Smokin!

Some of you might be interested in this link:

>>SMOKER FISH RECIPES<<

Smoked Mullet:

6 dressed mullet of medium size, butterfly cut or spinal split if possible
3/4 cup salt
1 package prepared crab boil
1 gallon water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound hickory chips, soaked in 2 quarts of water overnight

The traditional way of preparing the whole mullet is to remove the head just above where the collarbone would be if fish had collarbones and cut along the backbone almost to the tail so that the mullet lies flat in one piece. Wash the fillets until clean. Add salt and crab boil to the water and stir until dissolved. Pour this seasoned brine over the mullet and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Remove from brine and rinse in cold water; then dry.

If using a cooker designed specifically for smoking, then follow the manufacturer's instructions for use. if you are using a smoker with shelves and a water pan, arrange the fish on the lowest shelves in the smoker. The water pan should be filled about half full with leftover water from the hickory (Mangrove in FL) chips. Close the smoker's lid and open the vent slightly to keep smoke and air circulating. Estimated time is 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

If you are using charcoal or wood fire in a traditional barbecue grill with cover or hood, here are professional smoker's tips: Let the fire burn down to a low, glowing, even heat. Cover with wet (over-night soaked then drained and partially dried) hickory chips. The chips make the smoke. Place the fish on a well oiled grill, skin side down, about 4 too 6 inches from the smoking coals. Baste fish well with oil at the beginning and occasionally during cooking. Covert and smoke for 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until the mullet flake easily when tested with a fork. Add remaining chips as necessary to keep the fire smoking. DO NOT put the fire out with too many chips, and do not open the cooker too often, venting the smoke and heat. Small twigs of red bay and bay leaves added during the last twenty minutes of smoking will add pleasant flavoring. what we're describing here obviously is what well could be called a delicate balance!

If you're using mullet fillets instead of the traditional spinal cut, shorten the cooking time to 45 minutes, or even less if fish readily passes the flake test. With smoking, however, a little over-cooking usually is better then under-cooking.

(Editor's note: this smoking recipe works well with kingfish, Spanish mackerel, cobia, barracuda, and any other oily fish that you may want to smoke.) Thank you Grif, this is a good one!

Capt. Charlie
 
Pat Anderson":2befyy0r said:
<stuff clipped> I use the the Lil Chief to smoke fish, snack sausage, etc., with sawdust in the pan.
Click to expand...

No...not Sawdust :shock: - we like Dusty...


Cutty - I also make some of the "mistakes" mentioned above. I brine my fish in a metal spaghetti pan (stainless) and often vacuum pack and freeze. It tastes just fine to me after several months (if it lasts that long). I use a brine mix of soy sauce, kosher or pickling (non-iodized) salt, brown sugar, chopped fresh garlic, chopped yellow onions, a little white wine and a little water. I brine over night and smoke for 6-10 hours (depending on thickness). I have a little Chief and almost always use alder wood.
 
Been eyeballing some smokers lately...these two manufacturers are a little pricey, but they seem to get rave reviews. Both are insulated, temperature controlled, just set 'em and forget 'em. Neither uses the proprietary smoking chips I've seen on some other high-end models - put whatever suits your fancy into them.

Cookshack sells several models, the SM008 and SM009being their low-end models, which look more than adequate to me. Only difference between the two is powder coat (SM008) vs. stainless (SM009) construction.

SmokinTex makes a couple similar models - the 1300 (powder coat) and 1400 (stainless). Word has it, the owner is an ex-employee of CookShack. Seems like more bang for the buck - has more racks, is slightly larger, and costs less. Reason being, it's China manufactured, whereas the CookShack is US made.

CookShack has some pretty active forums, mostly devoted to their models, but there's info on the SmokinTex there as well.
 
Don't worry about Sawdust! He can eat his way out of any salmon smoker. Yummers. Jon and Cynthia make the bestest smoked salmon in my experience... gotta get over to Pt. Angeles and beg, beg, beg.

Bradley for me - works great. Pricey I guess, but with salmon at about 300 bucks a pound, who cares! My marina neighbor just filled his boat for 900 bucks - and got skunked on his next two trips :roll:

Dusty
 
On my way from Memphis to Seattle two weeks ago we stopped at a Cabelas in Sidney, Nebraska. They had the Cookshack there and I felt that it looked poorly made. The door latches were very difficult to operate and the over all quality was no where near what I have seen on the Bradley.

I really like the Bradley but my barrel BBQ with the remote smoke box works very well for smoking salmon since I converted it to run on propane (I could never control the heat correctly until I did that). I can smake up to about 50lbs of fish at a time too!
 
Gary,

Don't think you can beat a good barrel/remote box. With a little work you can control the smoke and temp. Worked for me for years - got pretty tough to move from house to house to house.

Dusty
 
Somewhere, years ago, we had a discussion on how to build a real big dedicated smokehouse you could walk around in with a remote firebox and the whole floor and wall plans.

Somebody worked for an older guy when he was a youth keeping the thing operating as a part time job.......Tyboo???
 
