I just picked up a couple of relatively large (1+ pound ea.)catfish fllets at the local farmers market, kind of an impulse buy. I thought that I would smoke them, but then got to thinking about the process. Do I have to brine the fillets? Can I just throw them in the smoker for an hour or so without doing anything other than rinsing them and drying them off? I did figure on folding over the tail of the fillet to achieve a uniform thickness. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Welcome to the forum,Cog....If you will go over to the open forum and scroll down to a post" trout"it should give you all you need....Go to my post and click on the 3 men website.....They do a lot of smoking in a CS.Hope this helps.

Tom, thanks for the welcome and the info. It seems that brining is the thing as I could find no mention of NOT brining. Well, since I haven't got the ingredients, it's fish fry tonight! This'll teach me to plan ahead!

Cog,

Let us know how it turns out. I have never brined catfish, so I would be interested in how it works.

I have smoked catfish several times, however I just rinse it, season it with some cajun seasoning and smoke away...

Stuart

Hey,Stuart.....Are you cooking at around 200� to an internal of about 160�?...The catfish fillets we get around here are only 5oz. to 6 oz.and I spend too much time checking them,with the door open....I've dried a few out this way and some have been great.Thanks.

Tom,

The ones that we typically get are around 8oz. I smoke them at 180 for 45 minutes. Looking for an internal temp of 160.

We have a recipe called Katzen Dawgs that I usually make. The recipe calls for brining the catfish, however I am too lazy and just throw it in the smoker. Then you crumble the catfish up and make hushpuppies with it. Turns out great...

Stuart

Thanks to you both. It looks like I'm going to have to experiment a little. Ended up frying the batch I had 'cause they were getting a little old and approaching the 'three day old fish/relative' stage (about to start smelling!) and I didn't have everything that I needed at the time. I'll end up trying it both ways and letting you know. Thanks again.