Lets start with some fresh or frozen coho or the king and defrost and cut into even size portions, Then make a brine using warm water to dissolve 1 part white/ or brown sugar to 1/2 part non iodide salt or pickle/ rock salt.
Use a plastic or glass bowl and add some shakes of soy sauce and garlic powder.
Add the fish PCs. Submerge if possible. Soak over night In refrigerator.
Remove and drain fish and air dry. Till not wet looking. Add black pepper, garlic, onion powder as desired. Smoke in a smoke for 4 plus hours at 120-135f and enjoy.
Very good for small portions of odds and ends of good fish and makes a very good unable snack base item. Crumpets, cream cheese, kiiesh,pasta, casserole, eggs scrambled, Brunch...
The picture was after the overnights brine . Can't wait.
This makes a value added part of fishing 🎣 and enjoying what you do. Try smoke and you might live up your taste buds. It's addicting.😝
That's pretty much the brine for smoked salmon that I make too. Sometimes I'll add some cayenne pepper for a little extra zing. That reminds me, it's time to smoke some more to help clear out the freezer for this summer's salmon/halibut. Hope to bring some yellowtail back from Cedros too.
Perfect timing!
I'm getting a smoker this weekend.
Can't wait!
Great tips and pretty much what I do. EXCEPT: I really have good results using Apple Juice for my brine. Brings the acid and the sugar, along with some flavor as well.
Thanks for the apple juice idea 💡. I've never thought of this for fish. Butt use it on ribs, loins,and always in a smoker turkey 🦃. Currently using alder wood chips as it's abundant here. It's my favorite for fish.
I'm glad I just finished dinner..
That's mouth watering for sure
Good job Gary. I don't remember seeing a smoker. Dominick
Very nice Gary. I'm a smoked salmon fan and like to do it myself also.
You just never know what your getting if you buy over the counter.
Could be great, could be a salt bomb!
I sometimes use pineapple juice in the brine or Mr. Yoshid's straight up!
(https://i.imgur.com/LdoGHdr.jpg)
IMO, resting fish on racks and let dry for about an hour or more until a glaze forms on the surface of the fish
is key.
-gary
That's about how I do it too. Alder smoke for Salmon is the best.
You will need to hit 145F internal for parasite destruction unless the salmon was frozen at -4F for 7 days.
It does look really good.
If you dry in the smoker with the vents open in the beginning, you will remove moisture from the surface and get smoke under the pellicle which provides a greater antimicrobial effect as opposed to creating the pellicle before entering the smokehouse.
Yes I do agree that you want the surface of the fish brined to be dry. You get a better bark on it. I use a fan in the garage behind the racks when its cool outside to speed the evaporation. I usuallly smoke my fish at 125-135 degrees on a dial thermometer reading thru the side wall.
And some people dry rub the spices and dont use a liquid bath immersion but its not my style. Its makes an attractive idea for filets and that butt I usually cut up the fish to gain uniform thickness and sizes, if possible. :)
Quote from: jigmaster501 on May 13, 2018, 01:51:53 AM
You will need to hit 145F internal for parasite destruction unless the salmon was frozen at -4F for 7 days.
It does look really good.
If you dry in the smoker with the vents open in the beginning, you will remove moisture from the surface and get smoke under the pellicle which provides a greater antimicrobial effect as opposed to creating the pellicle before entering the smokehouse.
I discovered this accidentally, I used to let the filets sit under a fan for an hour before going into the smoker. One time I just took them out of the brine put them right into the smoker and when I checked them an hour late they had a nice pellicle and already a good smoke layer. The finished product seemed better but it could have been due To a number of variables. I don't let them sit anymore.
The key will be knowing when to close the vents. Getting to 145F for 30minutes will partially destroy non-proteolytic CBOT spores. The smokehouse drying will get phenolic compounds under the pellicle which will help inhibit CBOT under the pellicle as well as drop the pH below the pellicle. This is important.
Oh my! Oh my! Oh my does that look sooooo good!
I smoke mine in alder or cedar. I also skip the salt entirely. As mentioned, biting into store bought could be a 'salt bomb'....yuck.
So mostly I stick to Yoshida's and add a brown sugar rub with to all and a different blend of spices to portions in each batch.
