Vodka-Cured Lake Trout

Following our successful Keuka Lake fishing trip, I have a few more trout recipes to share with you. Since I don’t want to freeze fish when I can avoid it, and I can only eat so much while it’s fresh, I had to come up with a number of curing and marinating plans. This one involves vodka and is particularly successful: instead of giving a marked alcohol taste to the fish, the vodka blends in and produces a very mellow result. If you want to add some smoke flavor, you can substitute half or all of the salt with smoked salt.

The cured fish can be wrapped in plastic film and kept in the fridge for a couple weeks. Serve with blini and sour cream, or bagels and cream cheese.

ETA: Over the years, this has become one of my favorite cured trout recipes. I’ve added pictures of different batches, all prepared with lake trout from the Finger Lakes. Some of these lakers, especially from Cayuga Lake, have a much more orange flesh.

Vodka-cured lake trout
Yields about 6 servings

1 oz salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 1/2 oz sugar
4 oz light olive oil
4 oz vodka
1 large trout fillet, skinless (about 16 oz when cleaned)

• In a blender, mix the salt, pepper, sugar, olive oil and vodka. Place the trout and the curing mix into a plastic pouch, and refrigerate for 48 hours. Flip every 12 hours, making sure the fish remains completely coated in the liquid.
• Take the fillet out of the pouch, rinse under cold water and pat dry. Slice very thinly and serve.