Some info here James Brining - How to Brine Poultry, Fish and Meat with recipes and information.
Love the smoke house! Hope you got your sister out first
Love the smoke house! Hope you got your sister out first
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DIY Smoker...
- Thread starter deep thinker
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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Great read here!!
Hope ye guys can help me…
I bought this smoker on a bit of a whim and I received it and it didn't come with instructions…
Here is the smoker… https://www.quickcrop.ie/product/big-smoker
There is a grill at the top for hanging meat
There is a door at the bottom with a tray that can be pulled out.
A few cm above the tray is a plate. (I presume you open the tray to suit the rate of burn / smoke?)
Attached is a diagram…
The description says it 'cooks and smokes' so I imagine it was a hot smoker… but there is no thermometer on it… I also hoped that down the line I could use my BBQ to pump smoke into it via the tray to use it as a cold smoker… but now I am not so sure...
As I assumed it was a hot smoker so I put charcoal in the tray, soaked hickory chips for 30mins and put them on top of the plate. But the temp (when I put my hand in was only slightly warmer than air temp…so 35'c ish??
I defrosted a bass fillet, a cod fillet and 4 mackerel fillets. Put them all in salt, paprika, pepper, cayane and suger rub for 30mins, washed and put in the smoker.
3 hours later there was not much happening although the colour was changing in them. A few fillets fell off the hooks but they fell onto the woodchip on the plate and I hung them back up. 1 hour later the cod fell apart…completely and fell… At this stage I sparked up the other BBQ and put the cod and 2 mackerel fillets into a BBQ fish holder. When the charcoal had gone white I threw some wood chips into a tinfoil parcel and hot smoked the lot in BBQ for 20 more minutes and it came out super… all be it a little salty. I left the bass and other 2 fillets in the other smoker for another 2 hours (6 in total) and the mackerel and bass were still raw although smoked ok…
Next experiment was to salt a bass and mullet fillet for 12hours and I set up the smoker with wood chips on the plate and also some wood chips in the tray with the charcoal. I set it up to go at 11pm and I guess it smoked till 4am… when I checked it this morning at 6.30 it was cold with no smoke but some small embers and over half of the fuel left. The meat was dry and smoked and raw and I tried some but had nothing to compare it to… I put it in the fridge to check later but then decided to have another go… So I tried to set it up again at 7am left for work and when my wife got home it was the same thing…
What to do now? Write off the fish? Get the missus to relight and try again?
The only thing I think I could do is compare it to smoked salmon so should I buy a few chunks of salmon and continue experimenting… I'm not sure I know the consistency of a good smoked bass or a bad one to compere to…
Any thoughts?
(PS I'm aiming to convince my family to move from traditional smoked salmon for Xmas and have a smoked bass…)
Hope ye guys can help me…
I bought this smoker on a bit of a whim and I received it and it didn't come with instructions…
Here is the smoker… https://www.quickcrop.ie/product/big-smoker
There is a grill at the top for hanging meat
There is a door at the bottom with a tray that can be pulled out.
A few cm above the tray is a plate. (I presume you open the tray to suit the rate of burn / smoke?)
Attached is a diagram…
The description says it 'cooks and smokes' so I imagine it was a hot smoker… but there is no thermometer on it… I also hoped that down the line I could use my BBQ to pump smoke into it via the tray to use it as a cold smoker… but now I am not so sure...
As I assumed it was a hot smoker so I put charcoal in the tray, soaked hickory chips for 30mins and put them on top of the plate. But the temp (when I put my hand in was only slightly warmer than air temp…so 35'c ish??
I defrosted a bass fillet, a cod fillet and 4 mackerel fillets. Put them all in salt, paprika, pepper, cayane and suger rub for 30mins, washed and put in the smoker.
3 hours later there was not much happening although the colour was changing in them. A few fillets fell off the hooks but they fell onto the woodchip on the plate and I hung them back up. 1 hour later the cod fell apart…completely and fell… At this stage I sparked up the other BBQ and put the cod and 2 mackerel fillets into a BBQ fish holder. When the charcoal had gone white I threw some wood chips into a tinfoil parcel and hot smoked the lot in BBQ for 20 more minutes and it came out super… all be it a little salty. I left the bass and other 2 fillets in the other smoker for another 2 hours (6 in total) and the mackerel and bass were still raw although smoked ok…
Next experiment was to salt a bass and mullet fillet for 12hours and I set up the smoker with wood chips on the plate and also some wood chips in the tray with the charcoal. I set it up to go at 11pm and I guess it smoked till 4am… when I checked it this morning at 6.30 it was cold with no smoke but some small embers and over half of the fuel left. The meat was dry and smoked and raw and I tried some but had nothing to compare it to… I put it in the fridge to check later but then decided to have another go… So I tried to set it up again at 7am left for work and when my wife got home it was the same thing…
What to do now? Write off the fish? Get the missus to relight and try again?
