I asked this question a few years back and got some great responses but I have lost all the recipes and hoping to pick some of your brains. Looking for some brine recipes for trout/salmon. Kids and I have been doing pretty good on the rivers here and wanting to stock up again. Thanks


White fish and being cleaned for fish tacos and the sucker got cut up for ice fishing bait.

Fillet or split, and generously coat with a 50/50 mix of plain salt and brown sugar, let set for a few hours depending on thickness. Rinse, air dry with fan a couple of hours, then smoke.

I do about the same way as waggled, but I do 1 part salt to either 3 or 4 parts brown sugar. I usually let it set for about a day, then rinse, air dry, and smoke. The first batch of the season hits the smokehouse tonight.

What do you mean when you say "plain salt"? I'm assuming kosher salt...not table salt.

I use pickling salt when I brine salmon for smoking.

Pickling salt — sometimes called canning salt or preserving salt — is pure granulated salt (sodium chloride). Pickling salt does not contain anti-caking ingredients, which can turn pickling liquid cloudy, or additives like iodine

I normally just use non-iodized table salt because that is what I will have on the shelf. I have also used pickling salt. Both seem about the same for me. My brines while either dry brining or liquid, always contain brown sugar, so I’m not sure that I would have noticed the cloudiness that Mr Dobbins refers to. I have been told not to used the iodized because it can affect the taste in a negative manner.

A king I smoked last week.


Red Salmon


Red Salmon strips

FYI...looks like pickling and kosher salt are pretty much the same thing.

Thanks for the info guys...I have a couple of salmon chunks I want to smoke this weekend.

Thanks for the info folks. Playing around with recipes and trying to apply bourbon maple syrup while they are getting smoked.

Jon.