Indeed it was TyBoo -

But now that he's older he probably can't remember anything about the old smokehouse. Time has a way :wink:

Young Dusty
 
Hi Brats,

I just wanted to share our experience with smoking salmon for the first, starting with the great fish we caught on Lake MI with Mark on Not for Hire.

After reading the above posts/recipes, I got on the internet and found www.salmonuniversity.com., which has a great dry brine recipe (their recipe #1). Well, it worked out great and was delicious, but of course, it didn't last long.

Someone said not to smoke frozen salmon, but I did a test filet anyhow. No problem! Perhaps this was because we vacuum packed it.

However, when I did another batch, I tried a variation that is really good. The SalmonUniversity
says to score the fish before smoking, in a "candy bar" fashion. When I did the last batch, I made sure to get the brown sugar/salt brine in between the "bars", but this time when I put the fish in the electric Brinkman smoker I also sprinkled dark brown sugar on top of the filets, as well. I also added more after an hour and a half. Total smoking time was about three hours, with the largest pieces on the bottom shelf.

The added sugar topping gives a slightly sweet flavor and adds a very nice appearance and texture on the surface.

Today I dug out the last of the filets (steaks will be cooked) and they're in the dry brine right now.

Also, we just returned from SC and had a four hour charter where we caught a batch of bluefish. They're in the brine, too.

At first we thought that catching five nice salmon gave us enough fish for winter! Wrong. We're definitely going to get downriggers and catch our own from Valkyrie in August next year.

Mark, you're our guest next time out.

Best regards,

Nick
"Valkyrie"
 
Nick,

Congrats on your smoked fish! I hope to be doing another batch soon myself.

The SalmonU recipe is basically the same thing I do. Except I don't bother measuring anything. I just place the fish in glass caserole dishes flesh side up. Coat the top with non-iodized salt and then cover that with brown sugar. Add another layer of fish on top of that and repeat until the top of the caserole is reached. Cover it and put it in the fridge over night. In the morning I drain the brine off and pat the flesh dry. Then I place it in the smoker and away we go. Simple and good :)

I've found the biggest mistake to make is to use metal or plastic when brining the fish. The flavor gets transfered into the fish and it can ruin a good batch! :sad Now the only thing I will use is glass caserole dishes or bowls. No more plastic, metal, or clay during brining for me! Also, using iodized salt makes the meat taste metallic as well.
 
Here is what is going in my Bradley tonight . About 5 Lbs of Tripletail fillets with the following cure . Finely diced Jalapenos and Poblanos from our garden, a little fresh ground black pepper, a light dusting of Morton's Tender Quick [ helps with texture and moving flavors into the meat] and a sprinkle of Kikkoman Memmi [ thats noodle soup base for Udon, sort of soy like but a little sweeter ] In the brine/cure for about 12 hours , and then about 5 or 6 hours low and slow on the Bradley with whatever wood I decide to use . Probably Alder or Maple .
After that, a load of Spanish Mackerel and Mullet next .............
Marc
 
Nick and all - I love the electric Brinkman, but it really has too high a temperature (around 250 degrees F) for traditional curing and smoking of fish to preserve them - it does a fine a job of smoke-cooking the fish (as well as brisket, ribs, butt, etc.), but what you end up with is smoke flavored cooked fish. Traditional curing and smoking use a salt brine plus low temperature smoking, more on the order of a dehydrator than an oven! Even the Little Chief, which is about 100 degrees F cooler than an electric Brinkman, is still on the HIGH end of the temperature range for traditional smoking. The smoke cooked fish taste great of course!
 
Pat-

You're absolutely right about the temperature difference between smoking and cooking! Great post, but now you've got me wondering.............

Cooking kills bacteria (and molds, etc.) with heat. Cold smoking wouldn't get the temperature up high enough to sterilize the meat, which is a great growth medium for bacteria and spoilage. So it must be the smoke that cures the meat and kills the bacteria. OK, so far so good.

But we then eat the smoked fish with the tasty smoke residue in it. However, we know that many kinds of smoke and combustion residues are carcinogenic. So does a lot of smoked food/fish pose a health risk?

Who knows?

From a pragmatic point of view, a lot of folks are eating smoked foods. But a lot of folks also smoke cigaretts, etc.

Of course, we all take in a lot of smoke from stoves, fireplaces, cars, industrial sources, and steaming spouses. The risk is there, but must be moderate.......

Joe.
 
One thing I ALWAYS do is freeze the fish before smoking it. That will kill most of the bad stuff. But I also do the higher heat "Smoke Cooking" that Pat describes as I try to keep the heat at about 150 in the smoker.
 
I have smoked albacore with the following;
water, light brown sugar, olive oil, white wine, salt, pepper and dill or other spices.
I sometimes smoke the loins whole or halved, then break them up to make smokey tuna salad.

I have sometimes just used the light brown sugar on smaller pieces to make squaw candy- good also on salmon.

I use charbroil smokers with charcoal and mesquite, a water steamer with orange juice and various wood chips.
 
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