Maple Smoked Steelhead Trout

Whenever I buy steelhead trout in bulk from Costco, I always have scraps left over after portioning out the fillets. I used to just cut the scraps into smaller parts and freeze them for later use in soup or something. Well, around this time last year, I decided to try smoking the scraps, and they came out amazingly.

I do a wet brine and let the scraps sit for a day or two soaking in the fridge, and then I'll wash them off and place them on a rack over a sheet pan, then pat them dry and let them air dry in the fridge for a few hours up to overnight. Doing this allows the trout to develop the pellicle. It's a light film that covers the finish and helps keep the flavors in. This is an optional step but makes for a better end product. Besides, curing and preserving is supposed to be a chill and laid-back process. Once that's done, I put the trout into my little smoker for about an hour to get them flavored; since my smoker is a small electric one that I tend to run off a solar panel, it's not great for start-to-finish smoking. I usually finish them in my oven at about 200F until they read 145F. Before putting them in the oven, I brush the trout with maple syrup. Then, I like to let them cool off before vacuum sealing them for later use. Smoked trout has a shelf life in the fridge of about a month, but they hardly last half that long with how quickly we eat them!