16 replies to this topic

[salmotrutta]

To those who have done their own smoking:

Does smoking fish at home produce the moist kind of smoked fish, like most of the smoked salmon available at grocery stores, or like the smoked mackerel type? Can home smokers do either or?

Just curious, because I was eating smoked pacific coho this weekend and realized I've never had homemade smoked fish.

[point defiance]

I think it depends on the recipe. I do know though that theres Cold Smoking and Hot Smoking. Hot Smoking has added heat during smoking to cook the fish too, like the mackerel. Cold smoke is lower temp but usually the fish has been cured already so can already be eaten. Kinda like the Norwegian style smoked, still moist.

That being said. Ive never smoked myself, just what Ive learned. If I had a house I would definetly try.

[bradstone]

I think it depends on the recipe. I do know though that theres Cold Smoking and Hot Smoking. Hot Smoking has added heat during smoking to cook the fish too, like the mackerel. Cold smoke is lower temp but usually the fish has been cured already so can already be eaten. Kinda like the Norwegian style smoked, still moist.

That being said. Ive never smoked myself, just what Ive learned. If I had a house I would definetly try.

We smoked a steelhead on Dec 24. Fillet the fish with the skin on. Smoked for 2 hours on a Weber Smokey Mountain. We used bricketts and apple wood. A little sprinkle of salt at the end. Turned out very good. I helps when you have a 95 year old that has been smoking fish for a least 60 years guiding you through the process.

[LICENSETOPIN]

We smoke quite a bit in the resto, right now our fish dish is a smoked Norwegian mackerel that is cold smoked and pan seered to order. Smoking is more of a way to preserve fish so it keeps longer, like said above cold smoking is just to infuse the smoke flavor into the fish and hot smoking is cooking the fish. Smoking fish doesnt necessarily mean the moistest fish thats really up to how you cook it.

[georgianbaydrifter]

i got into smoking steelhead for the first time this year and it hs been turning out very well. heres the recipe i have been going with freestyled it up myself
4 litres of natural spring water
1 litre of dill pickle brine
a bunch of sea salt ( i dont measure this but it is a couple cups for sure)
worcesthershire sauce to taste ( for me 25ml)
soya sauce to taste ( same)
green onion
salt and pepper to taste
a shake or two of club house citrus spice
good for about six to eight pounds of meat let stand in refridgerator for 1 day

smoked in Luhr Jenson Little Cheif with chainsaw shavings of apple mixed with hickory chunks
time depends on thickness of fish but usually at least 6 hours

i have found it helps the process if you chill the fish covered in fridge for a day after removing it from the brine to remove some of the moisture before smoking

[salmotrutta]

Thanks for the replies, makes sense now.

[NADO]

Does it make a big difference if the fish has been in the freezer?

[Spinninreel]

I tried to smoke a fish, but could never get the darn thing lit. Just kidding! It is ok to use a fish that has been frozen. It needs to be thoroughly thawed out and once you have don the brine treatment, the fish needs to be dried on the surface so that it can develop a nice film on the surface to hold in the moisture.

[NADO]

Any suggestions on where to buy a smoker for a decent price?

[GBW]

Any suggestions on where to buy a smoker for a decent price?

that all depends on the type you want. I got a propane unit for under $200 and happy with how things turn out. you have full ranges of heat. and I've never tasted "gas" that some say those units leave behind.

Here is what I use and have tried on most fish and I love it. So do many others and they bring me fish to smoke for them when I fire up my smoker.

The following workes out to an average size side of salmon from the super store (or others like it) for a $20 flank.

I get a 450 or 500ML bottle of soy sauce and put it in a large pot.
Add 1L of water
100ML of Honey
4 or 5 table spoons of VH brand "sweet chili Thai"
either a had full of hot pepper rings or 2 small jalapeno peppers (cut to rings)
Let simmer but not boil.
Cool and then put fish in a container with enough brine to cover and the rest goes into a spray bottle.
Let fish sit in the brine for 24 hours in the fridge.
heat smoker and get the smoke going and add fish at 180 to 200* C
The wood chips I soak for 12 to 24 hours too and when I do fish it's 1/2 apple and 1/2 black cherry. with my propane smoker I'm done in 2 to 3.5 hrs depending on the thickness of the meat. I open the door from time to time to make sure the smoke is going good and when I do this I give the fish a little squirt/spray/mist of the brine I made (prior to the fish going in it, I keep some aside as mentioned before) so the meat is moist and has a lot of ALL flavors used.
Good luck! Cheers.
Geoff




Some like it done to this:

Others like it done to this, more of a jerkey type;


my current unit.



*edit to fix pic's*

[georgianbaydrifter]

You can build you own quite easily too.....there expensive units i was given my electric so thats what i use

[GBW]

I made a smoker too and I did like it. I had to cut a foot off of it after a few test runs to help with the heat. I gave it away the next year as I didn't like how long it took me to smoke fish.

[Spinninreel]

I have built a similar smoker, but actually elevated it so I could actually build a fire under it with a stove pipe to funnel the smoke into the box, surrounded by cement block for the fire box. The top was adjustable so you could adjust the opening.

[Spinninreel]

Any suggestions on where to buy a smoker for a decent price?

I looked at the prices at Lebaron which looked pretty good.

[georgianbaydrifter]

i may try a variation on your recipe GBW i was thinking a spicy brine might be nice......you think it would go good on whitefish?

[GBW]

i may try a variation on your recipe GBW i was thinking a spicy brine might be nice......you think it would go good on whitefish?

duno but it does go very well on walleye.

[RedCat]

I am a meat cutter by trade but work in a big box store, I alos have a part time gig at a small shop so I can learn the finer points of the meat business. Now the small shop I work at does not do any fish, he can't lagally. I have built my own smokers in the past and have had good luck. For you guys in southern Ontario cold smoked fish should be easy. Cure the fish in salt and sugar then smoke it on a cool day. I loike october in MB for cold smoking fish, I like the outside temps to be around 0 or just below. A light wind and nothing more unless you can hide the smoker from the wind. My cold smoke recipe is easy. Pickiling salt, brown sugar and bottled water, you are making a very simple syrup, like a watery maple syrup. I let mine sit for a couple days if not more in the brine. I take it out of the brine the night before smoking and let it sit in a covered dish. Pat dry with a paper towel. My heat source is a charcoal grill. I use wood chips soaked then wrapped in foil




Mine was a simple smoker. If you want to go the extra mile you could go the extra mile and get a 2 burner electric element. One for wood chips and one for a pot of water to keep everything moist. I used to do jerky, roasts fish and an assortment of other things in my smoker. The larger items just meant I would drink more beer. In that old home smoker I once smoked 2 whole pork butts, it took 18 hrs to get them finished off for pulled pork. I wasn't much of a host the next day tho. 2 burners would have been better.

I used old dicarded fridge racks, I could fit 20 racks in this smoker; You can them by the dozen in the trash if you want. In a smoker the size of mine I could smoke 60 lbs of jerky at a time. Jerky was a 12hr process in the smoker at 100. With a 2 burner element you could do jerky in about 2 hrs, smoker temp would need to be 180-200, smoke would have to be billowing out to get good flavour.

I recommend that you use fillets, hole fish take too long to smoke