smoked fish anyone?

I love smoked fish.

Salmon, sturgeon, tuna, halibut.....

Got tired of buying it at the store where it isn't as good as homemade. So I went out and bought this smoker, and decided I'd get into the business of smoking it myself.



http://www.bradleysmoker.com/

I tried a Little Chief one time my wife got me at a garage sale, but we loaded the damn thing up and then the burner went out and we ended up ruining a whole bunch of fish. I wanted to make sure that kind of crap didn't happen so I picked out this model. Easy to use, the wood discs burn up and then get dumped into a water pan before the wood turns to ash and the smoke turns bitter. Easy to load up and then it feeds itself and runs automatically up to twelve hours.

So far I've used it once for salmon and it came out awesome. It was really first rate. I have a fresh springer I'm getting ready to smoke right now.

Thinking of doing up some sturgeon too. But I don't know anyone with a recipe. Probably just pick one at random. Even though I knew from the beginning my salmon recipe would be good, I didn't know how easy it would be to get good results.

Any tips on smoking fish you guys have would be helpful.

thanks,
uct

 

Parent's have a smoker at home. Its pretty good to do when salmon is on sale, then they freeze dry it. dunno their results.

I think we buy from here sometimes: http://www.tonyssmokehouse.com/default.asp

good shit.

 

I HATE Fish...wish I didnt since its so healthy but any fish prepared any way grosses me out and literally makes me sick

 

That's wise, it's bad for the lungs. Much more healthy to eat the fish than to smoke them.

 

Derek will be disappointed you hate him so much.

 

I've got a Traeger and was thinking about getting the cold smoke adapter so I could smoke some fish and sausage, but it would probably just be better to get a new stand alone unit for cold smoking.

 

It's always best to smoke while fresh, but still good if frozen first. Always bleed your fish as soon as you catch it. Clean as soon as you're done fishing. Get on ice.

Here's a tip not too many seem to know. The skin side of the salmon seems to continue to exude slime, even after it's cleaned, if the skin is up against plastic. Wrap your fish in a dish towel, or couple of paper towels, before you put it into a gallon ziplock. I put two half-fillets, meat side to meat side, then wrap with towel. It doesn't even smell fishy when you open the baggie.

I use a big chief smoker. I like to use 2 pans of hickory chips, then finish with a pan of apple or alder chips over the course of about 4 hours. Hickory, cherry and mesquite give a sharp smoke flavor compared to apple and alder.

Invest a few bucks for a few glass one gallon jars for brining, if you have room to store them.

Basic brine is about a cup of salt, a cup of brown sugar in a gallon of water. Add to the brine things that you like. I like about 1/2 lemon (NOT that shit in a bottle) in a gallon of brine. I also like some hot sauce, just enough for some heat in the background. I like 2c of brown sugar myself. Dill is really good with most fish, try about 1-2 tblsp per gallon.

I've had raw onion taste great in the brine, but I've had it make the whole batch taste awful. If you want onion flavor, I think dried onion flakes are safer.

You can add a cup of soy sauce or teryaki. If you do, I would cut the salt back to about 3/4c.

Other spices depend on what you like. Garlic, curry powder, wine, rosemary....whatever.

Once you find the spices you like, WRITE IT DOWN, spice, quantity, amount of water, how long you soaked, how much you rinsed. It might be a while till you have another salmon, and if you're like me, you'll manage to forget something important. When you finally hit a HR with the spices, you want to be able to repeat it!
You'll hate yourself if you blow this. Experiment with different spices when you do small batches. Stick to your best-to-date recipe when you do large batches.

Cover fish completely with brine for 8-10 hours. The time is not too critical, but if it soaks a really long time, you need to rinse longer after you remove from the brine. When rinsing the fish after brining, test every 6-8 pieces to insure you're getting enough salt out of the flesh. Do this by touching your tongue to the meat side. If it tastes salty, it with be moreso after smoking. It can ruin your batch, and that sucks.

BE GENTLE WITH YOUR FISH when rinsing. Once you make it mushy, smoking doesn't make it firm again. Same with starting with a dark fish. If you wouldn't bake/fry/steam your fish, don't smoke it, release it. You want a fish that's shiny and when you push your thumb into the muscle, it's firm. If in doubt, let it go.

When I first started doing this, I smoked 16 chum salmon in three big chiefs. They looked fine and I caught them within a mile of salt water. That's a about 8-10 hours of filleting, de-boning (if it's just your family eating it, be a stud and take the pin bones out), butchering into chunks, making brine, rinsing, drying, loading onto racks, unloading, and discovering that it was mushy and strong flavored. That made for about 30 lbs of cat food. This was when I learned to test for firmness before I hit it 'em on the head.

Once you get the spices right for you, you can always make the best smoked fish on the planet....cause it's your favorite combination of flavors.

I place the fish skin down on a counter covered with bath towels, then lay towels over the top. GENTLY pat dry. Pepper liberally while it's all laid out, meat side up. Place fish on racks, put racks in stands.

