Smoking Fish

"Hot smoking" is a several-hours-long process that can be used to fully cook meats or fish. Barbecuing is a form of hot smoking. Generally, hot-smoking involves holding the food directly above the fire, or in an enclosure that is heated by the fire. The cooking temperature in a hot-smoking environment is usually between 175 and 225 and don't exceed 250 degrees. The temperatures reached in hot smoking can kill microbes throughout the food.

You may want to baste some of these pieces but use a basting liquid that does not contain too much sugar because sugar may burn or blacken on the grill.

"Cold smoking" is an hours-or days-long process in which smoke is passed by food which is held in a separate area from the fire. Generally the food is held at just above room temperatures 60–80°F as it is smoked. Since no cooking takes place, the interior texture of the food generally isn't affected, neither are any microbes living within the meat or fish. For this reason, cold-smoking has traditionally frequently been combined with salt-curing in such foods as hams, bacon & cold-smoked fish like lox or smoked salmon.

A number of wood smoke compounds also act as preservatives. Phenol and other phenolic compounds in wood smoke are both antioxidants, which slow rancidification of animal fats, and antimicrobials, which then slow bacterial growth, but smoke alone is insufficient for actual preserving of food. Use a meat thermometer if you aren't sure & is a good and safe way to make sure it is cooked. The meat thermometers usually indicate the right temperatures for different types of meats.

The main problem is that the smoke compounds adhere only to the outer surfaces of the food, smoke doesn't actually penetrate far into meat or fish. In modern times, almost all smoking is carried out for its flavor, & not its preservative qualities anymore like in the older days before refrigeration.

COOKING TEMPERATURES from USDA
Product	Type	Internal Temperature (°F)
Beef & Veal	Ground	160
	Steak and roasts medium	160
	Steak and roasts medium rare	145
Chicken & Turkey	Breasts	165
	Ground, stuffing, and casseroles	165
	Whole bird, legs, thighs, and wings	165
Fish & Shellfish	Any type	145
Lamb	Ground	160
	Steak and roasts medium	160
	Steaks and roasts medium rare	145
Leftovers	Any type	165
Pork	Chops, fresh (raw) ham ground, ribs, and roasts	160
Pork	Fully cooked ham (to reheat)	140

Woods Used for Smoking : Common woods used for smoking that impart a flavor are hickory, mesquite, oak, alder, maple and fruit-tree woods such as apple or cherry are commonly used for smoking. Alder is a favorite & used by many as it imparts a mild flavor to the meat.

Use Fresh Fish or Frozen : Those of us that fish probably do not have time to smoke many of our fish when it is fresh, but will freeze it & then in the winter when fishing time slows down will retrieve it from the freezer & get busy. My wife recently went thru our deep freeze while cleaning it out to make room for a beef we had butchered. Wow, did she find things we did not know were there. Some I hate to say it, but up to 5 years old. She found some that the vacuum pack had failed & the fish was so locker burned that we used it for coyote bait.

We did put together a box of salvageable slightly locker burned salmon, sea bass & ling cod. I am amazed at what the vacuum packing can do in comparison to the old wrapping method. Some of these pieces required trimming off the edges & removing any of the dried out meat. These probably were not the best meat, but after trimming, the inner meat appeared salvageable, at least enough for me to learn on my new Big Chief smoker. The photos below show already trimmed fish on the left & 2 pieces of locker burned meat on the right. The photo on the right shows the same 2 pieces but after being trimmed.

I did found that it trimmed a lot easier if you did this when the fish was about 1/2 thawed out.

Locker burned fish on the right	Same fish after trimming off the burned meat

The advent of modern small smokers has about killed the old time outdoor "outhouse" smokers that were common on about all the farms in my area in the 1950s. I remember cutting special wood & keeping it separate so it was not burned in the heating stove. We would get up in the middle of the night at times to stoke the fire with new wood. You did not want a large fire but one that just smoldered, so you adjusted the air intake in the bottom.

We smoked hams & bacon in the fall of the year after butchering time. We even made polish sausage by the #2 wash tubs full. It took me 5 years trying to get my mother-in-law to come up with a recipe. She always said "a couple of had fulls of salt, some pepper, boil & squeeze a few garlic cloves". I finally after writing down what she put in each year over the years managed to compile a close resemblance of her recipe. We would mix it by hand squeezing the meats to dissipate the ingredients, then finally fry a sample for a taste test. More pepper. More mixing, another test taste. We found that the salt would dissolve into the meat & the end product become saltier than the fresh fried sample.

I raised sheep for a while & even some of the older ones worked out well when mixed with venison for sausage.

I can not begin to count how many smelt & salmon were smoked in the fall of the year.

Now these small smokers are usually electric, however some are propane. The Luhr Jensen "Little & Big Chief" smokers shown in this article, have revolutionized the average fisherman's desires to smoke fish. We don't have to go out & cut smoking wood anymore, just buy the chips in a bag. One of these bags will fill the chip pan about 8 times. I usually prefer Alder chips which gives a milder flavor for my fish.

The smoker shown below is the Luhr Jensen Big Chief with a front loading door (they also make a top loader model, but it is harder to access the trays). The thickest pieces here may be 3/4" & are off smaller 8-10# Coho salmon.

The meat just placed on the racks to dry for a couple of hours	Finished smoking, but now for about another 4 hours of just heat

Polish sausage just about ready to come out of the smoker

COOKING TEMPERATURES from USDA