Help for Smoker design

[gone_phishin]

Thanks Violetmay...but I've gotta say the rest of the Ausfishers who contributed to this thread are the ones who really need thanking!! For just needing a bit of help for building a Smoker, this has turned into quite a good read I reckon, with lots of great help...including yours with the chimney! I'll go and follow the link now.

Cheers
Geoff

[bugman]

Gents,

I have little to add other than I've just put together my portable fold down smoker my wife gave me for xmas. The plan is it will stay in the boat in order to have fresh smoke trout.

I'll make up the brine solution in a minute as i have some relies bring over some fresh trout this afternoon.

I'll let you know how it goes.

One question - some of the info with the smoker said dry off fish after removing from brine - another paragraph had "let dry for up to an hour"? What works best?

Brett

[Horse]

Brett
If hot smoking then just pat them down. The brine should have drawn moistuire from the fish through osmosis so it should not weep when smoked.

Those Trout sound good

Cheers

Neil

[bugman]

Thanks Neil,

I've been doing small whole trout not fillets and found I've had to leave them in the brine a bit longer.

The first batch I spoke about a few weeks ago wasn't too bad but since then I've been leaving the whole trout soaking overnight. It's been taking nearly two hours to hot smoke then but they have been coming up a treat.

In fact two rellies have already gone and purchased a smoker as a result of the taste test. It simply is the best way I've eaten trout.

I'm only using a simple brine of salt, water and soy sauce and I'm not even sure what the wood is as it came in the pack unmarked but by God it has been devine.

Thanks for the tips fellas.

Keep em coming

PS I'm off to catch more trout tomorrow - just to give her another workout.

Brett

[DICER]

bugman - do you have a picture of your foldable smoker?

thanks again to everyone who contributed, it has improved my smoking

NoelM - I tried your recipe for fish
"mix up half a cup of salt, half a cup white sugar, third cup brown sugar, 1 cup Soy Sauce and a litre of water, stir around untill it is all disolved, put the fish in the mixture, put it in the fridge overnight, next day, get them out, pat dry with paper towel and it is ready to smoke"

and have to say it works really well and the second half approves. I also tried it with a 1/3 cup mirin replacing an equal volume white sugar and it also has my thumbs up. Cheers and thanks!

[Noelm]

I guess what it comes down to is that once you get a basic "recipe" for brine, then you can adjust it to suit your own taste, like I know a guy that uses my mix but only leaves it in for about 3 or 4 hours so it does not get too brined, so adjust times and quantities to taste!

[Ausfish]

Dicer - Have a look at the Nipper Kipper smoke ovens - http://www.smokeovens.com/

[bugman]

Sorry Dicer,

I must have missed your question on this thread.

It's a Mako "compact fish smoker".

This is it here:


http://www.gotyatackle.com/store/product.asp?ID=462


but I'll take a photo next time it's up.

Brett

[rayken1938]

I am going to lenthalls next week so i have just prepared some smoked chicken that we will take up with us.
We either have it on sangas for lunch or eat it finely sliced with a few coldies at night or any other time.
I use a slight variation of Nolems recipe.
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup sugar/ 1/2 cup soy
1/2 cup leatherwood honey
1 litre warm water.
i find that if I use cold water I have problems disolveing the ingredients.
I have an old moreton meat pump that used to belong to my mother and use that to pump the mixture into the chicken breasts.
I then place in the fridge for a couple of hours and then fire up the old smpker.
I use hardwood sawdust that I get from the sawmill at Esk. ( Its free and as much as you like) This lot is ironbark but the last lot I used was scribbley gum .
I only use the small smoker for the breasts but when I do whole chooks and hams and sausages I fire up the big one.

[rayken1938]

Photo above showed meat pump it is just a very large syringe.The ones below shows in the smoker and the finished product.
I am fortunate in that I am mates with a chicken farmer and when they clean out the shed the catchers usually leave a dozen of so runts or others that are too fast for them and I score them or else they are killed and dumped.