Smoked Trout

Kevin and Ross went fishing on fishing opener weekend (which is a national holiday in Minnesota) and caught a bunch of trout in the mine pits in Crosby. They have been sitting in our freezer (the fish, not Kevin and Ross) and we have been slowly eating them. Then Kevin's friend Maury called to ask if we wanted to buy a charcoal smoker that his dad had won and of course I said yes. We decided to try our hand at smoking fish up at the cabin in our new smoker.

I thawed the fish in the refrigerator the night before and brined them the next day. For the brine I used a gallon of water, two cups of salt, a cup of brown sugar, a couple of tablespoons of raw garlic, a tablespoon each of garlic powder, cayenne pepper, onion powder and all-spice. I put the fish in a bowl, submerged them with the brine, put a plate on top so the fish wouldn't float and put the bowl in the refrigerator.
To set up the smoker Kevin soaked the wood chips and put them in a aluminum foil packet that he punched holes in. Then he filled up the top bowl of the smoker with a quart of water and in the bottom bowl he started a charcoal fire. When the charcoal was gray, I put the wood chip packet on top of the coals.The racks were sprayed with cooking spray and the fish was pulled out of the brine and washed. It was then put in the frig to dry for a little bit. Once the fire was smoking, I put the racks of fish in the smoker.The smoke started billowing out of the smoker and we closed it up tight with the lid and let it cook for an hour.After an hour we couldn't resist peaking at them. Oh my, they looked good. I pulled them off and we dug in.We had to save some for Karla and Eric because they weren't at the cabin yet and I suggested we eat them all and say the fish hadn't turned out. Kevin didn't think that was very nice so I was overruled. The fish was the best thing I have tasted in a long, long time. It turned out fantastic! Each smoky, salty, warm bite of flaky fish melted in your mouth. It was incredible. I hate to brag but it was so good I think I could eat nothing but that for the rest of my life and die a happy woman. Just another excuse for Kevin to fish more, I guess!