by Oddwookiee » Mon Nov 05, 2012 4:25 pm
For fish I use the same brine I use on hams, diluted by 50%. Dry cure, I can't speak to.
For the amount of smoke, white fish being milder I would use the color as a judge. Smoke until they look good and that should be the flavor you're after. I do a bunch of salmon (Pacific NW here) and people generally ask for a heavy smoke. I'll hit it until the surface is a medium to dark caramel color, but oily fish like salmon can take a bigger smoke flavor. For a whitefish, I'd smoke until it has a nice pale cafe au lait color then test for flavor from there. Also, be aware that any flavor will mellow after 24 hours to 4 days as the smoke compounds are absorbed from the surface (learned that the hard way smoking cheeses).