For instance, some get brown sugar and maple, some brown sugar, nutmeg and ginger, some pieces get coconut flakes yum! and lastly a few pieces get crushed red pepper .
After the smoking is done which is a combination of hot smoking and cooler during the run, I vacuum seal and freeze all of it and label by date and spices.
Just did a batch two weeks ago. ;D
oh BTW, Sake hamachi smoked is the bomb! That translates to Salmon collars....yum, yum, YUM!
Now I need to go raid the freezer.
Thanks for all the comments and variations. Every one has a favorite way to smoke fish. I'm going back to the simple ways it seems. There is no right or wrong as usually it a preference. I've never used cedar wood for smoker but have used willow, alder, vine maple, cotton wood, and the hardwood from south of my latitude a d they are subtle different.
The brine is very important, and you can add dry spices to the meat following in the drying process if you want to adjust a flavor. Brine spices are quite weak and diluted so the late additions are more cost friendly. Good luck fishing 🎣🙋♂️
Got a batch of salmon bellies and rock fish filets in the brine now.
Going to pull the thin rock fish filets in a few hours and leave the salmon overnight.
Might toss a few yellowfin slabs in there just to try them out.
I'm going for it, I have a nice chunk of grouper from PV, a tail piece of some other Mexico rock fish and a two pound piece of Yellowfin. They'll go in the brine this afternoon when I pull the Little Rock fish filets out.
I'll smoke the rock fish on foil, cut the time way back and put the alder chips on early. My fear is these filets are so small and it's not an oily fish they could overbrine, they could dry out too fast in the smoker. Think I maybe better let them develop a pelican before smoking and maybe only go 90 minutes in the smoker.
Looks like a trip to the propane filling station is in order. Too hot to go outside though.
Here's the rock fish, brined in basic salt and sugar for three hours and patted dry. As soon as it gets a nice glaze in it goes.
Time to fire up the smoker and get the alder chips ready.
Quote from: David Hall on May 28, 2018, 07:01:42 PM
Think I maybe better let them develop a pelican before smoking and maybe only go 90 minutes in the smoker.
:D
Don't let a pelican near those fillets, just say no to pelicans.
LoL, man it all sounds great, a wide variety smoked fish to sample... Heck yeah!
Your right one pelican would eat the whole batch!
Hard to keep it at 180 today, it's currently 94 outside. Hottest day we've had this year I think? I know the patio concrete is burning my feet. So I set the temp at 210, alder in from the start. Gonna smoke them heavy, on foil, hotter and for a short period to see if I can keep some moisture in the meat. Many of the smaller pieces will be done sooner, I'll check them in an hour and pull them out if they're starting to look to dry. Think I'll put some slippers on next time I walk out there too.
Top racks with the smaller pieces came out perfecto! Nice and moist and a good smoke flavor. The larger pieces on the bottom racks, I didn't pay enough attention to. The temperature must have been much higher as they got a bit over cooked. Still taste good and all in all I'm pretty happy with how they came out. A lot less brine time, less salt in the recipe and 90 minutes under heavy alder smoke.
Thanks for the pictures and info david.👍 Yes the rock fish is less oily and smaller portions so they need to be smked and brined with that in mind. I generally use canola oil in the white fish brine to add some fat/ moisture to the pcs. Other wise it will be quite dry. Another thing I'm playing with is coconut oil added as a slather when the rockfish loses moisture in the smoker. This makes a great dip, or spread. Or as is on The patio. Sorry about your weather. Was about 65 here.🙋♂️
Gary it's all good no matter what the weather is. If I was fishing I wouldn't be smokin! Or wood eye?
Anyway got the rockfish vacuum sealed in the fridge, sent out to my kids. Today I pulled the rest of the fish out. Salmon, yellowfin tuna, grouper, and a few stray rock fish filets from yesterday that were buried in the brine.
These brined for 36hrs or so and I rinsed them off before starting the process. Everything sat under the ceiling fan for 90 minutes and got a sprinkle of fresh ground BP, and a generous coat of brown suger before hitting the smoker at 190 degrees.
