Semi-pro smoker in Ontario

[smokindkoert]

Hello!

Dave from Stratford here.  I'm an organic farmer and I also do lots of smoking, preserving, cooking of foods to sell at farmers markets, as well as eat myself!  I've worked in restaurants for about 15 years in the past, both as a sous chef and a waiter/bartender. 

I currently own a Centro 30' electric smoker, which is the exact same as the standard MEC, just branded differently, and a Big Chief front loader.

I mainly use the Chief for doing trout, salmon and other fish, cheeses, tomatoes, peppers, lots of other veggies and light smoking for items I'm going to finish on the BBQ or oven.  In the Centro I've done ribs, pork butt, brisket, sea salt, pepper and other spices, whole chicken...

I've been checking out the site for a half a year or so and have learned a lot! I'll be sharing some of my recipes and tips too. 

One thing I'm interested in is food safety, as I've been having issues with my smoked fish, which was my big seller last year.  The health unit has issues with hot smoking of fish, mainly with vac packaging and storage, even under 4 degrees C. Listeria concerns. I brine for 12-18 hours usually and use fresh caught trout from a trout farm...often my guy is still cleaning a few fillets when I go to pick them up. Any tips on that issue would be welcome.

Smoke on!

 

[beer-b-q]

Welcome to SMF, Glad to have you with us.

This is the place to learn, lots of good info and helpful friendly Members.

For those of you new to Smoking, be sure to check out Jeff's 5 Day Smoking Basics eCourse.

Click Here it's "FREE" ... 5 Day eCourseE

[font=Arial,sans-serif]Tips for New Members:[/font]

1. 
   Be sure to put a general location on where you are located in your profile this helps us when answering questions you might have.
2. 
   When posting your smoking adventures be sure to post plenty of Qview (Pictures).
3. 
   Get a good Probe Thermometer as We Smoke By Temperature NOT TIME.
4. 
   A good choice for a remote dual probe thermometer is the Maverick ET-732
5. 
   If you are wanting to get into curing meat, there are many members here more than happy to help and give good advice.
6. 
   If you are unsure of a procedure ASK, don't ASSUME, It will make your Smoking experience more pleasant...

 

[fourashleys]

:welcome1:

 

[meateater]

Welcome to the SMF. Glad to have you here. Lots of good folks, great recipes and knowledge. Looking forward to your first qview.

 

[boykjo]

Welcome to SMF and were glad to have you aboard. Join in and share your experiences, have some fun and don’t forget to post our favorite.

The Qveiw

Joe



Well I cant answer your question but if the health unit regulates what you are doing, they should have regulations available to you on what they require...... and it sounds to me if you are brining your fish then it would be salted fish so I dont see what the

Listeria concerns are

 

[SmokinAl]

Welcome to SMF. For your food safety questions bbally is the guy to talk to. If he doesn't see this thread you may want to PM him.

 

[scarbelly]

Welcome to SMF. Glad to have you here with us - Like Al said, check in with BBally he is our resident food safety expert 

 

[richoso1]

Welcome to the SMF. Glad to know that you've found some helpful information here. It's all good my friend.

 

[mballi3011]

First off welcome Dave to SMF. You'll like it here cause there are alot of really good folks that would just love to help you with anything to do with smoking. Now we like having new folks here to give a new prospective on some of the ways we do things around here. Now if you are really new then I would suggest that you sign up fir the 5-day E-course it free and it will give you the basics on smoking and a few recipes too. Here's a link to it:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/list/127

then you will have a method to your newly found madness and believe me it will be a madness. Then when you start smoking things you will have to learn how to post the pictures / Qview 

here. So here's a link to a tutorial on how to post your Qview so we can see what your doing.

 http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/82034/how-to-post-qview-to-smf

Now the next thing you have to do is run out and get something to smoke. Then just smoke it and if you have any questions just post  them here and we will answer all your questions that you might have. Oh yea there's no stupid questions we were all there in the beginning and we just really like to help others enjoy the fabulous smoked foods that we do. So again

Welcome to Your New Addiction  

GO GATORS    

 

[roller]

Welcome what took you so long ??? This is a great place if you like smoking things to eat...Have fun.

 

[smokindkoert]

Thanks everyone!

Maybe I'll do my first Qview on smoking oil.  one of my restaurants requires some smoked canola oil for a really cool dessert they are making. I wonder which forum that would go in?

Smoke on!

 

[smokindkoert]

I hear you...I dont have a lab at home, but I brine for longer than what is the norm, and always make sure to store at below 4 degrees.  their biggest concern is vac packing, since it's airtight, but they don't seem to want to provide me with any alternatives other than permeable packaging...um like an onion bag?  here is the math they gave me...

Containers or packages made of materials with an oxygen permeability equal to or greater than 2,000 cm3/m2/24 hours at 24°C and 1 atmosphere are not considered to be sealed to exclude air...

Welcome to SMF and were glad to have you aboard. Join in and share your experiences, have some fun and don’t forget to post our favorite.

The Qveiw

Joe



Well I cant answer your question but if the health unit regulates what you are doing, they should have regulations available to you on what they require...... and it sounds to me if you are brining your fish then it would be salted fish so I dont see what the

Listeria concerns are

 

[tyotrain]

Welcome to SMF its nice to have ya.. Have fun and Happy smoking