Northwest Fishing Reports

Last summer we picked up a "Brinkmann Gourmet Electric Smoker Grill". Nothing fancy and it did a decent job if you were paying attention to it.

For Christmas we upgraded to a "Masterbuilt Stainless w/ window".

We have done Chicken Legs/Wing - SuperBowl
Beef Strips
London Broil
Roast
Chicken Breast

Salmon is next

This new smoker rocks, having temp control makes all the difference but Im still having some issues Im not sure how to control.

It seems that sometimes, especially with chicken, the meat darkens alot when smoked and sometimes it doesnt. I figgure this has something to do with the humidity in the smoker and the amount of smoke contained inside.

I like to pre-heat the smoker first
Open top vent fully
Add food
Add half tray wood chips

I'll then add more chips later if needed.

There is nothing wrong with the taste but the presentation leaves alot to be desired sometimes.

Any ideas on how to avoid the color change?

Im wanting to get this right before I blow to much money experimenting.

Smokers are always a pain.Like you ,you must get used to the new smoker and figure it out experimenting on game.I one took an old porcelain refer and made a smoker.It was good,till every rat and its cousin came by,going for the drippings.I too have a Brinkman barrell style smoker.I love it.I use fresh wood ,usually apple,plum,cherry,maple,and alder.Ive been doing my weekend ribs on it since my Traeger Died.Its under waranty but thats another joke story.I really find the best smoker for fish is my Lil Chief Smoker.I know it.I know how long to smoke and been using them along time.Its really a great machine.Fish and game go in the Lil Chief.Ribs beer can chickens in the Brinkman.

RaMc,
Humidity plays a big role in coloring the skin and the meat. More humidity can turn the meat brown or black. For a nice smoked flavor you really have to use a very small amout of smoke. Most of the flavor is in the spices and slow cooking. Before putting the meat in the smoker, make sure it's dry on the outside. I will leave the meat uncovered in the fridg for around 24 before putting it in the smoker.

we built a smoker out of clear 1x4 tounge and groove cedar four foot square by eight foot tall with five stainless steel racks in it. we had a old pot bellied stove that we piped in and let me tell you that thing would smoke fish. the only bad thing was you had to feed the fire all day.

im looking for a cold smoking attachment for my traeger so i can cold smoke my fish cheese and sausages, ralph sorry to hear of your traeger hope they come through for you they have been great for me. :chef:











:viking:

Yea, on the Brinkman I would put the chicken breast on the bottom rack, center, over the water bowl. The chicken never discolored. I guess more trial an error is needed to find the sweet spot Honey just picked up 3 racks of pork ribs

Ok, I have to love this thread. Not because it seems there are so many problems, but because misery loves company.

Can I join in?

All right, I don't have your smokers; mine is an all electric semi commercial unit called the TEXAN. It can smoke up 10 racks of ribs at a time or a couple full turkeys if needed. It has a stable temperature control that runs from 150 degrees to 350 degrees.

Needless to say, it works very well, but as with everything there are limits. For example, it uses wood chunks to smoke, not chips or flakes, not biscuits, not sawdust, but chunks. CHUNKS DON'T SMOKE VERY WELL AT THE LOWER SETTING. I solved that by placing a small metal grate on the heater coils and use the chips on that.

I have learned that the "color" depends on several things.

1) If the meat is near the top of the smoker, the color is darker.
2) If the wood chunks have bark on them, the smoke is slightly bitter and the color is darker.
3) If the humidity is higher outside or artificially increased inside with a water source, the meet color difference is even greater, i.e., the meat on top gets darker then normal and the meat on the bottom stays even lighter.
4) The type of wood makes a huge difference in the color. Hickory darkens the meat more then White Oak, less then Pecan, a little more than Apple, Cherry, or Alder.
5) Adding a single charcoal bricket to the wood bin seems to add a special flavor that adds a lot of POP. DO NOT USE THE SELF LIGHTING TYPE WITH FLUID IN IT.

Now note that my smoker might not behave like yours does, but I hope that my many hours of enjoyable, but expensive, experimentation might be of some help.

Now, I think I will set back and see if you have an idea that will help me.

