Pacific Albacore

[flatbroke]

My neighbor went fishing saturday and had a pretty good albacore bite going. 3 guys ended up with 35 fish and quit fishing because they were tired. My brother in law and I brined 1 fish and began smoking it this evening. Here is my Traeger "Texas" in action.

 

[scubadoo97]

nice fish nuggets.

With fresh albacore I think I woud be eating it raw.

 

[bassman]

That's some awesome looking fish! I would probably make myself sick on that.

 

[creative rock]

Looks really good. Let us know how it tastes.
A couple of weeks ago I went out of SF for striped bass, caught seven, bag limit is two. I smoked one fillet, was good, but I still prefer salmon, then rock cod.

Thanks for sharing,
Matt
aka Rocky

 

[flatbroke]

Well, the fish was brined with Brown sugar, salt, and pepper. I smoked it on the smoke setting for approximately 3 hours using pecan, then turned it up to 225 setting. The final result was outstanding flavor. here are a couple peices out for samples.

 

[bmudd14474]

looks real nice.

 

[pineywoods]

Those look outstanding

 

[salmonclubber]

nice looking fish i love albacore

 

[justpassingthru]

Hey flatbroke,

Good looking smoked albacore, you inspired me to buy some tuna and try smoking it.

I brined it in raw brown sugar (all we have), salt and pepper just like you did, being my first attempt I read that it should be in the brine anywhere from 1 1/2 to 24 hours, do to circumstances it brined for 6, I smoked it at 160° for 2 3/4 hours, at 145° internal it flaked with a fork so I took it off, it was good, but it didn't come out colored like yours.

Any ideas why not, is it because I didn't use brown sugar like you have?

Where 'bouts in Central CA, if you don't mind me asking, I lived in Kern county for 31 years and SLO county for 7.

Thanks, Gene

 

[flatbroke]

I turned the heat up to about 225* at the end for about an hour and a half to cause the carmelization as the chuncks were thick.

 

[justpassingthru]

Ahh ok, that's the secret!

When we ate some after I took it off of the smoker, truthfully, I wasn't too impressed, maybe because we eat tuna all the time off of the grill, however, ...........a couple of days later the lefovers made some dynamite tuna salad sammies! Dear wife informed me from now on to smoke tuna just to make tuna salad.

Thanks, Gene