This seems like a perfect place to post a very long thread on my award winning smoked fish. I've been at it since '72
If anything, the brine is worth noting for any fish jerky or smoked.
This post will take some time to read, but I’m laying out what I have done for smoking fish since '72.
I have a smoker that was made at a school in shop class by those that have learning disabilities. It is an old refrigerator. The freezer door is now on the bottom and the regular door is on top. Between the two sections is a metal partition with quite a few one inch holes to allow the smoke to come from the charcoal/wood chip section on the bottom. On the very top is a smoke stack with a witches cap over it to keep the rain out if it happens. It has a louver to control the air flow on the stack .
The bottom freezer door has a floor vent on the front which can also be adjusted with a louver to control the air flow. In this section is a large metal tray the charcoal brickets are placed. I use Kingsford charcoal, but not the ones that are self starting. I use starting fluid, but the charcoal does not go into the charcoal tray until they are solid glowing embers with none of the black color that is there when I first start them.
Outside the smoker on the ground I have a large hibachi that I use to start the charcoal brickets into until they are solid glowing embers. I use a metal ice fishing ladle to put these into the bottom metal tray in the smoker. On top of that, I have a smaller tray that the wood chips go into. I use Luhr Jenson wood chips. These are fine wood chips and to avoid a flare up, I spray them down a little with a plant misting bottle of water.
I use equal amounts of apple, hickory, and cherry wood chips. Before putting the wood chips in the tray that sits on top of the charcoal, I use a spray misting bottle to wet them down as I do not want them to burst into flames. I add a handful at a time that I’ve sprayed down with some water from the spray bottle.
The refrigerator was gutted and lined with the proper type of sheet metal used in smokers. I bought it in '72 for $40.
The top section has metal lips that are on both sides on which oven or refrigerator racks can rest. I have also cut down some of the refrigerator racks as each bracket I hang the racks on will hold about 1 and a third racks. The entire smoker can hold between 20 to 25 adult salmon and trout. It would take a few fishing trips trolling with buddies to get enough to fill it.
I will soak the skinned boneless fillets in a brine for a half hour to an hour. I will list my brine at the bottom of this post. I have a 120 quart cooler that I use for the brine. Many will soak their fish in a brine overnight but I’ve found those smoked fish to be too salty for my tastes. I cover them with dinner plates to keep them submerged while they are in the brine.
I then put them on racks in my kitchen after a quick rinse supported by a bunch of glasses and coffee mugs to keep them elevated as making a pellicle is what comes next, and I want the fans to be able to have air circulating around them as they sit on the racks all over our kitchen counters. I use a couple of square window fans to blow on them for about a hour or two depending on the relative humidity on the day I’m smoking them. After a hour or two with fans blowing on them and forming the pellicle, a thin tacky membrane will form and when they become tacky to the touch, they then go into the smoker.
The pellicle stage is crucial, as a pellicle that has not formed properly will have the fillets dripping all over other fillets beneath them in the smoker.
I have the racks that the fillets will go on in the smoker coated with Pam sprayed on them to avoid them sticking to the racks.
Once in the smoker, I start with a slow smoke with less wood chips and less charcoal. I like to have the first hour with a slow smoke and temps around 140 degrees F. After the first hour I add more charcoal and more wood chips and try to bring the temps up to 180 degrees and continue with that temp until competed.
I have temp gauges on the top rack and the bottom rack as well. The smaller fillets can be finished in 6 to 8 hours, but the larger fillets for some large king salmon can take 10 to 12 hours to finish. This type of smoking fish is referred to a hot smoking process as opposed to cold smoking process which can take a few days at much lower temps, often the wood chip smoke coming from a separate area vented into the smoke room or smoker. I smell more like a smoked fish than the fish does when spending all day stoking coals and feeding the smoker wood chips.
This process takes all day starting very early in the morning making the brine, and then pellicle process, and then finally finishing them in the smoker. To do a cold smoke which can take a few days is something I’ve never tried. One full day is enough for me.
Having the racks sit on brackets in the smoker allows me to move them around to get the slower ones to finish moved to warmer temps, as the air flow through the smoker adjusted in the wood chip compartment, and the the stack on top will determine if the bottom part of the smoker where the fish sit on racks or the top part of the smoker is hotter. That will very depending on the time of year I’m smoking them, and the adjustments made to the air flow going through the smoker.
I have sampled smoked fish everywhere in the state that I go for fishing trips, and I have yet to find any that compare. While working as an electrician, I would bring some to share with my workmates and everyone wanted to buy some from me.
I explained that 3 trips to Lake Michigan or more for some limit
catches with gas costs for the vehicle and boat, on top of all of the ingredients for the brine and the charcoal would be way to expensive to sell at my costs to make it. Instead because everyone wanted some, I would just give it away.
Best I’ve ever had and that’s saying a lot.
Here is my brine recipe, again only for a half hour to an hour depending on the size of the fillets, as this is a super saturated salt solution that no more salt could be dissolved into. That is why the shorter time for the brine. The very large King salmon fillets also got cut into strips from the top of the fillet to the bottom as this allowed the smoke better penetration. I would cut the large fillets into strips about an inch or two wide from top to bottom of the fillet.
I mixed this up in a 120 quart cooler, and then put plates on top
of the fillets to keep them submerged.
Here’s the brine:
6 gallons of water.
5 lbs of non iodized salt
1 and a half cups of Real brand lemon juice.
1 lb of dark brown sugar.
2 tablespoons of garlic juice (Howard’s brand)
2 tablespoons of onion juice (Howard’s brand)
1/2 to one cup of Grandma’s brand black strap molasses
After years of this brine, I improved on it by adding
some maple syrup added to the fillet with a basting brush
once they had been in the smoker for an hour or two.
This is an award winning recipe and had people coming to check out the progress when we lived in the big city. You could smell it a half block away and all of my neighbors were wanting some.
Even my neighbors two cats would hang out with me also wanting some. Of course everyone got some. These hot smoked fish will not last as long as a cold smoking process done over days. They would last in the frig for a few weeks, so I kept out what I thought I could eat and give away to friends, neighbors, and work mates and froze up the rest. It was great to pull some out of the freeze mid ice fishing season and have some while out ice fishing.
I could spend almost as much time explaining my recipe for jerky, but I’ll save that for another day.