Saturday I smoked a few pounds of skinless salmon.

I used this recipe from MasterBuilt for Sweet Smoked Salmon. I changed a few things though.

I split the salmon into 3 pieces so I could see the difference it would make when using different racks. The marinade recipe makes enough for multiple smokings. I used half but could have used less.

Salted the salmon before I went to bed, 9:00pm. Rinsed the salt off about 5:00am when I got up.

Marinade salmon from 5:00am Friday until 7:30 Sat morning when it went into the preheated smoker until 12:30 @ 140 deg. Top vent 100% open. Wood = Apple.

The filet on the bottom rack, which was 2 inches above the water, was moist and had a lighter flavor that the other two filets. It was promptly eaten for lunch. The one on the top rack had a much more pronounced marinade flavor, (upper filet, pic) smoke flavor and was quite a bit dryer. Perfect for cream cheese and crackers. The piece in the middle is dry like the top piece but had a lighter smoke flavor. (bottom filet, pic)

Next time I use this recipe, Im going to rinse one piece after the marinade, before smoking it. The coating the marinade leaves is a bit bold for some of the family members.

RaMcVey wrote:Saturday I smoked a few pounds of skinless salmon.

I used this recipe from MasterBuilt for Sweet Smoked Salmon. I changed a few things though.

I split the salmon into 3 pieces so I could see the difference it would make when using different racks. The marinade recipe makes enough for multiple smokings. I used half but could have used less.

Salted the salmon before I went to bed, 9:00pm. Rinsed the salt off about 5:00am when I got up.

Marinade salmon from 5:00am Friday until 7:30 Sat morning when it went into the preheated smoker until 12:30 @ 140 deg. Top vent 100% open. Wood-Apple.

The filet on the bottom rack, which was 2 inches above the water, was moist and had a lighter flavor that the other two filets. It was promptly eaten for lunch. The one on the top rack had a much more pronounced marinade flavor, (upper filet, pic) smoke flavor and was quite a bit dryer. Perfect for cream cheese and crackers. The piece in the middle is dry like the top piece but had a lighter smoke flavor. (bottom filet, pic)

Next time I use this recipe, Im going to rinse one piece after the marinade, before smoking it. The coating the marinade leaves is a bit bold for some of the family members.

Looks like some mighty fine eating there! You may want to rotate your racks while smoking so all your fish turn out uniform in taste and texture. That seems to work for me with my Bradley.

OH now thats just prurdy,




tasty looking, damm nice job. :chef:





:viking:

VHMLLC wrote:OH now thats just prurdy,

tasty looking, damm nice job. :chef:

:viking:

Thanks The Pork Ribs on Sunday didnt turn out quite as nice, or tasty though.

RaMcVey,

Very nice lookin smoked salmon! I can't wait for Pink Salmon season to get here. I love smokin pinks from Puget Sound. Here is a pic of the smoker & brine I use, and some finished product from last Pink Salmon season 2007. I've tried many store bought and homemade brine and in my opinion none come close to the Luhr Jensen brine you get at the store for 3 bucks. Good eats!

RaMcVey wrote:Saturday I smoked a few pounds of skinless salmon.

I used this recipe from MasterBuilt for Sweet Smoked Salmon. I changed a few things though.

I split the salmon into 3 pieces so I could see the difference it would make when using different racks. The marinade recipe makes enough for multiple smokings. I used half but could have used less.

Salted the salmon before I went to bed, 9:00pm. Rinsed the salt off about 5:00am when I got up.

Marinade salmon from 5:00am Friday until 7:30 Sat morning when it went into the preheated smoker until 12:30 @ 140 deg. Top vent 100% open. Wood = Apple.

The filet on the bottom rack, which was 2 inches above the water, was moist and had a lighter flavor that the other two filets. It was promptly eaten for lunch. The one on the top rack had a much more pronounced marinade flavor, (upper filet, pic) smoke flavor and was quite a bit dryer. Perfect for cream cheese and crackers. The piece in the middle is dry like the top piece but had a lighter smoke flavor. (bottom filet, pic)

Next time I use this recipe, Im going to rinse one piece after the marinade, before smoking it. The coating the marinade leaves is a bit bold for some of the family members.

