Cold-smoked rainbow trout

Cold-smoked rainbow trout is salt, drying and smoke under 25 degrees. The fish becomes sliceable, not flaky like hot-smoked. It is a different job from smoked rainbow trout. Parasites do not die in cold smoke – freeze.

Fillet first: fillet rainbow trout.

How to do it

Cure

Salt and sugar pull liquid and set the flavour. 12–18 hours is enough for a fillet. Longer and you get ham.

Pellicle

Dry it cold on a rack. The tacky surface is what the smoke sticks to. Skip the step and the smoke comes out patchy.

Smoke

Cold. Not a grill with the lid on at 80 degrees – then you have hot-smoked. Alder and beech are the usual woods. Several hours; your smoker sets the clock.

Freeze

2–3 days. Before the cure or after the smoke. No shortcut.

Serving

Thin slices, horseradish, dill, lemon, an open sandwich. Not a hot sauce.

Tips

If you have no cold smoke: cure it gravad. Same fish, another page. Arctic char is often cold-smoked – see smoked Arctic char for the hot-smoked track.