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Successful morning of fishing for fresh Steelhead Trout. That's the beauty of fishing at Costco, you never get skunked.
Bought 4 nice fillets, averaged 2 lbs each.
Skinned them, and cut each fillet into 3 slabs.
Used Bearcarver's great, step by step guide.
Made a batch of 'Bearcarver' Brine.
After 6 hours in the brine, rinsed, wiped. Into the fridge for the night.
Next morning loaded the cold smoker side of my Traeger.
Smoke on, temp 120.
After 2 hours, raised the temp to 140, for another 2 hours.
Here's where things went sideways......
Turned the heat on the hot side down to 180, and moved the fish from cold side to hot side.
For some reason, the temp controller on my Traeger, had a brain fart, and decided that because I had the lid open so long, that it needed an inferno to raise the temp to 180. Meanwhile I had turned my back, on the process for a couple of to get rid of some beer, and then to grab a cold one.
Got back to high temp alarm, and the smell of sizzling fish. Temp had shot up to 380.
Had to run for oven mitts and trays to unload the fish. (Internal temp at this time was 100.) Set them aside to try to stabilize the temp. After 45 minutes of shutting down and restarting twice, reloaded the fish, and finished the smoke at 180, give or take temp swings of +- 40*.
Shut down smoke at an IT of 145.
Tasted the fish after cooling about an hour, and got a mix of grilled trout with a hint of smoke. Greatly disappointing!!
Put the fish back in the fridge overnight.
Woke up this morning, thinking might as well vacuum pack the fish anyway.
Much to my surprise, the cold fish tasted awesome. Nice amount of smoke. Not great to look at, but I can live with that.
So only a partial fail.
Moral of the story, still need more experience on the workings of my Traeger. ( can't blame the going for a cold beer!)
Bought 4 nice fillets, averaged 2 lbs each.
Skinned them, and cut each fillet into 3 slabs.
Used Bearcarver's great, step by step guide.
Made a batch of 'Bearcarver' Brine.
After 6 hours in the brine, rinsed, wiped. Into the fridge for the night.
Next morning loaded the cold smoker side of my Traeger.
Smoke on, temp 120.
After 2 hours, raised the temp to 140, for another 2 hours.
Here's where things went sideways......
Turned the heat on the hot side down to 180, and moved the fish from cold side to hot side.
For some reason, the temp controller on my Traeger, had a brain fart, and decided that because I had the lid open so long, that it needed an inferno to raise the temp to 180. Meanwhile I had turned my back, on the process for a couple of to get rid of some beer, and then to grab a cold one.
Got back to high temp alarm, and the smell of sizzling fish. Temp had shot up to 380.
Had to run for oven mitts and trays to unload the fish. (Internal temp at this time was 100.) Set them aside to try to stabilize the temp. After 45 minutes of shutting down and restarting twice, reloaded the fish, and finished the smoke at 180, give or take temp swings of +- 40*.
Shut down smoke at an IT of 145.
Tasted the fish after cooling about an hour, and got a mix of grilled trout with a hint of smoke. Greatly disappointing!!
Put the fish back in the fridge overnight.
Woke up this morning, thinking might as well vacuum pack the fish anyway.
Much to my surprise, the cold fish tasted awesome. Nice amount of smoke. Not great to look at, but I can live with that.
So only a partial fail.
Moral of the story, still need more experience on the workings of my Traeger. ( can't blame the going for a cold beer!)
Looks good! 
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