Smoke salmon ideas

[David Hall]

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.

[jigmaster501]

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.

[gstours]

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.🍷

[jigmaster501]

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.