Father's Day

Where to begin. How about some great memories, and some of the best come from a series of family outings to the California Sierras, for fishing and all sorts of fun at the Sardine Lakes. Each year in late summer, 3 generations of Finleys would head for a cabin and and adjacent campground that nestled up to the aforementioned lakes. As a dad, my greatest memory was of my daughter, all of 8 yrs old, catching her 1st trout all by herself. She baited the hook, cast out, hooked the fish and reeled it in. She was all smiles as was I. Needless to say, we were bringing in a good a haul of fish.

The thing is, trout is best consumed fresh, the day you caught it. After that it loses something. Maybe we were just spoiled and that may be, but if we couldn't do that day there was only one thing to do: smoke it. This was my introduction to smoking. My cousin Bill had invested in a fish smoker and one year I decided I would do the smoking. I soon learned what it was to smoke something low and slow. The investment of time and attention to detail, I was not prepared for. But after a couple of years, I had it down. The one ingredient I could not account for was the brine. When smoking fish, a brine isn't always essential, but for trout, I do believe it is. By the time your back at home and ready to smoke, the flesh has lost a it's delicate fresh flavor. The brine replaces the natural moisture of the flesh with liquid packing more flavor. My dad had experimented with several brines, and the following is the one he felt worked best. I have to agree, this is one flavorful brine - having worked with it over a period of years. This recipe comes straight from my dad. I only have it, courtesy of hand written notation on a scrap of paper that I keep tucked inside my What's Cooking in Kentucky cookbook (Irene Hayes). This brine works very well for salmon as well, but keep in my mind, this is a brine and not a marinade. You will want a fair amount of liquid to fish to ensure a proper brine. Increase the recipe as needed for your fish. The following brine recipe is exactly how I have it on my scrap of paper:

2 qt water
1 cup salt (uniodized)
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder

Fish are brined, clean and whole. For trout, brine for 3.5 hours and for salmon brine for 18 hours. When done, rinse thoroughly and pat dry. From my experience, another couple of hours of air drying helps as well.

As for the smoking process - that's up to you.

I hope you have the opportunity to enjoy this recipe. It's always done well by me. Thanks dad!