Smoked Trout

Did you know smoking can actually be good for you?

Presenting smoked trout with cream cheese on rye crackers. I know, bagels would've been classic. But in lieu of bagels, crackers work.

Remember the Canadian fishing trip? Well, we finally got around to smoking some of that catch. It's insane what grocery stores charge for a tiny piece of smoked salmon. If you have the fish and access to a smoker, it's easy peasy to do it yourself.

As far as enjoying smoked fish, it seems like it's happiest with anything creamy. Everyone knows that cream cheese is a natural match, but think about smoked fish on salad with a creamy herb dressing. Or tossed into some creamy pasta or rice. Or save it for fall and serve it straight off the fillet with some apple slices and a chunk of buttered bread.

But first, how do you smoke fish? Well, don't make the same mistake I made once and try to smoke it without brining it first. The saltiness comes from the brine; without it, you just have fish that tastes like licking an ashtray. Lesson learned.

Here are the instructions, straight from my hubby's mouth. Brine is basically fancy salt water. You can look up brine recipes online, or go to your local sporting goods store for brine mixes. We used a Hi Mountain brand brine mix from Scheel's with great results.

This is a smoking habit I could get used to.

Smoked Trout

First you have to catch fish. Put it in the brine for a couple days. Take it out. Pat it dry. Put trout in smoker without wood chips (no smoke) for 30 minutes. Then add wood chips wrapped in tin foil and cook in the smoker until internal temp of trout is 150 degrees. Take it off the smoker, let it cool. Then you can eat it. That's it.