First I tried to address the issue with my burner's heat output. I removed the 4 racks that I wasn't actually using and I also removed the water pan. I used an empty drip pan instead. I had also painted the fridge black - both for aesthetics as well as to try and contain more heat.
The changes seemed to have a positive effect. The temperature was much cooler on the day of my second attempt than on the first. However, the smoker did heat up faster and had more success maintaining its temperature.
I also changed the brine I used for the trout fillet. Instead of the heavily laden salty brine I used last week, I used a simple brine consisting of nothing more than sugar and salt. I drastically reduced the amount of salt used.
I topped the fillet with some pesto and fresh lemon slices before putting it into the smoker.
I tried to maintain the smoker temperature at about 200F for the smoke and had my fillet in for a total of 3 hours this time. It was far better than my first attempt. It was not overly salty but instead had a pleasantly briny flavor. The smokey flavor of the apple wood was a little bolder than the first attempt and very nice. The flesh was far juicier although I still found that it could have been more moist yet. Next time I won't leave it in for 3 hours.
All in all though, it was a vast improvement over the first run.
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| Trout fillet - attempt #2 |
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