boxofrain:
We can tuna bought off the boats here in town. About half of it we smoke in the chief for two pans of chips and then put them in the jar with a piece of serrano pepper. Makes the best chip dip!! Will have to post that recipe where it goes. I too have ruined more than my share of salmon trying to master the tricks.Now I take it to a freind and he keeps half of all fish smoked, but it is perfect.
floatin cowboys:
The fat content in the tuna is what kept it from drying out. The sad thing is it can get rancid faster because of the fat. On the little chief smokers that don't have a temp control you need to keep and eye on it so as not to dry out the fish. Hot smoking is anything above 160 degrees and you need to watch it. Hey if you like to play with the smoker try smoking some tomatos and Jalepenos (then they are called chipoltes) and make a smoked tomato sauce or salsa. You can even use fruit Teas to smoke with instead of wood chips. The chief that you say is a cool smoke may just need more time to finish the smoking process, less fish or thinner cuts of fish. Let me know if you want to make gravlox (a dry cured salmon, which is my favorite, no smoke just cured, or a little cold smoke at the end to finish) I did some Mac's that way, lox style and they where tastey.
You know you can smoke any fish, you don't have to wait for salmon season. Trout, bass, walleye, sturgeon which is wonderful smoked, oysters, the neighbors cat, whatever, it's all good. The key to control is to get a thermometer for the smoker though.
How sweet is mirin sake, it may be good for lox, I will have to try it. Love that ginger!
Islander:
Hey Allen,
I used to keep two Little Chief smokers going all blackmouth season. When the weather is cold or windy, I would just throw an old blanket over the top to hold in the heat a little. It works fine if you don't want a "cold" smoke. The blanket would smell pretty good when you were finished though ;D I guess it could be a fire hazard if you get the blanket too close to the burner, but I was always checking it out. Ambient air temp and wind will sure vary the time needed.
Gary
floatin cowboys:
Yea I have some salmon I want to smoke but the temp here just dropped 38 degrees in the day and 11 and lower at night, suppose to warm up over the weekend but rain. They predict snow for our area, wenatchee and Levenworth, for tonight and tommorow and then the rain on the weekend. Luhr Jenson sells the thermal blanket for the smokers but I have never seen one in thestore. I guess I would have to order it. I might just go and get a cheap moving quilt and try that.
polepole:
OK. So I've been doing some smoking lately and wanted to report I'm getting better at it.
I smoked some chum salmon on Christmas Eve day. My dad had smoked some chum a few weeks prior and it came out a bit salty. He used his own tried and true brine and I concluded that these chum took to the salt a bit more than normal. So I decided to use my soysauce/mirin/ginger brine. Brined it overnight and then smoked with apple wood (2 trays) for 6 hours. Half way through I basted with some olive oil because I had noticed my dad's batch came out a little dry and my thinking was that the chum's had a lower oil content and needed a little help. I was in a bit of a rush to get out the door, and the fish wasn't quite done and it was a cold day, so I finished it off in the oven for a few minutes. I turned out pretty good I think and the olive oil definitely helped.
I smoked another batch this week, this time with a fresh chum that I pulled out of the Nisqually last Saturday. I decided to try a different brine, this time using a recipe I found on Gamefishin. The recipe is as follows:
ROCK FISH'S Smoked Candy
1 cup white sugar 1 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup salt 2 tbsp garlic powder 2 tbsp onion powder 2 tbsp pepper
Cut fish into no bigger than 6"x4"
Mix all ingredance into bowl .Place fish into mix coating all .Place fish skin side down in a 2ndglass bowl (the bigger the better).Layering the fish till done.
The fish will start to emulsify so don’t fill to the top. Cover with plastic wrap and put in frig for 2 days rotating fish from top to bottom after 1 day. After 2 days rinse the fish slightly and shake off water put on smoker rack. Let sit for 1/2hr. Preheat smoker then place fish in for 6 to8+ hr depending on thickness using HICKORY or your preferred smoking chips. Fish should look caramel in color when done.
So I dutifully brined for 2 days, and when I went to plug in the smoker, it kept tripping my circuit breaker. I had borrowed one from my dad that he has had for maybe 25 years so I decided to retire the broken one. I ran to the store and get a new Little Chief. After 5.5 hours in the new smoker, this time using hickory (2 trays), and again basting with olive oil half way through, I decided the fish was done. In fact, it was a tad overdone and the edges were a little dry, probably because the new smoker was hotter (makes sense as the old coil probably lost some of its heat capability). Next time I'll smoke for a little less time. The batch still turned out quite good. I think I like this brining technique as the fish was definitely a nice savory smoky flavor.
I still have some more chum in the freezer and next time I will try floatin cowboys' brine recipe #2. I'll let you know the results of that when I do it.