Smoked walleye
Used six 21-22″ walleyes, filet but leave skin on & rib bones in
Smoked fish brine –
2 qts (8 cups) cold water
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups 100% apple juice
1/2 cup canning salt
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp onion chips or onion salt
1 tsp Lawry’s season salt
Couple drops of tobasco sauce
Combine all brine ingredients in pot (spaghetti noodle size) & heat, stir on med/hi till it looks well dissolved. Does not need to come to a boil. Just dissolve and combine everything.
Remove from heat. Throw brine into big plastic bowl w/ 20 or so ice cubes….stir…..place in fridge or freezer to cool.
Once brine is cool (33-40 degrees) , stir and add your rinsed fish.
Brine in fridge overnight. Stir once or twice in 12-18 hrs.
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Remove fish from brine and rinse filets good to get brine and any remaining slime off fish.
Pat fish dry with kitchen towels.
Set fish (skin side down) on cooling racks for 1- 1 1/2 hrs to form pellicle (sticky tacky feel) then put into smoker, skin side down. (I set the racks on our kitchen table under the ceiling fan.)
Heat smoker up with dry hickory wood. Put fish in smoker when box temp is at 100 degrees. Put a pan of water in the bottom of the smoker. (I use apple juice instead of water)
Smoke at 210 degrees (200-220 is as low or high as I let it go) for about 3 1/2 hrs. When the thickest piece reaches 165 degrees internal temp, it’s done.
At the 2 hr mark I use a BBQ dedicated paintbrush to put the baste on each filet. Do this a couple times, til you are out of baste. Every 20 minutes or so. I put it on thick and had to baste just twice before I ran out.
Baste recipe.
1 stick melted butter
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp maple syrup
4 tbsp brown sugar
20 drops of lemon juice (I skipped this)