Sturgeon Brine

Ingredients

• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon crushed allspice
• 1/2 cup mixed color whole peppercorns
• 1 cup apple and 2 small cherry wood logs or medium branches
• 1 tablespoon honey
• In a 1 to 1.5 quart pan, bring 1.5 cups of water, sugar, salt, ginger, bay leaves, and allspice to boiling over high heat. Stir until sugar dissolves completely. Let cool.
• Soak wood chunks in warm water for about 1 hour.
• Rinse fish fillet, pat dry, and lay flat with skin down in a rimmed pan about 12 by 15 inches. Pour brine over fish, cover pan tightly and chill for 24 hours. Occasionally spoon brine over fish.