Brine for Bellies & Collars

[Derby]

I have a bunch of fresh chum bellies and collars and was wanting to brine up and smoke.. This is a first for me.. I usually do a hot smoke for chuncks and candied salmon...Suggestions?

 

[Derby]

Ended up doing the same reciepe as my candied salmon... Will have to for sure save my bellies for this as they were super.. Need to use larger fish collars in the future.. chinook for sure as they were also yummie

 

[wolf]

I LOVE doing the collars to me its the best part especially white spring

 

[Derby]

I can see why now... These chum were on the small side & look forward to doing the chinooks in the future

 

[wolf]

I remember as a kid there was a smoke fish plant on the waters edge I think just past parksville where they did "collars" and they were dirt cheap as people used to toss them My dad would go in and get this HUGE bag of them for cheap cheap we would sit around the campfire at horne lake and throw the fins and leftovers into fire (cool flames btw) since then Iva always done them....

 

[Derby]

Do u mind me asking what u use for the brine.. I just did a simple brown sugar & salt 1/2 cup to bag of Demrabrown sugar?

 

[wolf]

i always dry brine a combo of 4 cups brown 1 cup demeria and 1 cup of salt simple easy 48 hours smoke for however long it takes usually 6 to 8 hours depending on the temps lots of fat in collars and bellies thats why it tastes so damn good

 

[tubber]

If you're like me and just use the back of the knife to wipe off the chinook slime from a whole fish, you'll want to be more careful than that for smoking bellies and collars. Once they're cut it's a pain to get the slime off. Still tasted very good , but the brine was slimy and gross the one time I did them.