smoking sea fish

[Vagabond]

Beat me to it again Newt !

 

All I would add is that fish up to abot a pound and a half can be hot-smoked whole, but fish above that weight up to about 5 or 6 lb are best hot-smoked as fillets.

 

Any salmonid above 6 lb I send for cold smoking and slicing. A useful tip if you do the same is to gut the fish, leave the head on, bur trim away the fatty body walls below the ribs - if you don't, they will include these unpalatable fatty bits in the final product - and charge you for them!

[Dan]

thanks guys

dan

[Alan Taylor]

Vagabond:

!

All you guys, I have my smoker. Got it today, cost about 80 quid including racks, hooks (hanging whole fish) and loads of other goodies.

I realy am pleased and will be sorting all the info into a file after the week-end. Like a kid with a new toy.

 

Out on Sunday and will be smoking away on monday.

 

I realy do appreciate all of the input from you all and it will be put to good use next week.

 

You realy don't know how much I appreciate all the help

 

One draw back, there was a nice book with it and I left it on the counter. I will fax them tonight and ask them to post it :mad:

 

Again, THANK YOU ALL

 

Alan(nl)

[Newt]

Alan - after you do some fish, try a fresh ham as well. And fresh pork loin. As a matter of fact, all parts of a pig except the squeal seem to smoke up well.

[Alan Taylor]

Newt:

Not a good start. The first thing I was supposed to do was fire it up to burn up any grease etc left inside during manufacture. OK no problem, a bottle cap of spirit to get it going, lit OK then knocked the bottle over and had a nice blue flame trying to race over my shoes and up my jeans towards, well you know where. I had taken the precaution of putting a watering can (full) just near to where I was working :cool:

Now the fire on the ground and shoes is out but the one in the smoker is going great. All spilt spirit washed away and the temperature steadily climbing.

Time for a cup of tea. Kettle is on but thought I would just step outside and have a look at the temperature, the needle was hard up against the stop in the red area and there was a very funny smell, sort of plasticy. :confused:

It is 2300 after being up since 0345 that morning and had a full hectic days boat fishing, loads of fillets for the smoker but I was a bit tired to say the least and thought to hell with it for tonight so decided to take the fuel box out and stop until the morning.

 

This morning I went to have a look at the inside to see what sort of mess the smoke had made when I noticed a bit of white sticking out of the base of the smoker and it was a bit wobbly as well. :confused: , on closer inspection it turned out that there was a compartment about 2 inches high under the base of the smoker, below the fire box and this had contained a block of polstyrene, this block was the cause of the high temperature the previous night, it had been burning and melting at the same time.

WHO LOOKS for packaging under a stainless steel smoker????, would you?

 

You might ask "where was Sonja" when I was trying to turn myself into a human torch the night before, watching bloody TOWERING INFERNO thats where. :mad:

 

I have asked 2 friends to come around this week when I will be having a go with some fish. One is a part time fireman and the other a paramedic.

Will keep you posted.

Alan(nl)

ps read the side of a fag packet, SMOKING CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH.

[Vagabond]

Alan, your story reminds me of the first-time would-be parachutist.

 

He jumps out of the plane, goes into free fall, and despite repeated attempts to pull the rip-cord, stays in free fall.

 

Two hundred feet from the ground he passes a guy going the other way.

 

"Hey!", he shouts, "do you know anything about parachutes?"

 

"No" comes the reply, "do you know anything about gas barbies?"

[Salar]

Darling wife bought me a mega barbie/smoker last year (must have felt guilty/sorry for me or something), USA made Iron Horse thing. That prompted me to investigate the Southern USA Barbecue which is more about smoking than grilling (cue for a treatise from Newt I fear... ) - anyway, the point (eventually) is - I bought a great book via Amazon called "Smoke and Spice" by Cheryl Alters Jamieson and Bill Jamieson, ISBN 1-55832-061-x , which is hugely informative on the subject and has some great recipes. I can recommend it. On the first page it says "don't forget to unpack the white thingy..." only joking, Alan

[Newt]

Alan - awk. Can't believe you destroyed the most useful piece.

 

You are supposed to soak the polstyrene in whatever flavor you intend to use when making boilies in the smoker. Scopex is wonderful done that way.

 

Salar - how did you get on with the Barbecue?

[Nick hoekstra]

Hey Allan;

Try some ash or hickory shavings and add a bit of cedar to that. Than smoke some trout, salmon, eel, or backbacon. Tastes great. Leave the heads on the fish, just gut them and stick the rod through the eyes. With the salmon, you might want to put a small stick between the sides to keep them apart and open. Enjoy.

Good fishin';

Hook.

[Salar]

Newt:

Alan -

Salar - how did you get on with the Barbecue?

Hi Newt -

Great. It looks like an old steam engine, with a fire box that is good for grilling, and a large smoke chamber for good ol' Southern barbecue smokin'. My recipe book refers to US cuts which I have had to interpret - I plan a serious village eat-in this Summer with a rather large piece of pig, smoked for a lot of hours with me watching it from behind a growing pile of empty beer cans. Only if its too hot for fishing, though...

Any tips? I have only had a book to go on...