red snapper

I love red snapper, but we don't have much of it in Iowa.

Keep us posted on how it turns out

All depends how you like it..... (duh!) We smoke a lot of salmon here and do it simply... by making up a butter-onion-lemon-lime sauce. Take about a 1/2 of a stick of butter and melt it and saute onions in the butter. When the onions are soft, add a couple of squirts of lemon juice and lime juice. Adjust all of the above for how much fish you have, but nothing is critical.

I then place the fish (fillets or chunks) in a pyrex dish or a metal pan and smoke for about 1 1/2 hours at 225. The fish will turn out moist and tender and have a nice smokey flavor. I use either maple or hickory but I am not an expert on woods.. doesn't seem to make much difference.

This would be fish for dinner. Smoking a marinated fish for other uses would be different matter.

My wife doesn't ordinarily like salmon but she loves it served as I mentioned above.

This is how I do grouper. Best fileted with skin on. A little lemon juice then lightly coat with olive oil and a dusting of Tony Chachere's creole seasoning. In my AmeriQue, I use no wood as the smoker is seasoned so well that I get a light smoke taste without wood. If you want I would put one small piece of pecan (1-2 oz at most). In my FEC just use as normal. I would set the smoker to 190* and smoke until it reaches 130* in the thickest part. It should be moist anf flakey. You can serve on the skin or carefully turn and the skin will easily peel off the cooked filet.

verdict on red snapper!!

I made the red snapper yesterday and had mixed reviews. My first mistake was that I bought a whole red snapper because my skills with a filet knife are novice at best. I washed and padded dry the two filets with the skin still on. Used olive oil and rubbed in a spicy seafood rub and salt. Then placed filets skin facing down in the CS. Set at 200; 2 onces hickory; cooked for 2 hrs. The end result: good smokey flavor but had a salty after taste. I wonder if this is from the salt that I added or because the fish is a salt water fish: hmmmm not sure??? any ideas???

If I were to do it again I would forget the salt and smoke at 225 for 90-120 minutes. Looking forward to next smoke either way!

It is not because the red snapper is a saltwater fish! Snapper is a mild delicate fish, that does not have a "fishy" taste. Your rub probably had salt as well as the additional salt you added. After the lemon and olive oil you only need a dusting of seasoning, try to find Tony Chachere's creole seasoning and only use a light dusting. Don't go higher on temp, use 190* and DON'T overcook. At two hrs at 200* the fish was probably dry. You are looking for a moist flaky finish to the fish.

Another thought, if you don't want that much smokey flavor, I always use Alder Wood for fish.
Has a very nice and mild flavor.
Also I only buy bark free wood, just don't like the bark on the wood, seems to smolder much better.