Northwest Fishing Reports

My friend just got back from Hawaii and caught a 450lb Blue Marlin and brought me about 40lb of this beautiful meat, the locals said the best way to eat it was smoked. So has anyone has done this and how did it turn out? I smoke a lot of Salmon and it turns out great so I would think the same recipe would work for this but I would hate to have it turn out otherwise. It has no skin so I was thinking cutting it into chunks and hanging it or laying it on racks rubbed with oil. I would also like to try a candy recipe like you would on sturgeon but I can't find the recipe I wanted using a LOT of real maple syrup so if anyone knows a good candy recipe please do share..

wow, please post pics and a report on how it turns out.

I have a large book at home with all kinds of smoking processes. If you can wait till tomorrow I'll see if theres anything like it in the book. Marlin should be real nice clean meat. Im salivating thinking about it.

Ive been looking into the two books that I have on smoking Fish and Game. They both said Marlin is similar to smoking salmon or steelhead. The one book I really like is done by Amato Publications. Its simply called "Smoking Salmon and Steelhead' by Scott and Tiffany Haugen. It has really nice recipes for all types of brines. Both wet and dry.

OK, I have resisted posting this long enough.
My guess is if you're going to smoke 40lbs of blue marlin, you're going to need some rolling papers the size of a bed sheet. Get some friends to help you or you'll get a loose wrap and waste a lot of the good stuff. Oh ya, and don't try to smoke it all at once.
You may want to check the recently passed laws in Washington making the other stuff legal to smoke. I'm not sure of Blue Marlin is on that list.

You had to know someone was going to reply with something like this. LOL

That's my kind of recipe....

My experience with smoking large game fish has not been real good. Yes I've smoked a few thousand pounds of it. Marlin. Spear Fish, Sail Fish, Butterfly Kings, the whole lot. It doesn't have enough fat in the meat and it get very tough and chewy.

The recipe I had for Blue Marlin was saying to treat it like salmon or steelhead when smoking.I would have thought that Marlin had a good amount of fat in it. I don't think I've really eaten marlin before.

racfish wrote:The recipe I had for Blue Marlin was saying to treat it like salmon or steelhead when smoking.I would have thought that Marlin had a good amount of fat in it. I don't think I've really eaten marlin before.

I think you're confusing oil with fat. Big difference, think the difference between and nice Yellow Fin steak and the Yellow Fin belly for sushi or sashimi. The belly has fat where the steak has oil. A steak you're going to put on the grill with high heat and just sear the outside, leaving the interior for all intents and purposes raw (and tender). The belly you could put on the grill and cook it like a piece of salmon and you'd see the fat start to boil out of it, leaving a very tender piece of tuna, ready for devouring. When cooked with out fat the proteins cross link and pull it all together making a tough fibrous mass, with fat it just makes a gooey congealed mass of yummy goodness. Smoking (cooking) non fatty meats tends to make a pretty tough chew.

I recently went to Maui where I tried marlin smoked, it was a chore to eat it, straggly and very tough no taste left on the fish. I bought it at safe way there. I've eaten it cooked /grilled and love it, but smoked way too lean IMO. Good luck.