Any mackerel?

[Zigs]

Took the neighbours some round to keep em happy.

 

Smoker is just an old stainless steel bin with a grill & an upturned wok on top. I gets an oak fire going then put dampened oak saw dust on top, works a treat. Got to keep an eye on it, in case it flames up & mothers the fish.

[Steve Walker]

I use a cast iron chiminea thing for smoking fish - get some embers in the bottom then put a tinfoil tray of damp woodchips on top of them, hang the fish in the chimney and seal up the opening with foil. But I keep meaning to make something a bit more impressive down at the bottom of the garden - I want to cold-smoke!

[Worms]

I've got an old biscuit tin with some 1/8" welding rods as supports poked through it. I put wood chip in the bottom and stick it on a gas burner!

[Zigs]

I've used my chimnea for smoking too. Made a wire mesh cage that wedges into the chimney & just hung the fish with skewers. Found some dropped off though. You could fix flexible ducting to the top to lead to a cold smoking box. dont have the fire too hot though or the aluminium will burn thru. Bear in mind that cold smoking won't kill fish worm eggs so if you've got an old fish, freeze it after its smoked for a minimum of 24 hours.

 

http://www.thelifetree.com/fishtapeworms.htm

Edited August 2, 2010 by ziggy searchfield

[chevin]

I use a cast iron chiminea thing for smoking fish - get some embers in the bottom then put a tinfoil tray of damp woodchips on top of them, hang the fish in the chimney and seal up the opening with foil. But I keep meaning to make something a bit more impressive down at the bottom of the garden - I want to cold-smoke!

 

Cold smoking is the way to go, and I built a cold smoker from an old fridge/freezer. I ripped out all of the works so that I was able to move it around easily and then I stripped all of the insulation out of the fridge cabinet, but left it in the freezer area. I then drilled two 20mm holes in the bottom of the fridge area, and lots of them the through the separator between the fridge and freezer units, and then three though the top of the freezer unit. This way, the smouldering wood is in the fridge area with a very small air supply which prevents the wood from bursting into flame. Being as the walls of the fridge area are very thin sheet metal any heat generated by the wood is soon lost through those walls.

 

The cabinet.

 

I use a beer mix can as the smoke generator and I drill three holes of about 10mm around the base of the can. Again it is important to keep airflow to the minimum, burning wood gives off little smoke and more heat. In the bottom of the can, I put four barbecue heat beads and a couple of 25mm cubes of a local wood called Banksia. Unfortunately you need to set a day aside for cold smoking a batch of fish, because heat beads and wood cubes need replacing quite frequently. You soon learn how to judge when it is time to replace the wood by looking at the density of the smoke escaping from the top holes. The fish fillets can be hung in the freezer area or rested on grills as you wish but once you have things set up properly there will be no heat in the area and after eight to ten hours your fish will have a good colour and a lot of flavour. I would love to be able to try some haddock, I used to love smoked haddock from the local smoke house when I was a kid. Although the process is a bit labour intensive I consider it to be well worth while and if the fish is vacuum packed and kept in the freezer it will keep for a considerable period of time.

 

The smoke generator.

[Zigs]

Nice setup Chevin, I see beer had to come into it somewhere.