# The Trigger may be pulled!



## surfer_e (Dec 31, 2007)

O.K. I am new to the smoking world and so far have two smokes under my belt. Pork and Chicken have been smoked but I wanted to branch out and smoke some fish.  It appears that Salmon is a very popular, but being that I am on the east coast (Florida) I am always skeptical of "Good Salmon"  making a trip across the country to my grocery store.  

In my life I have spent a great amount of time traveling and working in other countries.  One of my most memorable meals I have had was on a small island of  Palau.  The meal consisted of rice and smoked trigger fish.  I have no idea how the fish was smoked but it was very good.  The fish was not prepared in any way it was just gutted and then smoked WHOLE (skin and all).  Now just today I was wondering around beach side and the local fish monger was selling some beautiful trigger fish. 

When I buy some trigger fish how can I go about smoking a whole fish?  

As I said before i am new to the smoking world and have a Brinkman electric smoker.  

Any ideas?


----------



## richtee (Dec 31, 2007)

Only advice I can come up with is  is it a fatty fish? Salmon, sable and other popular smoking fishes have alot of fat, making them ideal for a smoking and not drying out.

If not, you may need to rub with oil/bacon grease and include some fat in your mopping sauce too.

Other than that, I din't know the things were edible  LOL!


----------



## surfer_e (Dec 31, 2007)

Richee  you know I have eaten some strange creatures.  I have lived in many tropical places (with the natives).  What is funny is that on a south pacific island the natives will eat EVERYTHING that comes out of the ocean.  I can remember living in Palau and getting served barracuda.......yes a 5 foot BARRACUDA.  Now every where you can read it will say "DO NOT EAT LARGE BARRACUDA you will get Ciguatera poisoning.  But the fish did not make me sick and tasted GREAT.  

But I have been doing some research and Trigger fish is considered to be quite good.  I am still not sure if it is a fatty fish.  I figure that I will just get a whole fish and throw it in the smoker and see what happens.  I do have a friend who is a spear fisherman and I am sure I could have him bag me one.


----------



## hillbillysmoker (Dec 31, 2007)

Welcome aboard. Nice that you could join us.


----------



## cman95 (Dec 31, 2007)

Have eat some strange stuff myself.
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	









 Let us know how it turns out.


----------



## flash (Jan 1, 2008)

Well I live across the state from you and we constantly smoke Spanish, Bluefish and Redfish. Maybe do some practicing on those fish, then move on to trigger. We make some mean fish dips from those three.


----------



## vlap (Jan 1, 2008)

Trigger fish is a very tall but thin fish. The fillets are white flesh and delicate. The skin is like sandpaper and I wouldn't imagine it to be very good. the fillets are very thin. It would not take much time to cook.
I happen to have gone offshore yesterday and caught a bunch of them and filleted them for today. Did a real nice fish fry and they were wonderful. The leftovers are going t be turned into fish tacos tomorrow.
As for smoking I have no idea on them. I think the fillets maybe a bit thin. Fry em up, add some lemon and enjoy.


----------



## surfer_e (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks for the info guys.  

So Blue Fish or Red Fish.  I will try to find some of those.


----------



## shellbellc (Jan 3, 2008)

vlap you have it made! 

Here in PA I do fresh trout whole in the spring, I've done with just a rub, plain, and with lemons and garlic in cavity. All were excellent.  I don't know that the salmon we get on the east coast wasn't previously frozen, I have however done some excellent smoked salmon, Dutch has an excellent recipe for maple glazed smoked salmon.  We have done blue fish, which imo is the only way to eat blue, weakies, black sea bass, and croaker.  Your times will vary with the thickness and delicateness of the meat.  I only use a mild wood like apple or cherry.  Good luck!


----------

