Kokanee Brine: A Basic Delicious Brine Recipe for Smoking, Grilling, and Baking Kokanee Salmon

Brining kokanee salmon is a key way to enhance flavor, preserve moisture, and get the best results from cooking. A Kokanee brine is key in smoking, grilling, or baking kokanee salmon.

Why Brine Kokanee Salmon

Brining kokanee adds flavor and also helps the salmon retain moisture. Retaining moisture is especially important when either baking, or smoking kokanee salmon. In a way, it cures the kokanee slightly before its cooked. Bacon is proof that curing meet is a good choice. The brine helps to elevate the kokanee and its flavor. I have run several side by side comparisons. Brining kokanee makes the fish more flavorful, less “gamey,” moist, and delicious.

I’ve been cooking what I catch and kill for my whole life, but I’ve really gotten into trying to master kokanee in the last 4 years. A good brine is key for many kokanee cooking methods.

The Difference Between a Brine and a Marinade

A brine is more to cure the meat and is rinsed off before cooking. A marinade infuses flavor and isn’t washed off before cooking. There can be some marinades that are very similar to a brine, but most are less salty.

Sugar vs Other Sweeteners in Your Kokanee Brine

I like to use either regular white sugar or brown sugar in my brines. I don’t like to use honey in my brines, but like to use it in marinades. Maple syrup is another popular sweetener, and its good both in brines and in marinades. You can also use sodas/soft drinks as sweeteners. Just make sure you don’t use diet drinks. You want the real stuff.

Sweet Kokanee Brine

When making a sweet kokanee brine, you’ll want to increase the amount of sweetener is in the brine in relation to the salt. This doesn’t mean you reduce the amount of salt, but rather you increase the sugar or sugar like substance. If I am making a sweet smoked kokanee, I will use about twice as much sugar as salt, up to as much as 5 times as much sugar as salt in my sweetest kokanee recipes. You can also do multiple types of sweeteners in a brine. I will often combine brown sugar and maple syrup. I also will combine white sugar and fruit juices for added sugars.

Brine for Smoked Kokanee Salmon

Most often a brine is used when smoking salmon. The brine works with the smoke to really accentuate the flavors of the fish. Additionally, I find that the salt has permeated the flesh, and just enhances the overall flavor. I guess that’s a fancy way of saying- smoked salmon really loves to be brined beforehand. Now this is especially true for slow smoked kokanee. There’s been a trend to do a hot smoke for some salmon recipes. I think its tasty, but its different, and you don’t get the full benefit of brining when you do this method.

How to Brine and Smoke Kokanee Salmon

You brine your kokanee by combining the salt, sugar, and spices in the water, then submerging your kokanee fillets or whole kokanee in the mixture. Let the kokanee sit in the brine for 24-72 hours, and then rinse. The ratio for salt to water is 1 Tablespoon of salt to one cup of water, or 1 cup of salt to 1 Gallon of water. It’s a 1:16 ratio if you need to scale up or down from there.

Then you want to smoke the kokanee salmon at between 225-250 degrees. Smoke until the fish reaches an internal temperature of at least 145 degrees.

How Long Do You Brine Kokanee

Kokanee and other fish need to brine for at least 24 hours. I like to try to do closer to 48 hours. But you can brine them for up to 72 hours. I wouldn’t go longer than that.

What Spices Go Well In a Brine

The spices you might want to use in a brine depend on what your overall flavor to be. Some of these combine well, and some don’t so be selective on which ones you want to use.

• Onion
• Thyme
• Lemon or Orange Peel
• Rosemary
• Pepper
• Ginger
• Chilis, hot sauce, or spicy peppers

Additionally, you can also add some fruit juices. In my kokanee candy recipe, I add apple juice and orange juice. Both do well in brine mixtures, and other fruit juices work as well.

Wet Brine vs Dry Brine

A wet brine is a traditional brine, with the salt and sugar in water. A dry brine is just salt, sugar, and spices that are packed on to the fish, without any water. A dry brine is nice when you have smaller amounts of fish. If you’ve got a lot of fish to brine, its much easier to mix up the big pot of brine and get all your fish in and brining at once. A dry brine you can quickly throw on just a few fillets without using up a lot of material. It also takes up much less space in the fridge.

About Kokanee Salmon

Kokanee salmon are landlocked sockeye salmon, which means they don’t return to the ocean and live their entire lives in lakes or reservoirs before spawning in rivers and streams. These salmon are delicious and are really strong fighters, making them a prime target for anglers, and the popularity of this fish is growing. Because they don’t return to the ocean, kokanee salmon tend to be smaller and a more delicate, softer textured fish than their ocean going cousins, the sockeye salmon.

Putting the kokanee in a brine helps to make them more similar to sockeye, or ocean going salmon. It does wonders to the texture and flavor.

About the Author

Hi, my name is Lance and I’m a kokanee junkie. I love fishing for kokanee, eating them, and smoking them. I’ve been chasing kokanee for about a decade now. I have put a lot of time into studying the fish, experimenting with gear, and figuring out the best ways to eat them. I believe in working with the natural flavors of fish and wild game, instead of trying to hide the flavor. In addition to running a kokanee website, I also run a website on smoking and grilling meats. These two sites kind of cover my two passions.