Let stand for AT LEAST 2 HOURS. 4 is better unless it's hot weather.

Put the thick chunks on the bottom rack closest to the heat, thinnest on top shelf.

It takes a long time after chips are burned up. Thick fillets can take 12-16 hours in big chief. I understand that you can finish in the oven after chips burn and it's just as good, but I've never tried. Be interested if anyone else knows, from experience, if finishing in oven, or in the microwave is just a good, better, or worse than finishing in smoker.

After top no longer looks raw, start testing every hour or two for doneness by pressing with your finger. If you like your fish moist, it should feel like, um, pressing on a medium rare beef steak?. If you like it drier, it should feel like med. well done.

Let chunks cool. Place 2 paper towels on two paper plates. Put a single layer of fish on the towels on the plates. Put two paper towels on the layer of fish, and put two paper plates on the towels. Slide whole mess into a gallon zip lock. Put in fridge. The fish will re-hydrate a little in the fridge, and will actually give off quite a bit of water into the towels and plates. If they feel wet, change them. When the fish quits making the paper towels wet, package for long term storage.

Anyway, that was a lot longer than I thought it would be. There are lots of brines and methods on the net if you do some surfing. I used a dry rub once, and it was good. Google Salmon University would be a good place to start.

Fish ON!

Go Blazers

 

Okay, when I get back to Portland I'm buying a smoker. Did oldguy's post make anyone else's mouth water? Damn, I love smoked fish.

 

This recipe is the SHIT!

Fillet a fresh, firm salmon or steelhead. Pull the pin bones out carefully with needle nosed pliers. It's important not to mangle the meat when you do this. Take the skin off, and most of the brown fat between the skin and the flesh.

Cut into strips, a 1/2"X1/2"x however long. Place the strips in a glass bowl or gallon jar. Mix large bottle of original Yoshida sauce with two cups of brown sugar. If you have a lot of fish, you may need more sugar and sauce, in the same proportion. Pour sauce over fish until completely covered. Marinade in fridge for 4-6 hours. This time, don't rinse much, just take handfuls of the strips and run a medium-fast stream of cold water over them until the sauce is just removed.

As above, lay strips on towels on counter top. Cover with another towel, and gently pat dry. Pepper well, rack and place on smoker shelves. Let air dry for about 2 hours.

Put in smoker, and burn two pans of chips. I like one hickory, followed by one apple. I wouldn't use two sharp flavored chips for this recipe. Leave in smoker until the strips are very firm, to the point of chewy. Not quite as hard as jerky.

This step is the most important of all. Hide some of this for yourself, before anyone else knows it's done...because you won't believe how fast this will disappear. This is about as close as you can get to heaven with your heart beating.

While it's seldom a problem, please note there is little salt in the fish, so it doesn't store very well. It's good for a few days in the fridge, then starts getting soft.

Fish ON!

 

OK, last one and I'll shut up.

If you want to share your smoked fish at a gathering, but don't have enough to go around, this is my own smoked salmon dip recipe. It will make a few pieces of fish go a long way, and it is really great.

Empty 2 large tubs of soft philly cream cheese into a mixing bowl.
Add 1-2 tblsps of dried dill. (Fresh is better, but I don't know how to quantify how much to add.)
Add 1 tsp lemon pepper
Take 2-4 (depending on size) pieces of smoked salmon/steelhead, remove the skin, scrape off the fat layer between the skin and the meat, remove ALL bones, and break up into small (pencil eraser size) pieces. Add to bowl.
Add juice of 1/4 of a fresh lemon
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Add salt and pepper to taste

Mix all of this together well. You may need to thin a little, if you are going to use chips to dip with. You can leave it pretty thick if you serve with crackers instead of chips. For the more health conscious, thin even more and serve with veggie sticks. To thin, add whipping cream, a LITTLE at a time and mix until the consistency is right. (I know, it's whipping cream, but it doesn't take much to thin it out.)

If you serve this at a gathering, be prepared. The folks that try this will bug you to make for every gathering you have in the future. The good news is that it's really not that hard to make, for as good as it is.

One word of caution, it seems like more is better when it comes to smoked fish. In this recipe, too much fish will overwhelm the complimentary flavors. I've had people that loved this recipe turn their noses up at it when I added more fish, thinking it would be better.

OK, I'm done now, unless someone has questions.

Fish ON!

 

I make something like that. I add capers and a bit of onion in addition to your ingredients, but I commit the of using canned salmon with just a bit of smoked salmon (which goes a very long way). Seriously, I've printed your posts that include recipes for when I get my smoker. I'm literally drooling while reading these things.

 

As with most recipes, try the original, then experiment adding spices and ingredients that appeal to you. I've never tried capers in the dip....sounds good. I've minced onion and cerery and it was good. I've put cilantro in and it was pretty good, but be careful as it can overpower all the other flavors. I tried minced water chestnuts, and that tasted good, and added a little texture. I've even heated it up with habenero pepper before. I liked it ok, but nobody else could eat it.

Let your own taste be your guide.