HELP!!! Fish in my smokette

This sounds kind of weird. Did you put your fishes directly on a rack, not in a pan or foil? They weren't frozen solid, were they? Might just try again.

A saturated solution might be a bit strong, too, altho that shouldn't cause the soggy part. Take a peek at Smokin's Brining 101 for brining formulas.

TJR,

This is the second time it has happened! The first time was with salmon, and I was told to cook longer. Someone also suggested a stronger brine. I tried both. I am wondering whether the smokette is suitable for smoking fish! It might be that the lack of air flow that causes meat (i.e. beef) to remain moist, keeps all the moisture in the fish.

Pete

You might want to try a dry cure.

I've done several large rainbows, however I dont brine trout. Onnly salmon etc. Iset the temp at 200 or225 it till its light and flakey. Always comes out great. I don't fillet the fish untill its done. Comes off the bone easily.Maybe the brine causes too much moisture.

Don't give up yet - maybe skip brining and use a rub instead. My experience is that it's easier to get a too-dry fish than a too-wet one, especially if you just season it and pop it in the smoker. 2 hours at 200 for 1/4" fillets seems like it would be more like trout jerky. Maybe your outlet is plugged up - does smoke come streaming out the top?

Too bad we-all-know-who isn't around, she'd have some good advice.

psilvers,

Try opeing the door on the smoker halfway through the cook cycle. Also, you might try letting it air dry a little longer. I usually go about 3 hours.

Thanks for the replies.

1-I will try air drying for a longer period, but I really don't think that will do it.

2-The outlet isn't plugged up and smoke is rising through it.

3- I am not crazy about opening the door. I'll lose a lot of smoke AND heat! Heat loss will depend on ambient temperature, therefore cooking times will vary. If I need to do this, I might as well go back to using the Brinkmann.

4- It is not the brine. I have been smoking brined fish for years.

Sorry if I sound annoyed, but I am! I have a feeling that either my unit is bad (i.e. bad temperature control, or that there is not enough air flow through to produce fish that is of the proper texture. I don't know. But I do know that after spending $400, I am a bit upset!



Pete

I was just looking at the seafood archives and Andi says that drying is the most important part. I'll try it and see if it works.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks for the help.
Pete

We're certainly here to support you.

I hear your frustration, but you have to remember this is a different smoker and will have different issues and pecularities, all of which can be managed.

First and foremost is that it is well insulated and the humidity level will be higher here than your old smoker.

I'd try the suggestions above and if they don't work, come back for some help.

Smokin'

Thanks a lot for the support. That is one of the reasons that I bought a cookshack - great customer support.

I think I am on my way to solving this problem. The first batch of fish I smoked were wild salmon and they were soggy. I made two fillets , and both were bad. It was like eating salmon mush. I think that I needed a higher temperature. I was trying to smoke them slowly at a lower temperature.

I then bought some farmed rainbow trout at a local supermarket so that I could experiment with them. My supply of wild salmon is over for the season and I didn't want to use the stuff I froze. I smoked the trout and looked at one of the fillets and it was soggy, but not as bad as the salmon. However, it was still not good. Last night when I got home I looked at the other fillet and it was significantly better than the first fillet, but I have to say that it is still not great. But I think I know what is going on!!!!

Here is my take on the situation:
1- The difference between the two trout fillets is probably due to a difference in initial quality of the fish when they were purchased from the store. I bought these fish from a local store where the quality of the fish is decent, but not great. I should have thought about this before, but I just wanted to do a quick experiment. These trout may have been frozen - some that I have bought before from this store HAVE been frozen. In any case, I think that this difference may have just been a poor fillet rather than a cold spot in the smoker or a difference in brine exposure, etc. The salmon was from a different source - and that supplier has excellent fish.
2- Even the better fillet was a bit soggy on the bottom next to the skin. The fish obviously cooks differently in the Smokette than in the Brinkmann. I think that in the Smokette the skin is sealing in the moisture. The section of meat next to the skin then becomes soggy. I also think that in the Brinkmann I had more oil/water dainage from the fish than in the smokette.
3- Next batch of fish (in a few days) I am going to pierce the skin in several places so that it can drain. I think that cooking it with the skin is almost like cooking it in a pan instead of on the grill. I know some people also smoke with the skin off and rave about it. I may also try that.

Thanks for all the help. I'll let you know how it goes!


Pete

OOPS- I need to edit the post above, but I don't know how!

The great customer support that I have heard about IS one of the reasons I bought the Smokette. There shouldn't be a "?" in the first line of the post above - it was meant to be a dash!!!

Pete

Pete.

To "edit" click on the little icon above your post that you want to edit. It looks like a white notepad with a pencil.

You can edit it, correct it, then hit "submit" and should be done.

Smokin'

Thanks for the info on editing. I kept getting interrupted when I was typing the post so I just typed it in Word and pasted it here. Some things go messed up in pasting.

