Smoked a laker

[misfish]

4 hours ago, Canuck said:

I have found its best when you let the filets dry for a long time before they go in the smoker.  Someone said 24 hrs.  That works if the fridge is not too moist.  It needs a nice glaze on it before you smoke it. 

Well we will see . They have been in the fridge since 4pm yesterday. Just put them on. They are sticky sticky.

What a great morning to be out for a few hours. North breeze. Nice 1.5 ft rollers.PERFECT IMO. LOL

Had the craziest hook up this morning. Dropping the bait like norm then all of a sudden it,s starts to peel off. Fish picked it up on the drop. That was cool. Bait was out of the cone, so didnt see the fish.

[misfish]

2 pans of apple chips,glazed with maple syrup and rum hour 2 and 3. Pulled it a 1/2 hour before I thought it would be done.

 

AMAZING.

Hour 2

Done and sampling has started.

 

[Fisherman]

That looks alright.

[misfish]

Now that it has cooled off, pieces snap off like a candy bar.

[TJQ]

MMMM...  gotta get some maple syrup on those things!!!

[misfish]

2 minutes ago, TJQ said:

MMMM...  gotta get some maple syrup on those things!!!

HMMMM, I did.LOL^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Fisherman]

Scoundrel,  there's drool on my Tshirt, lol?

Edited September 6, 2018 by Fisherman
Fun

[smitty55]

14 hours ago, Canuck said:

I have found its best when you let the filets dry for a long time before they go in the smoker.  Someone said 24 hrs.  That works if the fridge is not too moist.  It needs a nice glaze on it before you smoke it. 

For sure it is recommended to let the pellicle form on the fillets before going into the smoker. Help keep the meat together. I use a brine and find that it's usually between two and three hours before it gets that shiny sticky coat on it. My big chief smoker has seem plenty of fish over the years and I always leave the skin on my fillets which also helps keep things together. Plus my dog loves it lol.

[DanD]

Learned some stuff reading this thread; thanks everyone.

A few things I've learned on my own. Soaking the wood chips is a good idea for large cuts of meat; brisket, ham, pork belly (beacon) ect. Chips last longer but the amount of smoke seems to be less and slower to produce. That's fine for these large pieces of meats; they have more time to absorb the smoke before the surface seals. For fish I use dry wood chips; more intense smoke and less heat required. Keeping the heat as low as I can and still generate as much smoke as I can; gives more time for smoke to be taken into the flesh. Once the pellicle has absorbed the smoke that it can; there's no need to keep adding chips. If you continue to add more chips, you're taking the chance of building up some creosote on the meat. After 1 or so hours of smoke, I go by internal meat temp of 145 degrees.

A word of warning here. LOL

On two separate occasions, I've added alcohol to my wood chips and or the moisture tray. The first time was Drambuie to the wood chips. Man did it smell good; even after it blew and put a 1 inch buckle in the smoker's door on either side of the latch. The second was when I added some crappy but very strong Scotch to the water tray. That one rattled the patio door on the deck; when it blew. I'm on my third smoker now. LOL If you like the flavour of whatever kind of booze in your smoker; just give it a quick boil on the stove before adding it to the smoker. The flavour will still be there; but there's no potential  BOOM!!!!!  LOL

Oh Yeah. One last rule of thumb for me. If what you're smoking lived on the land, use a wet brine. If it was a water dweller, dry all the way.

Dan.

[ch312]

Smoked fish or meat needs drying time in order to form a proper pellicle which lets the smoke stick to the meat better and results in a much more appealing product. 

Brined fish/meat should be rinsed with clean water and patted dry before the pellicle stage

Smoke should always be that thin blue smoke and the smoker needs to be properly vented to let that smoke escape ASAP. You alter the flavor by using different kinds of wood and amount of time the smoker is producing smoke, not by creating more or less smoke. The amount of smoke coming from the smoker should be the same regardless of what you're smoking. 

 

DanD, you're mistaken about creosote being formed if you add more chips. Creosote is formed when the smoker isn't vented properly and the smoke is allowed to linger inside the smoker and/or you're past the "thin blue smoke" stage and you're creating white/gray smoke. Many newbs think more smoke is better or it's better to hold the smoke inside the smoker when both are actually very bad ideas. 

 

 

Misfish, the reason your two batches of fish look so different is the dry rubbed fish dried quicker and formed a good pellicle before going in the smoker where as the brined fish contained much more moisture and 30 minutes was nowhere near enough time to form a pellicle. Good pellicle results in that lovely smoker fish color where as your first batch is the result of no pellicle. 

My first couple batches of smoked fish wasn't even edible. It's definitely a learning curve.

[misfish]

I think from now on,I,ll be going dry, but will try wet brine to see if I can get it mastered,if that is even possible in the smoking game. I would really like to find one that works and stick with it. Tweak it now then.

 

Thanks for all the comments guys

 

 

Edited September 9, 2018 by misfish
I do think a wet would work for white fish though.

[akaShag]

Guess I missed this earlier......

I have been smoking salmon and trout for a very long time, well over thirty years, and 90% of that has been in a (WET) brine. 

What a coincidence!  My Luhr-Jensen Big Chief smoker RECOMMENDS  a wet brine for salmon and trout.  As I said on another thread, I always leave the fish fillets on the skin, but yes I remove the dark parts or so-called "blood line" before serving the smoked fish.

For sure it is a learning experience.

Doug