smoked steelhead - amaze-n-smoker

Legume

Got an amznsmkr for Christmas, finally tried it out last night.

I didn't like the farmed salmon at Costco and they didn't have any sockeye, so I went with the steelhead trout - it was farmed but has much better color and flavor than the farmed King salmon that Costco usually carries.

I skinned and portioned it, then brined with salt, brown sugar and a full thumb-sized piece of fresh grated ginger for about 5 hours followed by a 10 min soak/rinse.

First time messing with the smoker, I bought a 20lb bag of apple pellets and used those. It was 33 and raining when I set up the egg and it was clear the pellets weren't going to generate any heat, even lit in both ends, so I lit a small bit of the leftover lump in the XL. I decided I didn't want cold smoked anyway, I wanted a hot smoked steelhead that would be close, but not all the way to salmon candy.

What I found was that to keep the temp manageable, I had to shut down the vents to the point that the amznsmkr wasn't getting enough oxygen, so I eventually abandoned that and just dropped pellets down in the lump every 30-45 min. I just hasn't thought this out fully. Next time.

I glazed the steelhead 3x with a mix of bourbon, grade B pure maple syrup and a bit of honey. It smoked @ ~175 for 5 hours and tastes great - not too sweet, not too smokey, firm, not dry.

theyolksonyou

I've never had steel head, but i would sure give that a shot!