Fish Temp?

I'm certainly no whole large fish expert,but here are a couple of thoughts,until some of them chime in.

If you are hot cooking,to serve as a meal,start your cooker smoking at about 180º,before you put the fish in.

Cook about an hour and kick it up a little over 200º.

160º internal would be considered done.

Time will dpend on size and how done you like it.

Hope this helps a little.

Hi John,

I do small trout ranging from 12"- 18" that are butterflied, with head on (for effect) and deboned.

I usually do a salt, brown sugar, peppercorn, bay leaf, & garlic clove brine for a couple of hours.

Next I rinse them off, and let them dry in the frige until they feel tacky.

Then I smoke at a t-stat setting of 170 for 1.5- 2 hours. Larger fish may take from 30 minutes to an hour longer. This gets them to where they flake just like fish you would broil, bake, or grill. I dont use a t-meter.

Tom is right though. doneness is your personal choice. Folks eat fish anywhere from sushi (raw) to jerky (cooked till its dry.)

There are a ton of archived threads here on smoked salmon. Read through them and you'll get several different methods & brines to try.

Good Luck!

John,

I have been hot smoking for years here on the island. I always smoke at 190 degrees and use two pieces of red bay wood, it will not be in the Cookshack long enough to get enough smoke with just one piece. If using hickory then one piece will be fine. We use white or red bay here and use nothing but salt and black or red pepper as a rub.

About two hours into the hot smoke, with a fork, check to see if the flesh is flaky near the bone at the thickest part of the fish. Adjust your time by guess and re-check again. If we are making fish dip then we want the flesh soft. If we want to eat the fish from the skin and scales we smoke it until the meat is almost dry. Yes! we smoke our fish with the scales on - it never sticks to the grills that way.

Cold smoking which requires a cure, is another animal and is not my favorite method of smoking fish. Mullet is our smoked fish of choice, but we smoke grouper, Spanish mackerel, triple tail, red fish, and a few other fish, but never smoke sea trout or spotted weak fish. Sea trout is so soft it just doesn't smoke well, giving a gummy texture when finished. However sea trout and spotted weak fish is wonderful fried.

smokemullet