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Recipe Index

Ed Fogh's Smoked Steelhead and Salmon

Smoked Steelhead

By Tom Weston

Steelhead Fish and Chips Steelhead

Fish & Chips

Submitted by Tom Zimmerman

Steelhead Supreme

Steelhead Supreme

Submitted by Ken McLeod

Barbecued Steelhead

Alder Barbecued Steelhead (revised)

Submitted by George McLeod

Steelhead Recipes 4.2.pdf

Take the recipes with you or print them

Ed Foghs Smoked Steelhead

Ed Fogh's Smoked Steelhead and Salmon Recipe By Tom Weston

Tom and his "Midget Outhouse"

This process is based on a recipe and technique created over 60 years ago by the late Ed Fogh, an original Steelhead Trout Club Member. He taught many of us how to smoke fish. Ed also was a pioneer in the Club'’s Streambank Access program. An access area on the Skykomish River upstream from the town of Goldbar is known as the “Ed Fogh Drift” because Ed got the landowner to donate a pedestrian easement to the Game Department.CAUTIONARY NOTE: Smoke curing is a drying technique to preserve fish and other foods that has been used for centuries. The use of salt and low heat for an extended period is designed to remove most of the moisture from the foods. Moisture is necessary for spoilage to occur. Smoke is mostly for color and flavor, and has at best a minimal effect in safely preserving the food. See additional food safety concerns below.Smoking Recipe and ProcessRecipe is sized for about 6 - 12 lbs. of filleted fish. It is safer to freeze the fish for a time first to kill any organisms that might be present.Cut the thawed fillets into pieces that fit on your smoker racks.Brining Mixture Ingredients:3/4 lb. canning salt (non-iodized) 1 lb. dark brown sugar, 1-heaping tbsp. each of the following spices: ground white pepper, ground allspice, ground mace, ground cloves. (Mace is optional; it's quite expensive)2 tbsp. Lowry's Season SaltBrining ProcessMix all the spices thoroughly. Rub the dry mixture on the fish and place in a pan. A glass baking dish or a plastic dishpan works well (avoid using a metal dish as it can impart an unpleasant taste to the finished product). Put some dry mixture in the bottom of the pan, then the first layer of fish with the skin side up. Add more dry brining mixture, then the second layer of fish skin side up. Use all of the brining mixture over the fish. It is not necessary to add water, because the mixture will draw enough moisture to cover the fish with a brine solution within a couple of hours. Then place the pan in a refrigerator for 8 to 10 hours. (I brine the fish in the evening then put it in the refrigerator overnight). Remove the fish from the brine, rinse under running water and lightly scrub the flesh with a vegetable brush to remove the brining mixture. If the fish is only rinsed without scrubbing it stays too salty. It is also easy to remove the small (shoulder) pin bones using needle nose pliers if you desire, either before or after brining. Dry the fish at room temperature for an hour at which time a thin glaze called the pellicle is formed on the fish. The pellicle aids in the development of the color and flavor as the fish is smoking. It also helps keep in the juices and retain the firm texture of the fish as it is smoked.Place the pieces on the smoker racks, skin side down. Then put the racks in the smoker and turn on the heat.Basic Smoke CuresHard cure: Smoke 10 days or more in a light smoke with the temperature 60 degrees to 80 degrees, at the highest. This results in very dry and chewy product. This technique is believed to evolve from when Indians would have an open smoky fire inside their dwellings. They would hang fish fillets near the top to dry their fish for the winter. This technique is not recommended for home use nowadays because of food safety considerations. (Not to mention that your wife probably wouldn’t tolerate an open smoky fire in the kitchen!)Medium cure: Smoke 12 to 18 hours at 90 to 110 degrees, in a moderate smoke. The time can vary depending on the thickness of the fish and your ability to control the temperature in your smoker. You will probably need to add wood chips two or three times during smoking. It is not necessary to maintain smoke throughout the entire process. I have been using this process for over thirty years because the fish retains some moisture and has a better texture.Kippered: Smoke 2 hours at 180 degrees. This actually cooks or barbecues the fish. The internal temperature of the fish should reach 160 degrees for at least half an hour. After a medium cure, remove the skin and place the fish on paper towels for a few minutes to cool and let any excess oil drain off. Use any hardwood chips or sawdust for producing the smoke, e.g. apple, hickory, alder, pear. Do not use softwood such as fir or cedar, they taste bad.CAUTION! Treat smoked fish as a fresh food product. Keep refrigerated immediately after smoking, and freeze anything not consumed within 4 or 5 days. According to food processing experts at the University of Washington, if fish is kept below 110 degrees during processing it will spoil, look and smell bad before it gets dangerous. If the processing temperature goes above 140 degrees it kills spoilage bacteria but not botulism organisms. Therefore it can look and smell good but still kill you if not refrigerated or frozen soon enough after processing.Smokehouse designs vary tremendously in their ability to control temperature and smoke density. Therefore you will undoubtedly need to do some experimenting with whatever type you buy or build. I built a smoker that looks like an outhouse for midgets. It uses a hot plate, adjustable bi-metal thermostat and thermometer for temperature control. There are slots for four layers of racks. Wood chips are placed in a small cast iron pan on the hot plate. I cover the chips with aluminum foil to keep off oil that may drip from the fish as it is smoked. The fish is placed on racks above the heat. It may be desirable to change positions of the racks during smoking to even out the curing process. Bon Appetite!PS: There is a lot of information available on smoking and curing of fish on the internet, especially regarding food safety. I highly recommend that you start with ones like the following, which I got by googling “fish smoking”.

