Steelhead Recipies?

I know the general thought of keeping Steelhead to Fly Fisherman or Stream Fisherman is tantamount to sacrilege, but we just got back from a Lake Michigan off-shore charter and caught 4 steelhead (and one big king salmon as well!). In the cooler they went because they were caught in deep water and the guide said they don’t survive release. As I watched them being cleaned it struck me how red and salmon-like the flesh is. I’ve never eaten Steelhead specifically and have only had smaller rainbow trout a couple of times in my life and I don’t really remember it.

I assume any good salmon recipe works for these as well? Anyone have any good recipe that they’ve used specifically on steelhead? Is the taste of the meat itself very distinguishable from Salmon? I will probably smoke some of it, but feel I’d be remiss if I didn’t try to make a good entree out of it. And I want to do that first because if it’s a crowd-pleaser I will probably dedicate less of it to the smoker.

A great pasta dish.
I pan fry or grill the fish, place over pasta and pour sauce over.
I generally double this for 2 to 3 ppl.

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I have grilled them. served with a dill/sour cream sauce.
Sauce is pretty ad hoc, start with 1 cup sour cream, ½ cup white wine. dill to taste. Heat on low in a sauce pan, whisk together. Add sour cream by the tablespoon to thicken, wine by the tablespoon to thin until you get the desired consistency. Amount of dill is up to the cook but I like a lot.

Drizzle over the cooked filets.

You can pretty much do the same thing as salmon. I think it taste better.

Mark and Brand, both of these sound great. Do you just brush a bit of olive oil on the filets with salt/pepper when you grill or pan fry?

Yes, I brush oil on the filets and on the grill before putting the filets down. Helps keep them from sticking.

First, don’t justify what you kept. If someone is going to get their panties in a bunch over a few legal fish being caught, they have bigger issues in life.

In addition to grilling, they take seasoning and smoke very well. I’ll prefer to smoke them over chinook

Smoke it.

i’m far from an expert on salmon or trout but from my experience smoked is the way to go!!!!!!!!!!

Blackened in the cast iron pan, and made into tacos. Simple and fantastic!

Never had steelhead smoked but have had small rainbow trout smoked. Fantastic!

I don’t claim to be an expert on cooking salmon, but over the last 20 years I have grilled a lot of coho salmon. Here is what I do.

Lay the fillets skin side down on aluminum foil, brush olive oil on the fillets. Then apply the seasonings you prefer.

I have tried many things including placing raw onion rings on the fillets and grill them. Applying pesto to the fillets and grill.

The recipe that we have kinda settled on is sprinkle some McCormick Grill Mates Applewood and Sweet and Smokey rubs on the fillets. And, maybe a little Johnny’s Salmon seasoning. Then add some brown sugar to the fillets. Grill until the brown sugar has caramelized.

When removed from the grill take a spatula and slide it between the skin and meat (the skin will stick to the aluminum foil) and serve.

This has worked well for us.

Buffalo Fishhead

Randy Wieland wrote:

First, don’t justify what you kept. If someone is going to get their panties in a bunch over a few legal fish being caught, they have bigger issues in life.

In addition to grilling, they take seasoning and smoke very well. I’ll prefer to smoke them over chinook

Ha! no guilt here, but couldn’t help but notice the absolute two different points of view between the two fishing methods. A stream angler would be handling it with kid gloves and gently releasing, where you catch it off-shore it hits the deck hard and get’s unceremoniously thrown in the cooler. I guess in the stream it’s got a better chance of living so if you’re gonna conserve the resource, that’s where to do it!

Ive eaten plenty and they have all been from a stream.