Anybody have any good fish brining recipes?
have tried many variations, and i believe simple is best.
i like mostly salt, a lot of folks do equal salt and sugar. my standard ratio is 1/4C salt to 1qt water, i always use sea salt b/c no iodine and brown sugar to cut the salt if i want. other additives include soy sauce, lemon juice and white wine in small amounts… but i don’t waste time with the expensive stuff anymore.
brining time is purely dependent on the thickness of the meat. thin fillets usually get up to 4 hours refrigerated in that solution- anything more and they pick up too much salt. if not smoking immediately, rinse and pat dry before storing again.
in the past, i have tried to impart a little more flavor to the meat by adding spices to the water bath in the smoker- last year i chopped a bunch of rosemary, basil and japs from the garden. it smelled better while smoking for one, and i think i could taste some of it on the fish.
let us know how your experiments turn out!
Thanks…finally got to use the recipe. Used white sugar, thin sliced white onion and 1TBS of liquid smoke (dont have a smoker yet) and grilled it on the bbq on low for 1/2 hr after a 2hr soak.
Really good for fish dip.
“sniff it before you eat it!”
Why the brine? Wouldn’t it be just as good to smoke it fresh or does the flesh break down to easily fresh?
Jay
Pheonix 29 Sportfish
Shamrock 20 Cuddy
pirated, with credit:
Moisture loss is inevitable when you cook any type of muscle fiber. Normally, meat loses about 30 percent of its weight during cooking. But if you soak the meat in a brine first, you can reduce this moisture loss during cooking to as little as 15 percent, according to Dr. Estes Reynolds, a brining expert at the University of Georgia.
Brining enhances juiciness in several ways. First of all, muscle fibers simply absorb liquid during the brining period. Some of this liquid gets lost during cooking, but since the meat is in a sense more juicy at the start of cooking, it ends up juicier. Brined meats typically weigh six to eight percent more than they did before briningclear proof of the water uptake.
Another way that brining increases juiciness is by dissolving some proteins. A mild salt solution can actually dissolve some of the proteins in muscle fibers, turning them from solid to liquid.
http://www.finecooking.com/articles/why-brining-keeps-meat-moist.aspx