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:
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.
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 (to go catch more fish, or expand your ice cream collection, perhaps?). No more worrying about your freezer dying while you’re out of town and losing all your fish! But more importantly, you’ll have jars filled with a heavenly shelf-stable gourmet snack stashed away right in your pantry. Your homemade canned smoked trout is fully cooked and ready for snacking, making trout dip, deluxe bagel breakfasts, smørrebrød & trout toasts, gourmet salads, and makes a fantastic gift (only for people you really like though, because this is so good you may not want to share).
How do I smoke and can trout?
- Clean and filet the fish.
- Brine the filets.
- Remove from brine and let air-dry in the fridge (to build a pellicle so the smoke sticks).
- Lightly smoke the fish.
- Pack in canning jars.
- Process the jars in your pressure canner.
- 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 smaller pressure canners 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 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, and 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.
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. If so, you must freeze your fish for long-term storage instead of storing at room temperature! You could probably reuse lids for this, since you’re not relying on the seal and will be using cold-storage instead for food-safety.
Make sure that you clearly label that the underprocessed 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, along with some purchased pecan chips, oak chunks, and hardwood charcoal to get the smoker going. Lighter flavored woods are best to not overpower the flavor of the fish.
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, and also has a large surface area for smoking a big batch of fish at once. You may want to use a water pan in your smoker if it has one, to help smoke the fish longer without drying it out. A pellet smoker will give you more precise control with less babysitting if you have access to one of those.
How long should you smoke the fish?
Lightly smoke the fish only. You are not fully cooking the fish, just imparting the rich flavor from the smoke. If you fully smoke the fish (160F 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.
How to Can Smoked Rainbow Trout
Equipment
- 1 Pressure canner 16 Quart liquid capacity or larger
- pint or half-pint canning jars wide-mouth is best. Do not use jars larger than one pint (500 ml for metric jars)
- Smoker pellet or cold-smoker with temperature control is best but you can use others if you can keep the smoke and temperature consistent
Ingredients
Trout Brine (double for large quantities of fish)
- 3 cups water
- ⅓ cup brown sugar can substitute honey
- 1 cup kosher salt
- 3 tbsp coriander seeds whole
- 2 large bay leaves
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns whole
- 1 sprig fresh thyme sub. 1 tsp dry thyme leaves
- 4 cups ice water
Trout
- fresh or freshly thawed trout 1½ -2½ lbs of fresh trout per half-pint or pint jar, approximately
Instructions
Clean and Brine the Fish
- Follow safe handling practices with fresh fish, cleaning your catch and getting it on ice within two hours (see above). Rinse fish inside and out with potable water to remove blood and to avoid introducing bacteria. If you are using previously frozen fish, thaw fish in the refrigerator before brining and smoking.
- Prepare your brine - mix all the ingredients except ice water in a large stockpot and bring up to a boil and stir to dissolve salt (add some of the ice water if necessary). You can strain the brine if you like before adding the fish if you didn't wrap the spices and herbs in cheesecloth, or pick the pieces off the fish as you remove them from the brine. Add the ice water and chill the brine completely before adding the fish. Keep the fish in the brine in the fridge for 20-45 minutes (less time for smaller pieces or for a less salty finished product, longer for thicker pieces of fish or a stronger seasoned smoked fish).
- Remove the fish from the brine and lay on racks or sheet pans in the fridge overnight or for at least several hours. You want the surface of the fish to dry (form a pellicle) so that the smoke will adhere and the color and consistency will be even.
- While the fish is drying in the fridge or other cold place, ready your smoker with your choice of wood. Aim for a cold smoke around 140℉ but up to 160℉.
- Lightly smoke the fish at 140-160℉ for up to 2 hours, or until a specific weighed portion has lost 10-14% of its initial weight in the smoker (weigh a portion of the fish before smoking, check the weight periodically during smoking, and divide the weight lost by the initial weight, then multiply this number by 100 to get the percentage of weight lost).
- Remove the fish from the smoker and quickly chill the fillets if you are doing this over two days, or you can immediately pack the fish in hot jars to go into the canner for processing. If you can't pack and can the fish either immediately or the next day, wrap and freeze the fish well, and thaw completely in the fridge before canning.
Canning the Smoked Fish
- Trim the fillets if needed and pack them into wide-mouth pint or half-pint jars. Leave 1" of headspace at the top of the jars. Do not use larger jars! You can use regular mouth jars, but they'll be harder to serve from and to get clean later.
- Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean, lint free cloth or paper-towel soaked in vinegar to ensure the rims are clean and free of oil or debris that would interfere with the seal.
- Put clean, new metal lids (or reusable Tattler or Weck style lids if you are comfortable using those) on each jar, and tighten the rings finger-tight. I recommend using only new, quality metal lids here (see note below before using reusable lids for smoked fish).
- Place the jars in the rack of your pressure canner and add 4 quarts of cool water to the canner. Note: this is necessary because of the extended processing time, and probably a lot more water than you usually use and the jars may float a little. This is ok.
- Check that the canner vent isn't clogged and close & seal the lid. Bring the canner up to pressure over medium heat with the vent open, and once the canner is venting a steady stream of steam, set a timer for 10 minutes.
- When the canner has vented for 10 minutes, regulate the heat if necessary and drop the weight over the vent (or close the petcock if you have an unweighted dial-gauge canner).
- Can at 10 lb up to 1000 ft, or adjust to 15 at higher altitudes with a weighted canner. Start your processing timer for 110 minutes only once the appropriate PSI has been reached (11 PSI on a dial-gauge canner for up to 2000 ft, see notes for altitude adjustments), or when the weight is jiggling to indicate that the proper pressure has been reached. Watch or listen carefully, adjust heat as needed, and reset the timer to zero and restart processing time if you lose pressure below the correct processing pressure at any point.
- After the processing time is complete, turn the heat off. Once the pressure canner has cooled and returned to neutral pressure (the dial will drop to zero, and no steam escapes from the weight or petcock if jiggled) you should open the canner and remove the jars (follow your canner instructions for opening).
- Let the jars cool in a draft-free place where they can rest overnight or for up to 24 hours. Don't touch the rings until the jars have cooled and the seals are set (disregard for reusable lids and follow manufacturer instructions to tighten rings).
- Remove the rings and check the seals on the jars after they have rested at least overnight. Promptly freeze or refrigerate any jars that did not seal and use within a few days- reprocessing these jars will cause a loss in quality and might not be safe. Gently wash all sealed jars with soapy water, label clearly, and store in a cool, dark place. Protect jars from freezing and safely discard the contents of any jars that lose their seals in storage and sterilize jars before reuse.