CANNING: How to Can Smoked Trout

• Why Should you Smoke and Can Fresh Trout (or other Fish)?
• How do I smoke and can trout?
• Preparing your Trout for the Smoker
• A Note on Pressure Canners for Smoked Fish
• Smoking the Trout for Canning
• Checking the Smoked Fish by Weight
• How to Can Smoked Rainbow Trout

So you or someone you know was just blessed with a bounty of trout. Now what?

You can freeze them, grill them, pan-sear them, poach them, bake them… sure, but one of the best things to do is to brine, smoke, and then put them up in pint and half-pint jars with your pressure canner. Making & preserving your own smoked trout is not the easiest canning project, but it’s one of the most rewarding!

Not gonna lie, I was pretty intimidated by this process until I did it, but as long as you have access to a pressure canner and a smoker, you can totally do this too, I promise! I’ll walk you through it and you’ll have your own stash of canned smoked trout to enjoy when we’re done.

Why Should you Smoke and Can Fresh Trout (or other Fish)?

Once you’ve followed this recipe and you’ve learned how to smoke and can your trout fillets or other fresh fish, you have freed up precious freezer space. Now you can go catch more fish, get ready for deer season, or expand your ice cream collection, perhaps? Also, no more worrying about your freezer dying while you’re out of town and losing all your fish!

But more importantly, after you can your smoked trout, you’ll have jars filled with a heavenly shelf-stable gourmet snack stashed away right in your pantry. It also makes a fantastic gift (only for people you really like though, because this is so good you may not want to share).

Your homemade canned smoked trout is fully cooked and ready for snacking, making trout dip or spread, deluxe bagel breakfasts, smørrebrød & trout toasts, smoked trout quiche, or garnishing gourmet salads. You can use it in recipes, or just pop open a jar and dig in!

How do I smoke and can trout?

1. Clean and filet the fish.
2. Brine the filets.
3. Remove from brine and let air-dry in the fridge (to build a good pellicle so the smoke sticks).
4. Lightly smoke the fish.
5. Pack in canning jars.
6. Process the jars in your pressure canner.
7. Cool, check seals, wash jars, label and store your smoked fish. 

It’s not a quick process, but it’s not terribly difficult either. As long as you have room in the fridge to keep everything very cold while you work, you can spread the processing out over a few days, from the cleaning, to the brining, the smoking, and finally the canning.

Preparing your Trout for the Smoker

Just like commercially canned salmon, you don’t have to worry about the pin-bones or making perfectly boneless fillets when making canned smoked trout. The long canning processing time under pressure leaves those bones soft and almost imperceptible in the finished product, so you get all the calcium and nutrition that’s in the fish!

It also saves a ton of time when you’re cleaning and dressing your fish. I remove the heads, tails & fins, and the larger spine bones (though you can certainly leave the bigger bones in if you like for smaller fish like trout).

I save those to make fish stock for soups and sauces. You can even lightly smoke the bones while you’re smoking the fish and make a smoked fish stock for your next batch of chowder or other hearty fish soup!

Store fresh fish stock in the freezer or refrigerate for use within three days. There’s no safe tested processing time for canning fish stock, and those who have say the quality of fresh or frozen fish stock is much better than canned.

A Note on Pressure Canners for Smoked Fish

You’ll need a large pressure canner (not a pressure cooker or Instant Pot) to safely can smoked trout or other fish.

While you can use a smaller pressure canner to can many things safely and effectively, to reach safe and consistent processing temperatures for this recipe or canning any other smoked fish product, your canner needs to hold at least 16 quarts (volume, not jars).

Note, this refers to the canner total volume, not the number of jars it holds. For example, my All-American 921 Canner holds 7 quart jars or up to 19 pint jars, but the actual canner volume is 21.5 liquid quarts, so it’s safe to use for canning smoked fish. Check your pressure canner manual or with the manufacturer if you aren’t sure!

Why do I need a larger canner for smoked fish?

Because the brined and smoked fish flesh is denser than raw-pack fish, you need the extra margin of safety here that a larger volume canner gives you.

Smaller pressure canners are prone to more temperature fluctuations, but more importantly, the extended processing time means you need to add a larger volume of water to your canner.

This additional water displaces the area available for the steam that actually creates the pressure that allows you to make sure you have killed any botulism spores or other food spoilage organisms that may be present.

A smaller canner does not have enough volume for both the headspace required in the canner to fully pressurize, and the amount of water needed for the long processing time.

What if I only have a smaller pressure canner?

If you don’t have a canner that’s up to the task, since the fish is lightly smoked and not fully cooked until processed, you could follow these instructions using your smaller canner to fully cook the fish and soften the bones. Do not use a pressure cooker, you need a canner that will process at least 4 quart sized jars at a time or there will not be enough room for the added liquid.