In an attempt to keep up with Mr. RaMcVey I decided to do a bacon draped smoked pork loin for dinner in my Bradley. It tasted as good as it looks.

stampie wrote: In an attempt to keep up with Mr. RaMcVey I decided to do a bacon draped smoked pork loin for dinner in my Bradley. It tasted as good as it looks.

:chef: Nice. What wood did you use? Temp... time???

RaMcVey wrote:

stampie wrote: In an attempt to keep up with Mr. RaMcVey I decided to do a bacon draped smoked pork loin for dinner in my Bradley. It tasted as good as it looks.

:chef: Nice. What wood did you use? Temp... time???

:bom: The smoked pork was half of a nine-pound pork loin that cooked for 7 hours at about 200° using Bradley's Special Blend bisquetts.

Hey Smokin Gurus
For smoking fish, I use Alder wood Chips I get from http://www.justsmokedsalmon.com/index.htm. (no affiliation)
I just got in an order of "3" 20# bags alder chips, my second order from them.
Use a Big Chief Smoker, use Hickory, Meskete(sp) for the red meats unless I want a MILD smoke flavor, then I use the Alder.
Check out the website above, lots of "smokin" info there.
Had a workplace pot-luck to go to and took some of the RW Tripps (smoked). Platter licked clean.
Smoke on, and enjoy.

Wow, nice lookin smoked fish all. The pork loin also looks amazing. I can't wait to smoke some Puget Sound pinks this coming season.

I'm getting really hungry!
Hey Lewis, Very nice looking smoke job on the RW trout & you plated it so nicely. Did I hear you correctly when you said that you also do catering? Did you smoke them skin side up or down?

Hey Big D
Catering, "In someone elses dream".:geek:

I don't smoke the RW tripps with the skin on anymore. I used to smoke them with with skin on and would turn them as I smoked them.
When finished, I would pull the skin, scrape the dark (cooked) fatty tissue from the skin side of the fillet. One side would be darker than the other, and the smoke flavor wouldn't be uniform on the fillet. Some folks claim to like the flavor the dark skin-side fatty tissue imparts to the finished produce, but me and mine favor the flavor without the skin. What I do is remove the skin from the fillet, and shave the dark fatty tissue from the fillet. A realy, realy sharp fillet knife makes this easy to do. I found the preped fillets take the brine more evenly, And when I take them out of the brine, I pull the pin bones. When I throw them in the smoker, I'll turn them once they have gotten brown on the bottom. This helps keep all the "juices from dripping out of the fillet while the smoke job is completed. I try to keep the heat in the 150-165 degree range, but find it diffucult in the "Cold" temps. Have made an insulated frame for the smoker to sit in, and this helps. To get the "Gourmet" results takes extra work, but I find it well worth the trouble.
Thanks to all for sharing pics and details on their experiences.

blufin loui wrote:Hey Big D
Catering, "In someone elses dream".:geek:

I don't smoke the RW tripps with the skin on anymore. I used to smoke them with with skin on and would turn them as I smoked them.
When finished, I would pull the skin, scrape the dark (cooked) fatty tissue from the skin side of the fillet. One side would be darker than the other, and the smoke flavor wouldn't be uniform on the fillet. Some folks claim to like the flavor the dark skin-side fatty tissue imparts to the finished produce, but me and mine favor the flavor without the skin. What I do is remove the skin from the fillet, and shave the dark fatty tissue from the fillet. A realy, realy sharp fillet knife makes this easy to do. I found the preped fillets take the brine more evenly, And when I take them out of the brine, I pull the pin bones. When I throw them in the smoker, I'll turn them once they have gotten brown on the bottom. This helps keep all the "juices from dripping out of the fillet while the smoke job is completed. I try to keep the heat in the 150-165 degree range, but find it diffucult in the "Cold" temps. Have made an insulated frame for the smoker to sit in, and this helps. To get the "Gourmet" results takes extra work, but I find it well worth the trouble.
Thanks to all for sharing pics and details on their experiences.

Your killin me! Wow, that looks pretty darn good!