freddi fish
Newbie
- Jun 30, 2017
- 19
- 10
Thank You Maineac!!
Bear, this thread is like seven years of testimonials to your great process and recipe. I didn’t find it until Oct of ’13 and have used it ever since winning accolades from friends and family. I have played a bit over the years with the brine ingredients, mostly changing the soy to Teriyaki or Worcestershire, and sometimes a mix, but no matter what it always comes out great. I just wanted to add my thanks. My first smoked salmon was in 2010 and was so salty that it went into the trash and I didn’t try again for a couple of years. It wasn’t until I found your process that I got an acceptable batch. I used it today on 5 lbs of Gulf of Maine Salmon. So again, thank you.
Also, I never noticed your signature line before; I was in Dong Tam in ‘67. Our unit, 213[sup]th[/sup] Eng. Det. built the protective shell and cement basins around the 2 large fuel tanks near the airfield among other things. It appears that they were hit and possibly destroyed in ’69 - http://15thengineer.50megs.com/night_probe.htm
Same as always.
So, has the recipe changed from the one in the original post?
And would you recommend this same recipe for all kinds of fish? I don't have ready access to Salmon around here, other than a trip to the supermarket. I plan on trying a couple different rough fish, such as Redhorse Suckers, Sheapshead and Carp.
That's Great !!!
I will follow your instructions. I am primarily interested in traditional smoke fish but will consider the hotter/faster cooking method for "'baked" fish.
Thanks a bunch.
Bruce
If they're all less than 3/4" thick, I would go with the 6 hour brining for everything.
I have a question about prepping the fish. I plan to use freshwater Drum (Sheepshead). My question really is, when you prepare the fish, do you skin the fillets or do you leave the skin on for smoking? If you leave the skin on, I assume you would scale them? Correct?
FYI: I am expecting 1/2 - 3/4" thick fillets at the thickest part.
If you follow my Step by Step, the Fish will get to the point of being able to pick it up with your fingers without it falling apart.
Thanks Bearcarver. So, if you don't leave the skin on, do you have any problems with the meat falling apart after it cooks a while? Any problems with it sticking to the grates?
Luck be with you!!
Thanks for the advice. I just may get out and buy a dozen crawlers and head for the river today. Wish me luck.
My problem will be getting the wood to start smoking at such low temps and being able to dial my Weber propane grill down enough to keep the temps as low as 100 degrees to start. But, I will do the best I can.
I would keep the exact same amount of mix for any amount of fish that can be completely submerged in my brine.
Thanks a lot for this. I look forward to trying it. I have a quick question. Does the amount of brine or how long you brine change if the quantity of fish changes? So for example if I am brining 2/3 the amount of fish you mention, do I cut down to 2/3 brine? Keep the same amount but cut back time, or what? What are your thoughts about that?
Thanks in advance.
Thank You BW !!
Ok, I just got done eating a sample of the finished product, and here are a couple of observations after reading some other posts....
First, you don't have to make your right index finger suffer so much! There is a free Chrome extension (called Speechnotes) that lets you talk and it writes down the sentences! Save that finger for picking up those small pieces of fish you drop!
Second, for those worried about the salmon crumbling if you take the skin off, mine didn't. I bought Coho at Costco and it was about 3/4 inch thick at the widest but I also smoked the leftover pieces of fish which were left on the skin after I peeled it away, and those didn't crumble either.
Third, I was going to add that you could use a fan on your fish but I see that you mentioned it above. For me that helped a lot as in the morning I wasn't 100% happy with the pellicle which formed (I put the fish in the refrigerator late last night) so I put the salmon in a cool room with a fan about 2 feet over it for an hour. I still started with 100 degrees on my electric smoker. Someone mentioned that their chips didn't smoke at such a low temp and I was concerned about that also. But I put the chips in at the beginning and by the time 30 minutes was up they were, in fact smoking,
Final verdict? FANTASTIC! Really really good stuff! My hat off to you, sir. As soon as I pulled it out and saw that grey film over the fish (is that the smoked pellicle?) I knew I had something. The 'only' thing I will change is that it is a little bit too salty. I am thinking that I kept it in the brine too long. I know you say 6 hours but I only had 2 pounds in it, so I might cut it back a little bit next time to 5, if I have that small amount. I served it with a real nice dill sauce (and also made a maple syrup/brown sugar concoction) and can't wait for a couple of weeks when I am having a bunch of people over for some smoked salmon! Thanks again.