Meet my smoker, Mr. Masterbuilt. He cooks with gas, propane to be exact. I'm used to it and generally don't have any trouble getting down to 180. Below that is off. Somethings amiss and I'm not sure what it is. Temp reading says 190 and the looks of the fish right now tells ,e they're almost done. Problem is they only been in for 2 hrs? I hat when this happens. I pulled one of the Little Rock fishes out and man it was good. Maybe I ought to break one or two of the large pieces open and see how they look. I just added water to my pan and spritzed the fish with maple syrup and apple juice blend. It pretty much just runs off them at this point though.
Quote from: Gman_WC on May 11, 2018, 02:02:31 PM
Very nice Gary. I'm a smoked salmon fan and like to do it myself also.
You just never know what your getting if you buy over the counter.
Could be great, could be a salt bomb!
I sometimes use pineapple juice in the brine or Mr. Yoshid's straight up!
(https://i.imgur.com/LdoGHdr.jpg)
IMO, resting fish on racks and let dry for about an hour or more until a glaze forms on the surface of the fish
is key.
-gary
I used to use that Yoshidas on just about everything! Haven't used it for years now, need to pick myself up a bottle and try a brine with it.
Epiphany! You're not supposed to smoke salmon like your cooking ribs! 200 is way to high. Don't know what the heck I was thinking about, yes I do but it's work related and if it doesn't violate the 12 yr old rule it certainly violates the unspoken rule of, Don't talk about work when your fishing! I hope I saved it, pulled it off at 2-1/2 hrs. It's still moist inside have to see once it cools down how it's going to taste. Hope I didn't ruin all that wonderful fish. This is the tuna fresh out of the smoker/cooker.
If you want to reduce moisture loss, put the fish directly in the smoker after brining and do the drying in the smokehouse with the vents fully open. You will get smoke under the pellicle, and can control the moisture loss much better. Start at a lower temp and then go to the higher temps when you want to get the internal temp to 145F for a continuous 30 minutes. You want to ensure that you have smoke on the product for the first half of the smoking/drying cycle at minimum.
You have constant rate drying and falling rate drying when dealing with smoked fish.
Constant rate drying is moving moisture out of the fish at a constant rate in relation to surface evaporation.
Falling rate drying is when surface evaporation cannot pull moisture out as fast as it is evaporating.
They key is to get the heat going higher when the pellicle is formed right and you have good smoke deposition.
Then it is just heat for pathogen elimination and partial destruction non-proteolytic Clostridium botulinum spores.
Looks really nice.
Thanks for the tips Jiggy! Just the kind of help I needed. It did come out fine although I don't have anything to compare the smoked tuna with. I think smoked Salmon is the best and everything else no matter how good it is always comes in second.
There will be a revised guidance document for smoked fish that will be published soon that I was part of revising.
When it is released, I will let everyone know here.
Thanks for the good advice about. Venting the smoker in the firs part of smoking. Lots of advice of air drying seems to tell me it prevents fungus or mold if the temperatures are too low. Then there the temp thing. I use a dial thermometer through the mid height sidewall of the smoker.
Maybe I could make some ventsint he upper parts to ventalate!?
Would low vents help to direct the war,ed air current flow to speed drying. And these couple be closed following the question drying period.🤷♂️
I've made smoked fish that s as good as any thing you could buy. Buttsome times that's not saying much.
Like on any thing bbq the crust is the proof you did good.🍷
You want your vents at the tip top with the smoke entering from the bottom. For hot smoking, you want to use a continuous read recording thermometer (dual probe) with 1 probe in the thickest fillet (thickest of the uniformly sized fillets) put in the coldest portion of the smokehouse. Use the other probe in the same area to measure smokehouse temperature. You might have to reduce the volume of fish in the smokehouse at one time if you can't move enough air fast enough.
It is an issue of vapor pressure as the vapor pressure in the smokehouse has to be lower than the vapor pressure inside the fish to remove moisture. This is impossible to measure at home so you have to do it by experience as best as you can.
The drying is to create a pellicle which the smoke adheres to. The problem is that when the pellicle forms without smoke, the pH directly under the pellicle is drastically different from the surface of the pellicle (generally a lower pH). You also have phenolic compounds from the smoke which have antimicrobial properties (use loosely) which can help retard spoilage and offer an additional hurdle against botulism under the pellicle. You could use a liquid smoke in your brine if you like but use a full fraction liquid smoke.
You want to have uniform air flow throughout the smokehouse without any fish touching.
There are many factors for safe production of smoked fish. It is an artform to say the least.