BRADLEY SMOKER | "Taste the Great Outdoors"

sounds silly but is there a temperature that it should not go below to cold smoke im new to smoking and would like to try cold smoking trout
please help

I'm curious to what the answers will be.  My inclination is to say, there probably isn't any low limit, just common sense.  I'd say the colder, the less effective the smoking process will be.  Safety issues have to be addressed.  If your trout is cured, then very low is probably ok with proper sanitation, or if the trout is to be cooked after smoking.   I remember seeing three things over the years.  1. Big unheated smokehouses with small smokey fires to smoke country hams (had to be cold in there in the winter).  2.  Smokehouse plans where smoke supply is from a separate and remote fire and the smoke travels to the smokehouse through underground piping.  and 3.  The Iron Chef where Morimoto smokes some fish in a smoker carved out of a chunk of ice (Egg Nog Battle).

Marianski recommends 52 to 71 degrees F, but I know I've gone warmer, never had the opportunity to go colder.

I try to cold smoke between 70°F - 80°F. Lower temperatures the smoke penetration and adhesion effectiveness is reduced.

When cold smoking fish if you use the correct brine with the proper amount of salt (curing agent), and brine times you do not need a cure. Using a cure such as cure #1 will alter the taste of the fish.

I haven't cold smoked any fish, so I don't have any dry brine or wet brine recipes, but there are plenty reputable ones on  the web. You may also find these links useful.

Smoked Lox (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=103)

Cold Smoking Salmon (http://www.kasilofseafoods.com/Smoking/cold-smoked-lox.htm)

thanks for your replies going to try our first smoke tomorrow 16 trout fillets.
will keep you posted. going to bed to get ready for the big day.
kind regards
simbo

Just keep in mind that with the Bradley you don't have to apply the smoke for the whole period of time. Use about 1 - 3 hours of smoke; depending on your taste. Then hold the fish in the smoker at 70°F - 80°F until the fish has a glazed look to it. I would also keep the vent wide open.

Also the article on Cold Smoking Salmon does not mention about the pellicle being formed - this is allowing the surface of the fish to dry and become tacky; it aids in smoke penetration. This is an important step. For this recipe you can do that in one or two ways. You can air dry it uncovered in the refrigerator over night, or for a few hours at room temperature with fans circulating air over it. Or you can put it straight in the smoker, allow it to air dry until the pellicle is formed then start applying the smoke.

I did some cold smoked salmon this past week.    I did it like the video posted here showed.   The problem was to keep the temp in the smoker down to 50* and I couldn't quite do that.    Also it was smoke for 24 hrs, 8 with maple, 8 with cherry and 8 more with apple.   It turned out quite good IMO.

hi sorry to sound a bit thick but how do you keep the smoker at 70f to 80f without using the heater ( we have a digital 6 rack which will only go down to 120f) and the smoke generator will be off

kind regards

Don't turn on the heat in the tower, just the smoke generator.    Even with only that it might get a little warm.   I've got a cold smoke adapter and that will bring the temp in the smoke chamber to 75 - 80 degrees.

You could detach the generator to cold smoke, but depending on the ambient temperature you may not get the cabinet warm enough; without providing heat to the cabinet. Also with the digital you will still need to find a way to connect the sensor from the generator to the cabinet. Some have lengthen the sensor cord, and others have devised a resistor to plug into the generator.

You can search the The FAQ's (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=481) for information on the cold smoke setup.

With the generator attached, depending on the ambient temperature your cabinet may get beyond 80°F, in that case you may need to open the door occasionally to let some heat escape. Often placing ice in the cabinet will help keep the temperature down, but if you are looking at around a 12 hour cold smoke time or more, that would not seem practical.

Thanks Habanero Smoker will look and thanks for your quick replies
kind regards

Quote from: Habanero Smoker on February 23, 2010, 01:48:06 PM
You could detach the generator to cold smoke, but depending on the ambient temperature you may not get the cabinet warm enough; without providing heat to the cabinet. Also with the digital you will still need to find a way to connect the sensor from the generator to the cabinet. Some have lengthen the sensor cord, and others have devised a resistor to plug into the generator.

You can search the The FAQ's (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=481) for information on the cold smoke setup.

With the generator attached, depending on the ambient temperature your cabinet may get beyond 80°F, in that case you may need to open the door occasionally to let some heat escape. Often placing ice in the cabinet will help keep the temperature down, but if you are looking at around a 12 hour cold smoke time or more, that would not seem practical.

You don't have to connect the sensor to the tower with the Bradley cold smoke adapter.    The cold smoke adapter comes with a little plug that fools the generator and you don't get the E error message.

Hi Finished the first cold smoke with 16 trout sides with mixed success 13 came out great but the other 3 came out mushy.
Any ideas?

ps Thanks for all your help cant wait to get my choppers round it.
kind regards
simbo

Often when you use low temperatures to cook fish, most varieties can become mushy if not smoked/cooked long enough. If they came out mushy it is often because you did not take the fish to a high enough temperature. The Bradley does not smoke evenly so when I smoke fish, sausage, chicken parts; I always rotate the racks during cooking, and when finished I test several pieces in various areas of the tray for the correct internal meat temperature. Often there are always a few pieces that have to stay in longer the others. I generally move them to another tray, or just remove all the finished pieces leaving the other to finish cooking.


Edited:
Forget my above post. I've haven't been on for a few days, and forgot this is cold smoking. :-[  If they are mushy, they may not have cured properly. For example if you used a wet brine and those were on the bottom and you didn't overhaul that could interfer with the brining process.

Hi can i ask what do you mean by overhaul
thanks
simbo

Overhauling is slightly different depending on what type of curing you are doing. In this case you are wet brining. So overhauling will be redistributing and repositioning the fillets, what fillets that were on the bottom are move up towards the top. The interval of overhauling will depend on your curing times. This is to make sure that all areas of the meat are equally exposed to the brine. Also as you are repositioning the fish stir the brine up.

Another example would be while curing whole muscle using a dry cure, you would turn the meat over and any liquid in the container you should mix that up also. Least common use today, would be if you are curing a large piece of meat with a dry cure, you apply half the cure and let it cure for half the length of time, then apply the other half of the cure. Sometime the directions will instruct you to rinse the first batch of cure off before applying a second batch. You will still need the reposition the meat either daily or every other day.

The temperature needs to be 25c / 77f for an optimum 'cure'.  Below that and the thin acidic coating of the smoking process will not be sufficiently deeply infused into the fish, so you won't get the texture and the preserving qualities.  More info on smoking trout here: https://www.meretrout.com/history-of-smoked-fish/ (https://www.meretrout.com/history-of-smoked-fish/)