Smoking fish.....

[Dave]

Ok, in light of the upcoming fishing herf, I'm interested in smoking blue fish and stripes. But a few questions about these fish in general as I've never tried smoking fish yet.

1) Can I use any wood to smoke them?
2) Are they able to be cold smoked (lox style)?
3)If they can be cold smoked, should I use brine and anyone got any brine recipes to share?

Thanks.

 

[MrMaduro]

I smoke quite a few fish, I only smoke the amount we will be consuming on that day and the next, so I don't use a brine. As for the wood use only hardwoods such as Alder, Apple, Cherry, Hickory, Mesquite, and Oak. I smoke Salmon, Bass, Crappie, and Bluegill. I'm not sure about the cold smoking I've never done that.

 

[AVB]

 

[MrMaduro]

Now that's a smokin' fish! LOL!!!!!!!!!

 

[Doc Wylie]

If you try to smoke a fish, which end do you light?

 

[fivebyfifty]

Never Heard of any one smoking blue fish they are super oily but a salmon rub might work.
Smoked striper does sound good.
weekfish basicaly sea trout imo that would smoke up nice.

imho bluefish is ony good for shark bait

 

[AngryFishH]

I smoke blues regularly and here is what I do YMMV. Never smoke striped bass, comes out awful.

1. Use "schoolie" sized blues. Larger blues are too oily and the PCB risk is high. Good sized blues are 24"-32".
2. Fillet the blues, scale but do not remove skin.
3. Soak them in whole milk for 2 hours to get out the oil and other impurities.
4. Dry them completely and soak in a brine (1 c. sugar, 1 c. salt, gallon of water). I melt the sugar/salt in some warm water then blend with cold water so the mix stays relatively cold.
5. Soak for 2 hours.
6. Dry and press in some fresh cracked pepper to the fleshy side.
7. Smoke over fruit wood (apple, peach, pear, etc..) skin side down for about 2-3 hours at about 200 degrees.


Fish

 

[beyond the band]

Personally I like my fish wrapped in a nice corojo wrapper before I smoke it :sign:

 

[Q_The_Cop]

Heres a great how to from Alton Brown from Good Eats.

Pt. 1
Pt. 2

 

[tigger]

Never Heard of any one smoking blue fish

Only way to eat 'em, IMO.

 

[StatHaldol]

My wife and I smoked some salmon a couple of nights ago. Got the charcoal nice and hot, moved them to one end of the grill; put the salmon on the other end (skin side down). Put a piece of hickory wood (I had it soaked in water most of the day) on top of the coals. Closed the lid and cooked the fish until it was flaky.
Some people like a glaze on their salmon while it's cooking, but we like it with lemon juice over it.

 

[Shooter]

PM Swissy or Peterscreek for real info on smoking. I personally use alder for fish.