# Dry Cured ~ Hot Smoked Steelhead



## thirdeye (Jan 19, 2020)

For my buddies 60th birthday party I smoked two steelhead fillets.  These were 1.7 pounds each and are a regular item at Sam's Club.  My dry cure is pretty straight forward:
1 cup Morton's kosher salt (if you use Diamond Crystal, you will have to use more as it has larger grains)
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoon ground ginger (I prefer to grind this myself in my mortar and pestle from cracked ginger)
1-2 teaspoons ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon pulverized bay leaf 
Mix the ingredients at least 2 hours before using.  This is enough dry cure for 8 to 10 pounds of fish.  This freezes well. 
*Optional *seasonings before smoking are black papper, garlic powder, onion powder etc. 

_** If you plan on extended smoking times, or a cold smoking step, pink salt (2.5 grams/1000 grams of fish) can be added directly to the fillets about 10 minutes before setting the fillet on the bed of dry cure, this allows some time for the cure to begin dissolving.   Because the amount of pink salt needed is so small, care must be taken to apply a very uniform coat.  I find that putting the cure in a spoon and tapping the side works well. Put a little less on the tail end as it is thinner. _

I lay a bed of cure on a sheet of plastic wrap, and place one fillet face down on the cure and wrap it up keeping the seam on top.   My personal cure time for steelhead is 6 to 7 hours refrigerated.  I rinse the fillets under running water, place on a rack in  a sheet pan, pat dry and add some cracked black pepper and garlic powder, then return (unwrapped) to the refrigerator for at least 12 hours for pellicle formation.   The fillets from Sam's come vacuum sealed in a shallow tray, which work great for stacking the wrapped fillets, just in case one should leak. 







On smoking day I keep my smoker in the 160° range for the first 2 hours, then increase the temp to 180° for hour 3.  My target temp is  145° for a moist product, or 150° for a slightly drier product and this should be reached during hour 4 for food safety.   If, at 3-1/2 hours the internal temp of the fillets is only 120° or so, move the fillets into a 215° oven and watch the internal temp very closely. You should reach 145° in 10 or 15 minutes.  After cooling on the counter, I return the fillets to the refrigerator for at least 6 hours (but usually overnight) before slicing.











For transporting and serving, I use grilling planks and pull a slight vacuum on the bags.  The planks are wonderful protection of the fillets. 





The planks are both a platter and cutting board


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## daveomak (Jan 29, 2020)

Awesome looking fish....


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## pushok2018 (Jan 29, 2020)

Fantastic looking fish! Nice presentation using grilling planks.... What kind of planks (wood wise)?


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## thirdeye (Jan 29, 2020)

pushok2018 said:


> Fantastic looking fish! Nice presentation using grilling planks.... What kind of planks (wood wise)?



The planks work great, and they really protect the fish when transporting it.  I buy the alder and hickory planks.  I don't care for the flavor when grilling on cedar planks, but they would certainly work for this application.


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