If you try this, you must freeze your fish for long-term storage instead of storing at room temperature! The jars will not be shelf-stable or safe to store in your pantry. You could probably reuse canning lids for this, since you’re not relying on the jar seal and will be using cold-storage instead for food-safety.

Make sure that you clearly label that the under-processed jars must be kept frozen, especially if you give any as gifts. Better yet, repackage them in vacuum-sealed bags (or double-wrap portions in plastic wrap and then freezer paper) for longer freezer storage without risk of breakage and to free up your jars for more canning projects!

Smoking the Trout for Canning

We used a mixture of fruit woods for this batch of canned smoked trout, mostly dried apple and peach tree prunings from our garden, along with some purchased pecan chips, oak chunks, and hardwood charcoal to get the smoker going.

Lighter flavored woods are best so that you do not overpower the delicate flavor of the fish. Save the mesquite for your next batch of ribs, not your fish! Chunks of wood are easier to work with than chips if you can get them and they work in your smoker.

What type of smoker can you use?

We have an offset wood-fired smoker (basically this grill with the side-mounted firebox option), which isn’t ideal for this kind of low-heat smoking, but better than the direct-heat type of barrel-smoker for imparting the smoke flavor without drying and cooking the fish.

Most offset smokers also have a larger surface area for smoking a big batch of fish at once, and easy access to the coals and water pan. The downside is that they tend to be less fuel-efficient and require more attention to temperature control.

A pellet smoker (Traegers and the like) will give you more precise control with less babysitting if you have access to one of those. I would recommend still using an external thermometer to check on the temperature.

Do I need a water pan in my smoker?

You definitely want to use a water pan in your smoker if it has one, or improvise one if it doesn’t. This will help the fish smoke longer without drying it out.

If your smoker doesn’t have a water pan, use a disposable aluminum foil pan (you can reuse these until they leak). Or, pick up a stainless hotel pan insert at a restaurant supply store for a water pan that will last for years (or can also be used for food prep, albeit with a lot of scrubbing). A four-inch deep 1/3 hotel pan is a good size for most grills, though you can use a half pan if you have space in your grill… you won’t have to refill it as often, but will lose surface area if it’s on the grates.

In an offset smoker like ours, you want to place the water pan on the grill surface between the firebox and the grates where you put your fish. This is the hottest spot on this type of grill, and putting the pan here will even out the temperatures and keep your fish from drying out too much as it smokes.

If you want to get really fidgety and have metalworking skills, there are plenty of folks who add a metal baffle here so that you can place a water pan under the grates (or pre-cut kits to add tuner plates and whatnot to adjust the smoke flow). Work with what you’ve got though!

How long should you smoke the fish?

For canning, you want to lightly smoke the fish only. We are not fully cooking the fish, just imparting the rich flavor from the smoke and a firmer texture. Ideally, you want your smoker temperature between 140-160℉, and to smoke the fish for no more than two hours.

If you fully smoke the fish (160℉ for 30 minutes or more) the canned product will be dry, dark, and unpleasantly smoky. Since the smoking in this recipe is mostly just for flavor, err on the side of less time in the smoker if you aren’t sure.

The best way to know if the fish is done is to weigh it before and after smoking, but you can also go by feel and appearance once you know what you are doing. Because the fish is not fully cooked at this point, don’t taste-test it!

Checking the Smoked Fish by Weight

To check for moisture loss by weight, weigh a small portion of the fish before smoking (and keep track of where you put it on the smoker). Write that down, then check it again during the smoking process. Subtract the new weight from the initial weight, and multiply that number by 100 to get the percentage of moisture weight lost in the smoker.

You are aiming for about 10%, but anything up to 15% is going to be ok (regular fully-smoked fish is usually between 20-30%; you definitely want to be well below that). More than 14-15% and your finished canned smoked trout or other fish will be too dry, and the flavor will suffer.

Want to learn more about canning fish or using your smoked fish? Check out these posts!

• How to Can Fresh Bluegill, Perch, and Other Small Panfish
• Equipment Guide-What Do I Need to Start Canning at Home?
• Organizing & Managing Your Mason Jar Inventory
• CANNING: Tips and Troubleshooting for Perfect Seals Every Time!
  
• Smoked Trout & Herb Cream Cheese Spread
• Smoked Trout Toasts
• Smoked Trout Quiche

Perfect Pairings: Smoked Trout Menu Suggestions

• Deviled Eggs with Dill, Preserved Lemon, and Capers
• Dill-Yogurt Nordic Potato Salad
• Lemon-Herb Roasted New Potatoes
• Bistro-Style Creamy House Salad Dressing
• Arugula & Olive Creamy Pasta Salad
• Spinach Artichoke Egg Bites