Northwest Fishing Reports

My amazing and beautiful wife gave me a Masterbuilt digital smoker for my birthday this weekend . I have been using a Little Chief for 25 years and it has just worn out. I did a batch in the new smoker this weekend (Chinook, Sockeye, Laker and humpie) ...... basically cleaned out the freezer. I think I cooked to high, the fish developed white stuff on the surface. I was always told this was protein that has been cooked out of the meat and it was too hot. I was at 165deg . what have you found your preferred temp to be. Anyone have this smoker that can give me some tips?

Actually it sounds like you had too much fish in the smoker. There should be enough space so the smoke can penetrate all the way through.

Had plenty of room. only used 3 of the 4 racks.

...

I smoke about 150 pounds of fish every fall and am just getting ready to start this years batch. I have a bradly smoker and love it. After an all night brine an early morning rinse I lay the fish skin side down on a towel with a fan blowing across them for two to three hours. After a sticky glaze forms on the flesh, I put them in the smoker (no smoke yet) at 85 to 95 degrees for about 45 mins. then I start the smoke and turn the heat up to no more then 110 degrees for about 1 1/2 hour I increase the heat 10 degrees every hour until the fish is just starting to flake. Remember it will continue to dry out a little after coming out of the smoker. I have found that the low temps at the beginning helps cut down on the white stuff but I can't seem to get rid of it all together.

I'm a little late here but I have the same Masterbuilt smoker. The only problems I have with it is keeping it smoking at lower temperatures and the back corners of the racks get hotter than the middle of the racks. It is great for chicken, pork chops and ribs.
I haven't tried salmon in it yet, works good for smoke cooking trout though. I have always used charcoal for salmon and when its has gotten too hot the the fat melts out of it.
The cold smoking kit ($60) that you can get for it works great if you want the smoke but no heat.

The only issue with the Masterbuilt Smokers are their ability to ventilate out all of the moisture generated when it's packed full of fish/meat. I do salmon and trout quite often in the smoker, just don't fill up all the racks if you don't want a steam smoked product.

HereToFish wrote:I'm a little late here but I have the same Masterbuilt smoker. The only problems I have with it is keeping it smoking at lower temperatures and the back corners of the racks get hotter than the middle of the racks.

One thing you can do to help with that is rotate your racks top to bottom, front to back mid-way through the smoke/cook process. I always do this when I smoke ribs or fish and get a consistent result.

hewesfisher wrote:

HereToFish wrote:I'm a little late here but I have the same Masterbuilt smoker. The only problems I have with it is keeping it smoking at lower temperatures and the back corners of the racks get hotter than the middle of the racks.

One thing you can do to help with that is rotate your racks top to bottom, front to back mid-way through the smoke/cook process. I always do this when I smoke ribs or fish and get a consistent result.

I have been putting the thickest part of the meat at the back, or when smoking chicken the legs and thighs go to the back.

G-Man wrote:The only issue with the Masterbuilt Smokers are their ability to ventilate out all of the moisture generated when it's packed full of fish/meat. I do salmon and trout quite often in the smoker, just don't fill up all the racks if you don't want a steam smoked product.

I have use mine a couple of times with the door cracked open just a little to let the heat out so the burner will turn on more and burn the wood chips at lower temps. Doing this may also let the moisture out if you wanted a dry smoke, I didn't so I had apple juice in the water pan. Use dry wood chips as well to not add any extra moisture.

HereToFish wrote:I have been putting the thickest part of the meat at the back, or when smoking chicken the legs and thighs go to the back.

I've tried that too, but rotating racks works better for me and I can load racks without concern for how they'll sit in the smoker. When I've got a full load in my Bradley, it's 8 racks. I smoke for the first 3 - 4hrs and "cook" for 6 - 7 at 135° time for both varies on tray density.

I bought a Masterbuilt smoker a year ago. I don't like it at all. I went out and bought a new Big Chief smoker. In the Masterbuilt I could only get smoke when cooking on high. Lil Chief worked great all my life.

I've had a little chief for years but got tired of the slow drying time in the winter so got a master built.
But I agree with heretofish. Crack the door so moisture can escape . This also allows for more smoke.
As far as the white stuff. I seem to have more of it come from my Lake Wenatchee sockeye than any other fish. My little chief will also produce the white stuff.

Lingking wrote:My amazing and beautiful wife gave me a Masterbuilt digital smoker for my birthday this weekend . I have been using a Little Chief for 25 years and it has just worn out. I did a batch in the new smoker this weekend (Chinook, Sockeye, Laker and humpie) ...... basically cleaned out the freezer. I think I cooked to high, the fish developed white stuff on the surface. I was always told this was protein that has been cooked out of the meat and it was too hot. I was at 165deg . what have you found your preferred temp to be. Anyone have this smoker that can give me some tips?

That is exactly what happened. The meat temp got real close to or just over the boiling point and it has forced a little water with protein out of the fillets.
To keep this to a minimum make sure you have a good pellicle on the fish before putting it in the smoker (sometimes it takes me 24 hr if I don't have a fan on it) and keep the temp a little lower. If you can, start them out as low as you can for a few hours then bring the temp up to around 160. Once the meat gets to around 160 it will stop picking up any smoke flavor.

PS this is not conjecture.

When I turned the temp down the smoking chip pan did not produce smoke till I cranked up the heat.

racfish wrote:When I turned the temp down the smoking chip pan did not produce smoke till I cranked up the heat.

i have the same issue with my masterbuilt. i've had mine for 3 years and have tried everything to keep the smoke up and temp down. still havent found a happy medium. i'm thinking come tax time i'll eyeballing a bradley or something similar. although i can hot smoke with my masterbuilt and get some good tasting salmon (the relatives love it), i personally prefer the flavor & texture of good long cold smoked fish.

spokey9 wrote:

racfish wrote:When I turned the temp down the smoking chip pan did not produce smoke till I cranked up the heat.

i have the same issue with my masterbuilt. i've had mine for 3 years and have tried everything to keep the smoke up and temp down. still havent found a happy medium. i'm thinking come tax time i'll eyeballing a bradley or something similar. although i can hot smoke with my masterbuilt and get some good tasting salmon (the relatives love it), i personally prefer the flavor & texture of good long cold smoked fish.

Find and external stand alone smoke generator. Only use the heating element for heating the box. You'll have one bad@ss smoker setup.

This is one reason I went with a Traeger, you get smoke over a broader range of heat and the temps are more consistant in the cooking chamber. BUT it does not get as low as I'd like, though they do have the cold smoke kit for it that I'd like to pick up. I had a Brinkman bullet smoker but it was so hard to regulate the temperature and always ended up cooking the fish not smoking it, I finally gave up on it and went with the Traeger.

Get one of these for making smoke. You can use just about anything as a smoker then

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/produc ... let-smoker

Bodofish wrote:

spokey9 wrote:

racfish wrote:When I turned the temp down the smoking chip pan did not produce smoke till I cranked up the heat.

i have the same issue with my masterbuilt. i've had mine for 3 years and have tried everything to keep the smoke up and temp down. still havent found a happy medium. i'm thinking come tax time i'll eyeballing a bradley or something similar. although i can hot smoke with my masterbuilt and get some good tasting salmon (the relatives love it), i personally prefer the flavor & texture of good long cold smoked fish.

Find and external stand alone smoke generator. Only use the heating element for heating the box. You'll have one bad@ss smoker setup.

My masterbuilt works great this way. I use their cold smoking kit (for $60) as my smoke generator and use the burner in the smoker just to keep the smoker warm. I don't even plug the smoker in if I want the temp below 100.