Links:

Pacific Northwest Extension

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Michigan State University Extension

Fish and Chips Steelhead

Tom Z’'s Steelhead Fish and Chips Steelhead

Ingredients:

Fillet of steelhead (or portion thereof)

Progresso Italian Bread Crumbs

Eggs sufficient to coat fish cubes (about 2 eggs per small whole fillet)

Preparation:

Skin and de-bone fillet (small forceps are useful to remove remaining pin bones)

Cut fillet into 1 inch squares

Scramble the eggs in a small dish

Coat steelhead cubes in egg and roll in bread crumbs, building a generous coating

To cook:

a) Deep fry until a light golden brown (approximately 4-5 minutes, but go by color)

Remove to paper towels and serve

Or for a lower calorie dish (and for those of us without a deep fryer),

b) Place breaded cubes onto a baking sheet coated with Pam, keeping the cubes

well spaced

Spray cubes with a light coating of Pam

Bake in a preheated oven at 325 until golden brown (approximately 15 minutes

but again, go by color)

Remove and serve

Serve with your choice of tartar sauce, ketchup or cocktail sauce for dipping.

Steelhead Supreme

Ken McLeod's Steelhead Supreme

Ingredients:

Fillet of steelhead suitable for 2-4 servings

Pre- cooked canned or frozen, well thawed bay shrimp

(a 5 oz tin will suffice for four moderate servings)

Fresh crab meat – (1 to 1.5 oz. per serving)

Mild cheddar cheese

Parsly- fresh chopped or dried –about ½ teaspoon (?)

Butter

Lowery’s Seasoning Salt

McCormick’s Lemon Pepper

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven to 350

Let the shrimp and crab come to room temperature while you prepare and

bake the fish

Divide fillet into 2-4 single size servings

Place on a broiling pan

Season fish with lemon pepper, seasoning salt, and a light sprinkling of parsley

Place 2 thin pats of butter on each serving

Cover with foil and bake at 325 for about 20 minutes, depending on thickness

of fillet

Just before the fish is completely baked:

Remove from oven

Remove foil

Spread the shrimp over the fish servings

Spread the Crab meat over the shrimp

Lightly top with grated mild cheddar cheese

Return to oven for approximately 3 minutes, until cheese is melted,

with the foil off

Serve with baked potato, side vegetable and the wine or micro brew of your choice.

