Hot-Smoked Trout with Horseradish Cream
Trout brined, dried to a tacky skin, and smoked low over wood chips until it flakes on its own — served cold against a horseradish cream sharp enough to cut the richness.
- Serves
- 4
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 1 hour
- Written
Method
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Stir the salt and sugar into the water until fully dissolved, then submerge the trout fillets and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
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Lift the fillets from the brine, pat them completely dry, and set them uncovered on a rack in the fridge for 30 minutes, until the surface turns tacky and matte.
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Drain the soaked wood chips and wrap them in a foil packet, poking a few holes in the top.
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Set the packet directly over the heat source, place a rack above it, lay the trout skin-side down, and cover the grill or smoker.
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Smoke over low, indirect heat until the flesh turns opaque throughout and flakes at a touch, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
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Let the trout cool completely, then flake it off the skin into large pieces.
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Whisk the crème fraîche with the horseradish and lemon juice, and serve alongside the trout, finished with chives.
Notes
The dry brine and the air-drying step aren’t optional — that tacky surface is the pellicle, and it’s what the smoke actually clings to. Skip it and the smoke sits on wet skin instead of binding to the flesh, and you get a fish that tastes merely damp. If you don’t have a smoker, a foil packet of chips on a gas grill’s far burner does the same job.
This keeps for three days in the fridge and is better on the second, once the smoke has settled into the flesh. Pile it onto rye toast, fold it through scrambled eggs, or set it out on a board with the horseradish cream as the whole appetizer.