Red Horse Are Running

[cayuga]

Well it is Red Horse time in Northern Wisconsin. Time to hit the rivers and fill the smokers. They have to be the most ugly fish there is, but are a lot of fun to catch, like to bite on night crawlers, and fight pretty good.

I got 10 gallons of them in the brown sugar brine right now and will smoke them Wednesday if all goes well. Of course I was talking to my fishing buddy and he said a fellow he works with caught 35 more Red Horse today and they do not like them. So I told them to bring them over too.. Nothing better then a full smoke house.

Then when the lakes finally break up a person can get to catching some of the other fish out there too...

 

[Rifleman]

Nice catch cayuga, I would be interested in hearing more about that brine and your fish smoking technique. I had a friend smoke some striper for me last year, and it did not turn out well at all.

 

[cayuga]

1 cup pickling salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
per gallon of unchlorinated water.

I mix it up in a separate container. Then the fish. Usually 2.5 gallons will do a bucket full of fish. Three gallons to be sure.

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After I clean and quarter the fish, I put them in a 5 gallon pail. If they are ruff fish like Red Horse, Carp, Chubs, or Suckers make sure you really clean the inside flesh careful. No blood pockets or mud lines allowed.

Then pour some brine, add fish, add brine, etc until the bucket or brine container is full. Put a GLASS plate on top of the fish to keep them under the brine. If no glass plate, take a food quality plastic bag, set that on top and fill it with water to weight the fish down. Then cover the pail with cheese cloth, to keep the bugs out of it.

The fish will only absorb so much of the salt and sweets, so after two day, you can usually smoke. Do not rinse the fish when you remove them from the brine.

Hang the fish on wires in the smoker so the grease can drip out of the fish and any other moisture otherwise some fish come out a greasy mess.

I use maple or apple wood. Soak the wood chips for around 1/2 hour in water. Get your coals or heat source good and hot at first and then put the wood chips in a smoker box over the coals. I like to smoke the fish real hard with dense smoke for the first two hours. You can reduce the smoke as you see fit.

Smoke the fish until you see the fish bloom - or turn the color of smoke you like. After that check the flesh. It should be dry and flake. If not, put in on pans and stick it in your oven on 200 degrees for as long as it takes to dry the fish to your liking...

After the fish cools, I vacuum seal it in serving sizes...

 

[RAF]

Cayuga, sounds good. As far as ugly goes, have you ever seen a burbot. Now that's ugly.

 

[cayuga]

RAF no I have not.. it is a ruff fish also? Correction.. yes I have.. we always called them lawyers. Or eel fish. We get them in Superior here. They are actually pretty good to eat if you deep fry them. Once you get past looking at them.

 

[RAF]

You're right, they are good to eat, if you can past looking at them . As far as I know, they're a fresh water cod fish.

 

[Redclub]

Cayugad
Do you scale the fish? I know that can be tough to do. They sure do sound good with that maple syrup. (I made a couple of gallons). Lawyers are good to eat but I don't like the way they wrap around your arm. Don't lawyers only bite in winter?
Ken

 

[Rifleman]

Lawyers are good to eat but I don't like the way they wrap around your arm.

Most of the ones I know would not be very good to eat and tend to wrap around my wallet!

 

[cayuga]

Cayugad
Do you scale the fish? I know that can be tough to do. They sure do sound good with that maple syrup. (I made a couple of gallons). Lawyers are good to eat but I don't like the way they wrap around your arm. Don't lawyers only bite in winter?
Ken

The only time we caught the lawyer is ice fishing on Lake Superior. When we got them up on the ice and unhooked, you have to watch how close you toss them near a hole, as they can crawl, well wiggle is more like it. A lot of guys pop then hard on the head with a billy to slow them down.

And no, I do not scale the Red Horse. I chop the head off, gut them, and then cut them down the middle. After they soak in the brine, I take a wooded skewer and push that through them under the main back bone rib and hang them in the smoker off the racks. This way all the grease can drip off them and they get nice and firm them. Also once they are smoked, the skin with the scales will peel right off the meat.

I was talking to an old fellow the other day about the fish I smoked. He tried some and first thing he said is, you did not rinse them. That's why they are so salty. I told him you did not have to. He disagreed, and said he always rinses them once out of the brine. So everyone has their own way of doing things.

One of these years, I am going to take an old wood stove and make a cold smoker. Just pump the smoke through them and little heat. My friend does that. He then has an old junk gas stove outside in a shed. He then heats them in that oven and finishes them that way. His fish and other products always turn out great.

I finish mine in the house, and then turn on my self cleaning oven...

 

[Redclub]

That cold smoking is the way we used to do it (a long time ago) my dad always used a weber grill and they were real good. mostly white bass and small cats though.
Ken