEF RUNS AT. Because I did all my fish smoking before I found SMF. The little chief just seemed to always be correct so I ignored the details. 

Anybody know what temp it runs at. It has no adjustment anyway.

http://www.smokehouseproducts.com/LCRB.pdf


Good luck to you.


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## erain (Nov 28, 2009)

rainbows are a neat fish to smoke, i use a brine first and then smoke. i dont have a temp or time for smoking its been so long... but the neat thing about rainbows is how the complete skeleton comes out completly intact leaving a complete boneless fish. the brine i use is...

smoked fish brine

2 3/4 cups pickling salt
10 qts cold water-use good water
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbls garlic salt

soak avg sized pieces 24 hrs, soak in fresh water 1 hour

big thick pieces of fish, may require more time and smaller less. once out of brine set on a rack with a fan blowing across fish til outside of fish dry, a coating will form on it called the "pellicle", is now ready for smoker. i also like to rub some brown sugar on the meat.


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## gnubee (Nov 28, 2009)

I did some research and I sent you a PM with some temperature info on both cold smoking fish and hot smoking fish.

erain... that recipe looks almost identical to the Little chief recipe. I suspect many people started with a little chief and a lot of us still have that recipe because it turns out such wonderful salmon and trout. 

I used to smoke pink salmon almost every day, limit was 6 per day in 1962. I filled my smoker every day it hardly ever was turned off. I never ever paid attention to the temps. Back then I was a teenager and  I figured the smoke cooked the fish so the temp didn't matter. How wrong I was.


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## tjoff (Nov 28, 2009)

Note sure about time or temp.  But I do agree with GnuBee that Alder is the way to go if you can get it.  It is a wonderful wood to smoke fish with.


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## mikesr (Nov 29, 2009)

I did some Rainbow fillets a while back using Dutch's recipe at the top of this forum.  I used Apple chips and mopped the fillets several times during the smoke.  If I remember correctly, I took the fish to an internal temp of 160 - 170 degrees.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=82552


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## erain (Dec 1, 2009)

that actually comes from an olde recipie book that has my grandmothers recipies and that is my grandpas fish brine recipie. i added the extra brown sugar. i should have a lil chief manual here some place. will have to ck it out if i find it.


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