Share your coho smoking brine

What's your favorite brine for smoking coho? 

I'm new to smoking in general, so help me out!

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I started with the "3 men" recipe (Google Chrome just barked when I tried to pull up the site, so no link here - beware!):

1 U.S. gallon of water at room temperature
2 cups salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon garlic juice (or 1 tablespoon garlic powder)
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon allspice (it is best to sift this into the water to avoid clumping
2 teaspoons white pepper

Brine time depends on type of fish (fatty/oily = longer) and if the skin is on (skin on = longer), and finally on the size of each individual chunk of fish:

1/4 lb pieces - 30 minutes
1/4 - 1/2 lb pices - 45 minutes
1/2 - 1lb pieces - 1 hour

After brining, place onto lightly oiled elevated racks to dry (about an hour). Then smoke per your smoker's instructions.

One of my favorite wood chip combos to use is equal parts hickory and pear or apple wood. Lately I've been doing a lot of stuff with alder and I really like that too. Mesquite is definitely an option but I don't like how it tastes on salmon in general (just personal preference).

This one is easy. IMHO most brines are WAAAAY too salty. Handed down to me (I'm a 4th generation native) goes like this:

2 parts sugar : 1 part salt
Pepper, garlic, onion to taste

- I use this same base brine for smoking vennison jerkey or fish
- can be brown or white sugar or any combination but I prefer brown sugar
- I prefer kosher or sea salt
- When I do fish, I generally go very mild on the pepper, garlic or onion
- wood chips: fruit woods for fish (sometimes alder)  hardwoods for jerkey

   As a finishing touch---before you throw the fish to the smoke---spritz some Capt. Morgan's Spiced Rum on your fish. It adds an amazing flavor....

Those sounds great.  The cpt Morgan should add a brown sugar taste or similar?

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Those sounds great.  The cpt Morgan should add a brown sugar taste or similar?

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  Rum is made from sugar cane. But the Capt Morgan's Spiced Rum  adds a very subtle orange flavoring. Not overpowering at all. A unique addition.

  Give it a try on a few pieces--I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

This one is easy. IMHO most brines are WAAAAY too salty. Handed down to me (I'm a 4th generation native) goes like this:

In my opinion the absolute salinity of the brine doesn't matter, because you can just leave the fish in for less time if it is more salty, or leave it in longer if it is less salty.

As I'm writing this I realize maybe you meant the ratio of salt to sugar. In that case I guess it's up to personal preference. I have used apple juice in place of water in the recipe I quoted to good effect. But in the end I'd rather "finish" my fish sweet than brine it sweet (again, just personal preference). Sometimes after smoking, while the fish is still just a bit above room temp, I will sprinkle brown sugar or lightly glaze with tereyaki sauce before sealing.

Not a fan of sweetings from a brine.  I'd much rather have it too salty than even a little bit sweet.  I recognize that some sugar is necessary.  But I'd rather go to the minimal end of that spectrum.

Just to clarify... There is no liquid added to the above recepie- it goes on dry! Believe me it will draw moisture to make its own liquidy brine. When you remove the meat from the brine you should find the perfect balance of sweet and salty and smokey. Not heavy in any one department.

I would glady hold a taste comparison against any other. 

Perhaps another ORC challenge??? hmmmm??? Anyone else game?

Brine, along with the wood used, are very subjective items.  From my experience, use kosher salt, but less than a recipe calls for.  Do not use rock salt, it has impurities that can impact taste.

I enjoy the sweeter version, and use the brown sugar/salt.  It's a dry rub.  After a few hours though, it's one big goopey mess.  The darker the  brown sugar, the darker the color of the finished piece.  (Salmon University has some good recipes/info for smoking.)
I also cook at a lower temp than many, it's almost a hybrid of cold/hot smoked.  About 170 for 4-6 hours puts a fillet in prime showoff mode. Cherrywood is awesome, alder is the old standby. I use natural lump charcoal as the main fire source, then add in small pieces of golf-ball sized hard wood for smoke along the way.
Keep in mind that fish, along with chicken, react like a sponge to whatever brine you drop them in.  Pork/beef not so much. 

