Before subjecting an innocent trout to trial by smoke, bone it. Firstly, take the head off and gut it. Then fins off, cut around the fillets and pinbone it, leaving something fish-shaped and hollow. Cut further up and open the fish out along the backbone left in it - the photo shows what you should get: two fillets, pinboned, joined by the backbone of the fish and opened out flat. It doesn't have to be perfectly neat, just flat enough. Remove any membranes from the flesh and lay it out in a tray. Step 1 done.
Different to other types of smoking where the whole fish are trussed up and strung above the smoke for some time, the reason I do my fish this way is simple - I'm hot smoking, so want it to cook through ASAP, and I only have a roasting tray to work with. For maximum flavour, you want the maximum area for the smoke to touch. Finally, doing it this way means that it's so much easier to just take the fish straight off the rack, drain any juices and flake hot-smoked trout off the bone. Juicy, smoky, moist, sweet, savoury and with real depth, this is a total joy to eat, especially with a fresh-dressed salad of apple, shaved fennel and green herbs. There's room for something more sophisticated, but in cases like these I prefer to not screw around with it too much - simple outdoors methods of cooking like this give big flavours: you don't want to crowd the stage. Put one actor on it, give him a spotlight and that's all the audience need.
Different to other types of smoking where the whole fish are trussed up and strung above the smoke for some time, the reason I do my fish this way is simple - I'm hot smoking, so want it to cook through ASAP, and I only have a roasting tray to work with. For maximum flavour, you want the maximum area for the smoke to touch. Finally, doing it this way means that it's so much easier to just take the fish straight off the rack, drain any juices and flake hot-smoked trout off the bone. Juicy, smoky, moist, sweet, savoury and with real depth, this is a total joy to eat, especially with a fresh-dressed salad of apple, shaved fennel and green herbs. There's room for something more sophisticated, but in cases like these I prefer to not screw around with it too much - simple outdoors methods of cooking like this give big flavours: you don't want to crowd the stage. Put one actor on it, give him a spotlight and that's all the audience need.