The only thing I think I could do is compare it to smoked salmon so should I buy a few chunks of salmon and continue experimenting… I'm not sure I know the consistency of a good smoked bass or a bad one to compere to…
Any thoughts?
(PS I'm aiming to convince my family to move from traditional smoked salmon for Xmas and have a smoked bass…)
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Bob I will bring my hot smoker with me to Sligo for Feargus's wknd it will give you a much better idea when you can actually see it working its smaller than yours but the principal is the same !!
Bob your smoker looks like a kind of high bred but it looks good!
You might find it a lot easier to use in the winter when the air is cold & damp.
If I want to cold smoke a small amount of fish or just one big one then I use a remote cardboard box to hold the fish, a 100mm aluminium tumble dryer hose to feed in the smoke & a metal bin for a fire box.
A cold smoked bass can be sliced wafer thin & almost looks transparent when held against the light.
if you hold up a thin slice of cold smoked wrasse (about 10 hours) it looks like petrol on water with lots of colour!
You might find it a lot easier to use in the winter when the air is cold & damp.
If I want to cold smoke a small amount of fish or just one big one then I use a remote cardboard box to hold the fish, a 100mm aluminium tumble dryer hose to feed in the smoke & a metal bin for a fire box.
A cold smoked bass can be sliced wafer thin & almost looks transparent when held against the light.
if you hold up a thin slice of cold smoked wrasse (about 10 hours) it looks like petrol on water with lots of colour!
Cheers climbing!!
FF I'll try it in winter as well, I just can't get the temp up (cheese is not melting in it - so I've ordered a meat thermometer) in it and it keeps going out if I try a long smokeing session... I'm afraid to say I think the bass and mullet fillets Ive been trying will be going inthe lobster pots
I really wanted to get it sorted as I have a pig carcass coming tomorrow and I wanted to try a few idea's for bacon, hams and sausages.
The store I bought it off are following up with the manufacturer for me. I tried it last night with woodchip only and no charcoal... lower temp and much more smoke.... hmmm
I really hope to perfect that cold smoked bass by XMas
Actually, maybe you can give advice... freeze to kill parasites + worms before cold smoking... or not?
FF I'll try it in winter as well, I just can't get the temp up (cheese is not melting in it - so I've ordered a meat thermometer) in it and it keeps going out if I try a long smokeing session... I'm afraid to say I think the bass and mullet fillets Ive been trying will be going inthe lobster pots
I really wanted to get it sorted as I have a pig carcass coming tomorrow and I wanted to try a few idea's for bacon, hams and sausages.
The store I bought it off are following up with the manufacturer for me. I tried it last night with woodchip only and no charcoal... lower temp and much more smoke.... hmmm
I really hope to perfect that cold smoked bass by XMas
Actually, maybe you can give advice... freeze to kill parasites + worms before cold smoking... or not?
I'm no expert on cold smoking but I would presume the brineing would kill all parasites. My hot smoker uses small mets burners underneath to heat the sawdust/chippings its very simple really. Bob yours looks a bit more complicated I would have to see it to get a good look. Neal
Depends on the salinity level, the more salt the more salty it tastes and then you start to loose taste in preference of safety.... which is also the counter arguement for freezing...safety for taste...
Good link here
http://www.uaf.edu/ces/publications-db/catalog/hec/FNH-00325.pdf
Good link here
http://www.uaf.edu/ces/publications-db/catalog/hec/FNH-00325.pdf
Actually from the same site... perhaps freezing is ok.... only perhaps I was doing it wrong...I was also thawing it wrong....
http://www.uaf.edu/ces/publications-db/catalog/hec/FNH-00222.pdf
http://www.uaf.edu/ces/publications-db/catalog/hec/FNH-00222.pdf
Hey Bob, did you ever figure out how to get that smoker going. I've been experimenting with a hot smoker lately myself.