A friend of mine is fascinated by my Bradley, and has asked whether I have ever smoke fish.
I have not.
He came back with the fact that he has caught some nice crappies this summer and implies that he'd like me to try them in the smoker.
I have always thought of oily, larger fish as "smokable"...
Would such a delicate fish, as a crappie lend itself to smoking?
If I had a mess of crappie I would fillet and pan-fry....delicious.
Any thoughts, gang?
you will find there won't be a lot of recipes for smoking crappie since they aren't oily like a salmon or trout so they dry out really easy.
I belong to a forum where a fellow smoked them at 220deg for about 30 min in apple and hickory chips in an electric smoker. Basically a fast hot smoke, cooking them at the same time. He rubbed a little extra virgin olive oil top and bottom, spread butter all over the bottom of some foil, seasoned both sides of the crappie. As he stuck them in the smoker he made a TP with foil over the crappie so the smoke can get in but not dry out the fish. He said they came out perfect.
(http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/content/type/61/id/27177/width/836/height/500)
Many thanks,
My friend and I have agreed that smoking crappie is worth a try, but not as fillets.
Rather, we'll do them whole, as Northern Waters smokes whitefish.
What can it hurt?
http://www.northernwaterssmokehaus.com/
Thanks for dissuading us from smoking fillets...