Alder Barbecued Steelhead

George McLeod's Alder Barbecued Steelhead

Alder Barbecue 1

This recipe, or rather the fine product produced by it, is well known throughout the North Fork of the Stillaguamish Valley. The unique flavor is a result of slow cooking the fish over alder wood and the sweet flavor infused by the cottonwood buds. Low heat, slow cooking, alder smoke and cottonwood buds are the keys to this recipe.

George and Virginia makin' some magic.

You can collect the cottonwood bud sprigs from early spring through summer. Try to finds sprigs that have fresh new buds on them that are still resinous.

Find the good and sticky kind, with a sweet smell when pinched. You may want to use a pair of gloves to avoid the challenging clean up of your hands afterwards.

Cottonwood buds

Cooking Supplies:

Dry, seasoned cedar kindling

Stock of seasoned alder firewood (12" -15")

Stock of green, fresh cut alder firewood (12" - 15")

12-15 12”" Sprigs of new growth cottonwood with fresh buds

Heavy duty aluminum foil

Ingredients:

Steelhead (or salmon) fillets

Plain Salt (non-iodized)

Alder Barbecue 2

Facilities:

You will need a suitable barbecue facility. The one in the pictures is George’'s creation and works very well. It is about 3 feet square, built out of concrete cinder blocks, stands about 2 ½ feet off the ground, and has a wire grate and fine screen to eliminate soot over the top for the cooking surface. On top of the three blocks shown in the picture below goes a 4 foot square sheet of plywood to form a smoke chamber. Wetted gunny sacks are draped over the plywood to cover the gaps between the plywood and grill surface to trap the smoke. Longer pieces of wetted gunny sack are draped over the front to cover the upper gap and the open front. Fold this piece of gunny sack up to tend your fire. You want a low heat, slow cooking situation with plenty of smoke to get the desired effect.

3 x 2 x 3

Stack 4

High

Picture shows finished fillets ready to have rib bones removed with a dinner fork from tail end to head.

George's Barbecue

Wetted Gunny Sacks

Plywood

" Smoke Chamber "

Grill

Front

Back

Side View

Alder Barbecue 3

Materials:

To build this particular barbecue, you will need:

35 8"x8"x16" blocks (32 for the base and 3 spacers for the plywood top).

A 48" x 48" grill surface covered with fine screen.

A 4' x 4' x 5/8" sheet of plywood.

Gunny sacks: 10-12 heavy duty coffee bags.

Preparation:

Fillets may be prepared ahead of time, or during the 30-45 minutes it will take to establish a bed of coals. Get your fire started with the dry cedar and alder and let it burn down a bed of coals.

Salt the entire fillets well and place them on individual pieces of heavy duty foil with the edges rolled up. Pierce the rib cage and membrane thoroughly with a dinner fork to allow the salt to penetrate the flesh behind the rib cage.

Note on Wood: Do not use any fir, spruce, green cedar or aspen.

Cooking:

Overall cooking time will be 3-4 hours depending on the barbecue, weather and fillet thickness.

Once the fire has burned down some and formed a small bed of coals, start adding small pieces of fresh cut green alder to the coal bed as needed to generate good smoke. Add pieces of dry alder when necessary to maintain a small bed of coals. Keep the flames down with a poker. Add a few sprigs of fresh cut cottonwood every 20 minutes or so, once good smoking is underway. You want a small sized fire- check the picture - this is a slow cooking process.

Once you have the fire established and smoking, place your fish-on-foil onto the barbecue. Do not place fish directly over the fire. (Fire in the back of the enclosure, fish towards the front.) Place the fillet with the thicker portion toward the rear, nearer the fire, and the thinner tail sections towards the front.

Place the sheet of plywood over the top of the spacer blocks and place the wetted gunny sacks over the plywood, hanging down to enclose the smoke chamber and front opening.

Tend to the fire on an ongoing basis as described above. Keep this process up until the fillets are cooked - about 3-4 hours.

About an hour before the fillets are finished, place one or two loaves of sliced garlic bread wrapped in foil on the grill to warm for dinner. Serve with a salad and other side dishes of your choice, and enjoy a unique northwest flavor from the master.

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