Morgan C.
TVWBB Diamond Member
Howdy folks....my freezer is getting full so we decided to smoke up some of our catch and put some away for a later use!! Nothing like pulling out some smoked salmon from the freezer or pop a jar open when you get invited to that last minute football party! I grew up eating smoked salmon both out of commercial smoke houses and of course the famous little chief smoker...my old man made tons of fish...I remember our job as kids was to go out an stoke the fire (add chips to the smoker pan). I decided to try and recreate this a bit but with the Smokey Mountain!
Started off with a couple nice fish we picked up on Monday afternoon!
Fillet these and packed in the freezer then pulled back out, trimmed and into a brine...my standard is 1 cup pickling salt, 1 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 gallon water! Soaked for 12 hours in a covered plastic bowl!
The next morning I pulled it all from the brine and patted dry and into a rack in the fridge for about 10 hours!
After some fridge time the fish took on a nice shiny pellicle(kind of like fresh coat of lacquer!
I used the snake method in the WSM since I have had such good luck with it in the performer...I set it up like this!
Gerti was supervising!!...I foiled the bottom rack and used no water pan...I wanted a low cool dry smoke on this with the goal of keeping the heat under 175....starting slow and gradually working the temp up!
A common mistake folks make is to smoke their fish to hot...if you start seeing the fish ooze a white goo then it's too hot and your cookin all the proteins out of the fish. Goal here is to have a nice, moist, smoky and a bit salty snack!
Fish in the WSM!!
The temp started out at about 100... Slowly creeped up to about 120 2 hours in..at about 4 hours I added some coals to the snake to keep her goin all nite..then crashed!
Started off with a couple nice fish we picked up on Monday afternoon!
Fillet these and packed in the freezer then pulled back out, trimmed and into a brine...my standard is 1 cup pickling salt, 1 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 gallon water! Soaked for 12 hours in a covered plastic bowl!
The next morning I pulled it all from the brine and patted dry and into a rack in the fridge for about 10 hours!
After some fridge time the fish took on a nice shiny pellicle(kind of like fresh coat of lacquer!
I used the snake method in the WSM since I have had such good luck with it in the performer...I set it up like this!
Gerti was supervising!!...I foiled the bottom rack and used no water pan...I wanted a low cool dry smoke on this with the goal of keeping the heat under 175....starting slow and gradually working the temp up!
A common mistake folks make is to smoke their fish to hot...if you start seeing the fish ooze a white goo then it's too hot and your cookin all the proteins out of the fish. Goal here is to have a nice, moist, smoky and a bit salty snack!
Fish in the WSM!!
The temp started out at about 100... Slowly creeped up to about 120 2 hours in..at about 4 hours I added some coals to the snake to keep her goin all nite..then crashed!
