You can start with fresh trout or if the catch is not sufficient, you can freeze your trout and smoke it after it has defrosted.
Your trout are clean and you are ready to prepare them for smoking. This is very fast and offers excellent results!
Put your trout aside without removing the heads in order to easily hang them in the smokehouse and prepare your brine by diluting salt in water. Add between 150 and 200 g of salt per litre. You can also make a mixture of 150 g of salt and 50 g of sugar per litre*.
Put your trout in the brine, cover them with a plate or a weight to immerse them completely. Leave them for 4 to 8 hours depending on how long you will dry them*, but at the very least the eyes should turn white.
Rinse them in water in a basin, dry them and place them in the smokehouse, hanging the heads from hooks.
Turn up the smokehouse to around 50°C and leave the trout for at least 3 hours. The best is to hot smoke. Do not exceed 60°C for the first two hours and leave the smokehouse to cook while maintaining light smoke for 2 or 3 hours more.
Tips If you do not have an instrument for measuring the saltiness of your brine, place a hard-boiled egg or a small potato in the water and add salt until the egg or the potato floats.
To add perfume to your brine, place some spices (red peppers, laurel, cloves, pepper etc.) in a tea strainer
