smoked trout

Here is a little bit of smoking, you don't have to catch your own but it is very satisfying to catch, brine, smoke and eat your very own.

First clean and descale your trout, put it in a container with either your own brining mixture or you can buy it all ready mixed.  I use a 7% brine solution, that is 70g of salt to ech litre of water, I don't count any adatives as these are a personal choice, just use the try it and see theory, I write it down and see what it turns out like.

Put this in a cool place for at least 5 hours (I do mine over night (12 hours) in the fridge).

Remove from the brine, wash under running water to remove the surface salt.

Pat dry and place on the grid in the smoker. I also have what is called in German a Rauchertonne, this is a long cylindrical galvanised tube and is for smoking eels and long sausages in the hanging position (also for kippers)
Next light your smoker ( I have a one that can do cold and hot smoking, the trout was done by the hot method)

The smoking, cooking process took only 20 mins and the trout was a light golden colour, moist and tasting of the wonderful beech, juniper flavour.

While it was smoking I sauted, some potaoes cooked the evening before, with onions, speck and herbs,

So that is how you can do your own caught fish, but there is nothing to stop you buying already gutted