White Fish - Very Simple Smoke

One of the menu items this weekend was white fish. One of my coworkers highly recommended white fish, touting it as the best smoked fish he had ever tasted. He said it was much better than either salmon or trout so I had to give it a try.

I smoked it for an hour at 200F and the meat turned out just perfectly. It was just on the cusp of being cooked and resulted in a very moist and flavorful fish. I brined it in a simple brine of salt and sugar (recipe in recipe section) for 1.5 hours prior to smoking to improve the moistness. As far as seasoning, it was kept very simple. Just a light smear of pesto on top.

White fish in brine solution

White fish ready to head into the smoker

I found that the white fish absorbed more of the smokey flavor - likely due to white fish's natural blandness. Salmon and trout tend to have a stronger, fishier flavor that competes with the smoke for dominance. The white fish is also a more delicate fish and the flesh when cooked was softer and more tender. I myself still prefer the stronger fish flavor of trout and salmon but I would definitely do white fish again.

Here are some photos of the finished product.

White fish right out of the smoker

Fish all plated