# help, salmon fillet stuck at 127



## bagbeard (Jun 8, 2013)

i followed the recipe in Jeff's new book to a tee except i left the fish in the fridge till the smoker was ready.  he says 4-5 hrs and im at almost 7 hrs. the salmon wasnt especially thick and my smoker chamber temp has been riding a steady temp of 152-160. not sure what to do.  temp of fish hasnt changed in over and hour and a half


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## bagbeard (Jun 8, 2013)

im in canada and its almost 1 in the morn. getting tired. running low on beer!


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## kathrynn (Jun 9, 2013)

Giving this a bump.....haven't smoked fish...hoping someone with see ya and help.

Are you sure your thermometer to accurate?

Kat


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## bagbeard (Jun 9, 2013)

probes have been good for the last few cooks.  not sure what to do . going to pull it off and check with a fork.  hate to mess up the nice fillet if its not done.  getting late though


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## bagbeard (Jun 9, 2013)

well im eating it now.  omg. never made anything close to fish this good.  only problem is i have 1/2 a fish here and no one to enjoy it with.  wife went to bed hour a go.  woke her up and fed her a chunk and didnt get yelled at .must be good.  just kidding, lol. pics to come


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## bagbeard (Jun 9, 2013)

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## bagbeard (Jun 9, 2013)

fish candy


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## cmayna (Jun 9, 2013)

How did you resolve your original problem?   Was it the temp probe?


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## akhap (Jun 9, 2013)

Inadequate pellicle led to evaporative cooling from the surface which kept fish cold.  

The temp of the fish clearly got above 140 eventually based on the white ooze.


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## kathrynn (Jun 9, 2013)

Looks pretty and tasty to me!

Kat


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## rustyreel (Jun 9, 2013)

Looks good. I prefer to smoke my salmon with the skin off. That way I can remove the mud vane and the fat. Produces a much better product IMO. I run the smoker at about 150 to 160 and remove fish when it reaches 140 to 150 degrees.


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## bagbeard (Jun 9, 2013)

after brining i let it dry in fridge for 3 hours.  do i need longer? the outside of fish was dry.  end result was great. even better today after cooling in fridge. mixed with cream cheese on a bagel


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## bagbeard (Jun 9, 2013)

i think my temp probe is kinda cheap and doesnt give good readings when it is into the meat only a little bit, because the fish was flaky and done.


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## fpnmf (Jun 9, 2013)

Here's how I did my last batch.. perfect!!

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/139908/todays-smoke-scottish-salmon

  Craig


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## akhap (Jun 10, 2013)

rustyreel said:


> Looks good. I prefer to smoke my salmon with the skin off. That way I can remove the mud vane and the fat. Produces a much better product IMO. I run the smoker at about 150 to 160 and remove fish when it reaches 140 to 150 degrees.



The "mud vane" is nothing more than slow twitch muscle tissue fish use for almost all general movements.  The rest of the meat is fast twitch muscle tissue the fish uses for rapid or high power movement.  It literally is little used during most of a fish's movements.  With our AK fish it is perfectly good and free of off flavors... it ain't a catfish! :biggrin:


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## akhap (Jun 10, 2013)

bagbeard said:


> after brining i let it dry in fridge for 3 hours.  do i need longer? the outside of fish was dry.  end result was great. even better today after cooling in fridge. mixed with cream cheese on a bagel



Different ambient conditions change how fast and well the pellicle forms.  I have never seen a refrigerator with enough air circulating to produce a pellicle.  I use a fan on racks set on the counter.  Lots of air and good drying conditions can mean a pellicle is done in an hour.  Sometimes it takes several.  I cannot emphasize enough how critical the pellicle is...


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## redwood carlos (Jun 10, 2013)

AKhap said:


> Different ambient conditions change how fast and well the pellicle forms. I have never seen a refrigerator with enough air circulating to produce a pellicle. I use a fan on racks set on the counter. Lots of air and good drying conditions *can mean a pellicle is done in an hour. Sometimes it takes several.* I cannot emphasize enough how critical the pellicle is...


Funny I just PMed you with some questions about this.


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## akhap (Jun 10, 2013)

Carlos
PM replied to.
art


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## bagbeard (Jun 10, 2013)

AKhap said:


> Different ambient conditions change how fast and well the pellicle forms. I have never seen a refrigerator with enough air circulating to produce a pellicle. I use a fan on racks set on the counter. Lots of air and good drying conditions can mean a pellicle is done in an hour. Sometimes it takes several. I cannot emphasize enough how critical the pellicle is...


so you figure my pellicle wasnt adequate, would that inhibit temperature rise of fish?  if so how does that work.  if chamber is 155 then shouldnt meat reach that temp eventually? 7 hrs is a long time.  or maybe it was probe is no good at shallow depths. no worries about fish at rm temp for 2 hours?


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## akhap (Jun 10, 2013)

Yes, the pellicle is critical to maintaining control when smoking fish and the lack of an adequate pellicle allows the moisture to evaporate from the fish and cooling it.

Evaporative or adiabatic cooling works because evaporating water takes a tremendous amount of energy with it when it goes.  That energy is called "latent heat of vaporization" and is 970BTUs per pound of water.  It takes quite a lot of heat to overcome that...  So the fish continues to cool from the surface while heat in the smoker attempts to keep up with it.

The pellicle seals the surface and reduces that evaporative cooling dramatically.

Fish takes a lot longer than a few hours to go bad at room temp... but cooler is certainly better and the treatment the fish got prior is also important to how room temperature will affect it.  It also is being cooled adiabatically but due to the lower temperature of the product it dries faster than the water inside the fish can be mobilized.

With only 15 degrees difference between fish and ambient temperature and active cooling going on there is little temperature differential to add heat to the fish.

And of course that brings up the bigger question of what the temperature actually was in your smoker.  Say your smoker thermo reads 5* high and the probe reads 5* low...  Hard to get much temperature gain there.  How sure are you that the smoker temp is correct?  I have seen smoker temps that read more than 25* off actual...


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## bagbeard (Jun 11, 2013)

AKhap said:


> Yes, the pellicle is critical to maintaining control when smoking fish and the lack of an adequate pellicle allows the moisture to evaporate from the fish and cooling it.
> 
> Evaporative or adiabatic cooling works because evaporating water takes a tremendous amount of energy with it when it goes. That energy is called "latent heat of vaporization" and is 970BTUs per pound of water. It takes quite a lot of heat to overcome that... So the fish continues to cool from the surface while heat in the smoker attempts to keep up with it.
> 
> ...


tested my thermometers and they seem good.  thanks for the great info on pellicle. i like when i can understand it from a physics point of view. i think i had a partial pellicle if that is possible because even though i smoked for 7 hrs it still was moist. next time i will try a fan on the counter. again thanks, its amazing what you can learn on this forum!!


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