My 2 cents,

Just to clarify... There is no liquid added to the above recepie- it goes on dry! Believe me it will draw moisture to make its own liquidy brine. When you remove the meat from the brine you should find the perfect balance of sweet and salty and smokey. Not heavy in any one department.

I would glady hold a taste comparison against any other. 

Perhaps another ORC challenge??? hmmmm??? Anyone else game?

I've never been a fan of this method, but if it works for you, great! The request was for brine recipes, though... so you can understand my confusion. 

simple but good:

1 cup salt  (non-iodine)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 gallon water

cook till disolved - wait 24 hours
put fish in it stick in fridge - wait 24 hours
pull fish out of it to dry - wait 24 hours
smoke on alder chips 4-6 hours depending on size of pieces

Smoked salmon is one of my favorite treats!  I've tried alot of different brines, and master chef and former () nwka member Pelagic's brine is the go-to for me anymore.   

For me, the hierarchy of salmon tastiness is something like this. 

For fillets: King->Sockeye->Coho->Pink

It all comes down to oil content.  The oilier the fish, the better the taste and consistency of the final product.  That's not to say I don't enjoy smoked coho and pink fillets.  It's just very easy to end up with a dried out piece of cardboard.  They have a very narrow latitude and thusly you have to be very careful with both brine time and smoke time.

For bellies and collars: Sockeye->Coho->Pink->King

Anymore I find myself just smoking bellies and collars since it's the fattiest (and tastiest) part of the fish.  Also the easiest to smoke because the fat gives the fish latitude.  Oddly enough, it's usually the part that gets tossed out.  If you have a local fishmonger, call 'em up and ask what they do with the bellies.  They may sell you some for cheap of even give them to you.  I know a fishmonger that is very, very generous   While kings have the tastiest fillets, I find their bellies to be WAY to greasy.  And I LIKE greasy!  Sockeye bellies are pretty greasy too, but if you dry them in a smoker for 8+ hours you end up with a product that is something akin to salmon bacon.  i.e. heaven.  Coho bellies are right in the sweet spot of taste and fat content.   The trick with bellies is to smoke them a couple hours longer than fillets.  An under-done belly is gona turn your stomach. 

Never you mind what they say about chum tasting good smoked.  They do not.  Not even bellies.  They are a great sportfish, but their flesh is the leanest of all salmon and thus you get none of the salmony flavor.  Might as well smoke a turd.

anyhow, here's Pelagic's recipe and some notes I kept.  Sharing because he's already shared before and his recipe can be found on the open internet.  I tweak it slightly by adding chopped or minced garlic.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s236/sh/5699ed63-6362-48fd-83a1-db9d2aab4dd9/5f74302b25bebe5febec3242071ea7a1

I am in the same camp as BEV and prefer a dry rub to a wet brine.  This was shared with me a decade ago by the owners of Steelblue Chameleon Lodge on the Elk River... who smoked a hell of a lot more fish every year than most any of us ever will in our lives.

If you coat the top of the filet and place the screen over a drip pan and keep uncovered in the fridge it will draw some moisture out of the fish, and will leave a glaze over the top of the filet. Rinse, let sit until it creates the surface (jargon forgotten) and smoke away.

With my Little Chief it is usually 3 pans of chips and about 6 hours of smoke time.  Good flavor and on the drier side (though not like jerky).

My recipe is basically the same, too.  1lb bag of brown sugar, 1 cup of kosher salt, 1 tbs of Lowrey's seasoned pepper.

Another option is to finish in the smoker with concentrated orange juice (freezer can thawed out) and it gives it a nice, fresh, sweet sticky glaze.

I had the Pelagic recipe sent to me in a PM as well.  It seems to be the most simple, and will be the first one I try.  I've already got it mixed up to start tonight.