I'll let you know how the next batch turns out.

Thanks again,
Pete

I have done some pieces of salmon a few times. A local store sell vac-packed 6 oz. portions about twice the size a deck of cards. I have put them in a warm oven after doing something else and they took about 45 min. to get to 130 deg., I only brushed mine with olive oil and put on some salt and pepper. They came out great every time.

Dave

psilvers.

Appreciate the experiments and look forward to the comments.

I'll make sure Stuart chimes in, he's our resident Fish Expert with the CS.

Always like to hear about the "failures". I don't know about you, but I learn more from my failures than my successes.

Quick question about your Brinkman. How much water did you add to it? One of the issues you may be running into is that the CS does TOO good a job some times keeping the moisture in the unit. It will extend the time, but you might open the door to let some out.

You might also try a side by side comparison with the CS and Brinkman to narrow down the issues. Could be the fish, the technique or the smokers.

Good luck.

Smokin'

Smokin,

I didn't add water to the Brinkmann. BTW, I gave the Brinkmann away after getting the Cookshack. I think you are right about the cookshack keeping the moisture in. I also think that the Brinkmann got MUCH hotter.

I will smoke some more trout in a couple of days and will try scoring the skin to release the moisture/oil that seems to accumulate in the fish. Once I have that worked out, I'll try with some of the good stuff (wild salmon).

I'll let you know what happens.

Pete

I bet you've got it with the skin idea. I've always done skinless filets with no sogginess. The only fish that I've smoked skin on has been some halibut steaks. Skin was too leathery to eat, but since it was on the side of the steaks it didn't hold in moisture.

Good luck on the next try!

I have been busy with work so I haven't had too much time to smoke fish. I have done two experiments which I will pass on to you guys. The results have been a big improvement over my soggy fish. For those that haven't followed this story, my first two loads of fish came out mushy. After cooking in the smokette, the fish was kind of watery. Some of this may have been due to the lack of draft in the smokette and, at least in one case, the fish may not have been the greatest (i.e. not horrible, but not the best quality). More details are in the thread "Help, Fish in my smokette".


Now to the new stuff. The first batch of fish were rainbow trout. The fillets were of good quality. I brined three fillets. Before brining I skinned one fillet and cut slits in the skin of the two other fillets. This was done with a razor blade. The slits were 1/2 to 1 inch long and were cut at about 3/8" intervals. The idea was to allow the liquid that was causing the soggy fish to drain. After brining, the fillets were rinsed briefly in fresh water, patted dry and then allowed to air dry for two hours. They were then smoked at 200 degrees for 1 1/2 hrs. After smoking I let them cool at room temp for an hour, checked them for mushiness (they were fine!!!!) and placed them in the refrigerator overnight. As far as texture, they were great! The overall verdict is that they were pretty good. Consider my bias - I prefer smoked salmon and only did this as an experiment to figure out how to get rid of the mushiness! Overall the experiment was a great sucess!

I figured this required a real test. I got some Atlantic salmon (farmed and not ideal), because I did not want to use the wild Pacific salmon I have until I work out the method. In any case, this was a pretty thick fillet that was taken from near the tail (i.e. the caudal peduncle area for you fisheries types). The skin was cut with a razor as described above so that any liquid could drain. The fillet was brined, rinsed and air dried as above. I then smoked the fish for 3 hours at 200 degrees and then jacked up the temperature setting to 250 degrees for about 45 minutes. After cooling at room temperature for 1 hour and checking moisture content (NO mushiness!!!) the fish was refrigerated. I was worried that the fish would be too moist because the Atlantic salmon (farmed) are usually very oily. However, I picked out this fillet because it seemed pretty lean. In any case, this experiment was also a success, in fact too much of a success because the fish was a bit dry! It still was pretty good!

However, my question was "Can I smoke fish in my smokette and NOT get mushy fish because of the liquid accumulation?" I was concerned because there is no draft through the smokette and I thought that might be contributing to the texture problem I was having. In the way the fish was cooking, it was accumulating lots of liquid. I thought that this was the result of a lack of air flow and that under these circumstances the skin was acting to retain the moisture (water and fish oil) and make the fish mushy. Anyway, this problem was solved by piercing the skin.

I hope this helps anyone having similar problems with their unit.

Mornin',p.

I sure ain't no great shakes as a fish smoker,or catcher-for that matter,but I haven't run into the problem-yet.

I do all my steelhead and salmon fillets skin on.

The couple a problems I had ,came about with concentration and timin' of brines.

We used to have an ol' gal what hung out with Eskimos and thought fish was the five basic food groups.

She an' ol' Jim Minion could solve about any finny problem what come up.

Ya might log onto Jim's email and see if he has any thoughts.The rain out in his neck a the woods,I hear ya can fish on dry ground.