smoking....

[mark]

not sure where to post this, but anyone smoke their own fish??

just finally got a round to having a go (post about smoking a seagull prompted me!), and no I didn\'t use a single rizzla.

what do you use??? how long etc

made my contraption up from a galvanised dustbin (mark 1 model) sort of ok, but might have overdone the sawdust a bit...

[Charlton]

Q, if it tasted alright you must have done it right

[tich]

Mark congrads onyour next post ,, 600 .. We use a smoke house on N/Shields fish quay Im sure they will give you a little info about how long, how much ect... then again see how much it costs, for them to smoke it for you,,then you can tell them to send a little bit of commision to me via Scotch Corner Butchers. but its so satisfieing doing things like that for your self the thing to do is experiment. try diferent types of wood,, cherry is supposed to be brill so is apple wood. give it a go.dont forget you can also smoke chicken, pork, lamb , well anything you fancy

[John]

I am going to build a smoker Mark. A friend of mine has made one out of 2 steel oil barrels easy and simple, Ive tasted Mackerel and trout he has done and jeez talk about beautiful.It gets my vote. ill post some pics once Ive got it made.

[mark]

the cod I did was a bit \'over-smoked\'! too much wood shavings me thinks.

this mark 1 effort is a hot smoker (cooks the fish) Bought one of those mini galvanised dustbins from IKEA. drilled the lid and attched a few hooks to hang the fish from - first mistake there, the skin on cod is not tough enough to hold it on the hooks as it cooks, so it all fell off the hooks. Luckily I kinda forsaw that one...

cheapy pizza baking tray - the ones with holes in are perfect for the ikea bins, they are wide enough so when dropped in the bin they wedge 2 thirds of the way down so the fish landed on there.

half a dozen bricks, and few sticks and a bit of charcoal, made a small \'hearth\' out of the bricks, lit the fire, let it settle a bit, stood the bin on top of the bricks and sprinkled the sawdust on the bottom of the bin, the heat from the fire under the bin enough to burn the sawdust and heat the bin in an oven stylee!

put a big handful of sawdust in the bin, I reckon a couple of tablespoons would of been enough for the 4 cod fillets I did.

the end result was quite a bit like an arbroath smokie.

need to go mackie bashing, so I\'ll have lots of fish to experiment with.


want to try cold smoking as well

[BriH]

Mark i would seriously think about chucking your \"mark 1 \" in the bin - it sounds to me that your bin is WAY WAY to hot - which is resulting in the Zinc galvanized coating producing Zinc oxide which is HIGHLY TOXIC it causes cancer and many other NOT nice things -if your \"smoker \" has a tarnished look about from the heat - you have produced some form of metal fatigue resulting in the zinc giving off fumes. you need to use Stainless steel bins / or anything stailess - ON a lighter note if you use it to SLOW smoke your fish you\"ll be OK. :P :P

[PhilT]

This is a bit of high quality kit, I keep thinkging of ordering one but baulk at the expense. Give you an idea of the kind of thing you want to build though:

http://www.coldsmoker.com

[mark]

Like the look of the west country smoker but ouch! bit pricey

used a galv\' container based on what a lot of the ones I\'ve seen for sale are made of. hadn\'t thought about the zinc poisoning. A lot of the smokers in the askari catalogue are galv. the thing doesn\'t show any signs of heat stress, it was a good 8\" above the embers when I put it on

the mark 2 model is going to be a 2 stage brick built affair.

stage 1 will be a fire box with a horizontal flue into the bottom of stage 2 for cold smoking, with a deep hole in the bottom of stage 2 for hot smoking.

I\'ve an old \'coutry crafts\' type book which has some pretty detailed plans, gonna build it behind the shed.

I was amazed at how whiffy the whole thing was when it got going, I could smell fish smoke all over the place yesterday - even in the bottom of the village from we are!

[PhilT]

You sure it wasn\'t just you smelling of smoked fish?

[mark]

fish smoke / smoked fish its all the same here in royston vasey

[CODHEAD]

mark ive used gal bins for years never give it much thought about the fumes if you can get it oak is the best .you can get it at the likes of woodwork shops ect .i also have a gas burner under mine.good luck

gary




FISHING IS FOR LIFE NOT JUST FOR XMAS

[Charlton]

Just been watching Matt Hayes on tele, his chef mate had a good idea for a smoker, two frying pans and a mesh. Put bayleaf, woodchips in one, put fish on mesh and cover with other frying pan, upside down of course, and put on gas ring.

[BILLYB]

COME AND SEE A PROPER SMOKER IN THE SHOP BY THE TIME YOU HAVE BOUGHT DUSTBINS AND MESH AND DRILLED HOLES YOU CAN BUY A SMOKER MADE FOR THE JOB

[Ell]

You selling Roy Castle dolls now Billy. Have you no shame!


I\'ve seen \'em on sale before, there\'s a cord at the back which you pull out. When you let it go the doll plays the trumpet, tap dances whilst juggling cherry stones, coughs for 30secs. then goes all floppy.

[Edited on 26/6/2004 by Ell]

[Edited on 26/6/2004 by Ell]

[mark]

I was gonna have a trial run with the neighbours beagle first, but it kept knocking the lid off.