Smoked Catfish

[Hawnjigs]

My local Nebraska lifer fishing bud Jon had some catfish in his freezer that was mushy & off taste fried, so being a frugal man he added some to a trout smoke and I thought it was pretty good - firm, flaky, & oily.

The recently caught canal drain down football trout smoked was indistinguishable from deep orange flesh salmon. Nuthin fancy, just salt-bit o sugar brined and electric smoked with fruit wood chips.

Anyone have a more interesting pre-smoke brine recipe to share?

 

[Kdog]

Been using this one quite bit over the years. It came from some internet site because we had some smoled white fish at an asian restaraunt and I wanted to duplicate the taste.



8 cups water

2 cups soy sauce

1-1/2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup Kosher salt - iodized should not be used as it tastes funny

4 cloves fresh garlic

2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger



mix together. I prefer mixing in a pot and bringing to a boil the allowing to cool.  I soak my filets or chunks of fish 6-8 hours the air dry an hour or so before smoking. For smoking, I like apple wood.

 

[hookup]

Soy, teriyaki, minced ginger, minced garlic, brown sugar, sesame seeds, honey, minced onion - mix, heat then cool if desired (not needed but brings in the flavor of the fresh onion, garlic, & ginger better) or mix in a food processor. Play with the amounts until you find one you like.

Soak 4 hours to over night, them smoke

Because I'm a cheap SOB, I use whatever fruit wood's free. Currently using Pear and have cherry seasoning.

 

[duffy]

An old vet that was in one of our collage classes would take carp, clean it and cut the lateral line out. Soak it in baking soda water overnight, rinse well and then brine it in Mortons smoky sugar cure for hams/bacons. I'm not positive on the ratio he used, something like a 1/8th or 1/4 cup per quart but he brought some to school in a smoke laden hunk of tin foil and most of the guys thought it was smoked salmon. He would just chuckle as those guys gobbled it up.  I tried some and it was pretty darn good!

 

[Hawnjigs]

Smoked another football trout using the exact recipe Kdog brine and both Jon & I agree it is way tastier than simple salt-pepper-sugar. Lightly simmered the ingredients then strained out the pulverized garlic & ginger. Am ordering Jayone seaweed and Roland pickled ginger from Amazon to make bite size sushi with the trout.

Might try the additional hookup ingredients in the future, but Mortons cure contains sodium nitrate and propylene glycol.

 

[AllenOK]

By any chance, is the Morton's cure a pink color?

 

[Hawnjigs]

"Nitrates and nitrites can be toxic when not used at recommended levels. That’s why most curing salts are tinted pink—to make sure you don’t confuse them with ordinary table salt."

 

[AllenOK]

That's why I asked. I've read through a cookbook about making your own cured meats, and it talked about the "curing salt" was tinted pink to keep people from using it as table salt.

 

[duffy]

The last bag of Mortons Tender Quick I used was still just white. It's basically fine salt with Nitrate added. The Mortons sugar cure that I mentioned has no cure in it just salt, sugar, spices and smoke flavor. The Pink Prauge powder is nitrate on a salt carrier and much much stronger than tender quick. I switched to it because I have better control over the salt and curing with it.

 

[hookup]

I use cure and yes, it's pink. But I do not eat the cure directly, just use it to cure meat, then wash off.

Allot of meats I eat are cured - salami, hot dogs, bacon, Virginia ham

 

[AllenOK]

I eat a lot of cured stuff as well. Several different kinds of salami, Bologna, Mortadella, Pepperoni, Bacon, Ham, Cappicola, Corned Beef, Pastrami, etc. Working in the food industry exposes me to a lot of different stuff.

 

[Hawnjigs]

No doubt cured meats are tasty, but moderate consumption may be advisable. From a 2015 Harvard University study:
"Last week the World Health Organization (WHO)’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced that consumption of processed meat is carcinogenic to humans (Group I )”
"Processed meat – meat that has been transformed through salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, or other processes to enhance flavor or improve preservation"
"The IARC/WHO classified processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen, the same category as tobacco smoking and asbestos"
"high red and processed meat intake can also increase risk of other chronic and potentially life threatening diseases such as coronary heart disease, stroke and type II diabetes"

Just bought a basic Masterbuilt electric smoker, and hope smoked fish isn't as much a health risk.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Does anyone know if smoked fish has a longer shelf life frozen than raw filets?

 

[duffy]

Yes, smoked fish will last longer but is still perishable. If you cure before smoking that helps more and the more you dry it down makes it last longer of course you don't want jerky (or maybe you do). Moisture causes spoilage because bacteria grows in it. Another reason to bleed out and clean out as much blood as possible to get rid of bacteria. The acids in smoke also help to preserve meats but you still need to refrigerate it. As far as freezing smoked fish the vacuum sealer is still the best. It removes the air and keeps you freezer and everything in it from smelling like a smokehouse.
 If you look into most of those studies they would have you eating about a pound of bacon and a pack of lunch meat a day for a year. Pretty much anything is bad for you in those quantities. Everyone makes a fuss over nitrates but we all have them in our gut naturally. They actually make our foods safer and lengthen the shelf life but like Julia Childs said, Everything in Moderation.