Picked up a Bradley yesterday. Couple of questions

[Scott The Primate]

Greeting from Ontario.

I do a lot of cooking and bbq, but have never used a smoker. I seasoned it yesterday and was going to start experimenting today, saving ribs, ABTs and a brisket for a party I'm having Friday.

I'm having a hard time finding instructions on cooking non-brined fish in this smoker. I'm not interested (today) in making a traditional smoked salmon (like a lox). I just wanted to use the smoker with a filet of salmon or char or something for dinner tonight. I'll probably marinate it for a couple of hours and was trying to find a cooking time.

I know the brined style can take 4-6 hours or so, but what if I'm just roasting it, while using smoke?

I hope that makes sense.

Cheers everyone. Nice community.  :D

[GusRobin]

Welcome

i am not a fish person so someone should be along that knows more. But here is a link to the recipe site that may help in the meantime.
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?180-Our-Time-Tested-and-Proven-Recipes

[ragweed]

I smoke/cook Arctic Char in my Bradley.  I sprinkle on some powdered ginger and powdered garlic with a dash of salt and dill weed.  Coat the skin side with olive oil.  Pre-heat to 225 - 230 F.  Place filets in "little foil boats", skin side down and smoke/cook using special blend or alder pucks for about 1 1/2 hours.  We love it!

BTW...welcome to the forum from Nebraska!

[TedEbear]

In addition to the recipe site you might browse through the Fish forum area on here for some ideas.

[tskeeter]

Scott, take this for what it is worth.  I've never smoked an unbrined fish in a Bradley.  But, I don't think that it would make a lot of difference whether the fish was brined or not.  The reason the "cook" time is so long is because the Bradley cooks at a much lower temperature than your home oven.

Thinking about brined fish and cooking, I think you need to consider these factors.  Dry cooking methods, such as roasting or smoking, are mostly about removing moisture from what you are cooking.  (Cooking off the moisture allows the temperature of the product to increase and will cause the texture of meat products to firm up.)  A wet brined fish will probably contain more moisture than an unbrined fish.  A dry brined fish will probably contain less moisture than an unbrined fish.  The more moisture the fish contains, the longer it should take to cook.  But I don't believe the time difference would be terribly significant.  I'm thinking variation of 15 - 30 minutes depending on how the fish was prepared for cooking.

To reduce the cook time you could use a combination of your smoker and your oven.  Smoke the fish, then transfer to the oven to finish cooking at a higher temperature.  Several forum members use this technique to get the smoke flavor, but complete the cooking in a shorter period of time.

Another consideration is food safety.  You don't want to keep the fish between 40 degrees and 140 degrees any longer than necessary.  This temperature range is the optimal growth temperature for bacteria.  The rule of thumb often cited is to not allow food to stay in the danger zone for more than four hours.  But shorter is better.  And for fish, you should cook the fish to an internal temperature of 140 degrees.  Note that it is common practice for many folks to remove the food from the cooker when it has gotten to within about 5 degrees of the final internal temperature, for example 135 degrees.  A certain amount of carry over cooking takes place while the food is "resting" for five or 10 minutes while you set the table, etc.  As the temperature of the food evens out throughout the piece of food, the temperature of the thickest part of the food, where you are measuring the internal temperature, will come up to the appropriate temperature.  By the way, part of the purpose of brining, in addition to flavoring, is food preservation.  Bacteria doesn't multiply well in a high salt environment, so brining in a salt solution helps preserve what you brined. 

[beefmann]

welcome aboard and enjoy,,, I am unable to advise you  on the fish,, while the others have you  pointed in the right direction

[Scott The Primate]

Thanks for the replies. I Couldn't wait on the ABTs, so there's some of them in there. And some sausages...and some tomatoes....You can see where this is headed   :P

I ended up getting rainbow trout fillets that I've got marinating in a maple syrup and chili flake mix, salt / pepper, etc.

One final question: It's a little chilly and windy today, so I've got the vent mostly closed to keep the heat up. it's staying around 210 at the moment. What's the vent setting normally, is it bad to keep it too closed? Is there a drawback to this?

Thanks everyone. I'm already in love with this thing.

EDIT: I make my own bacon, cheeses and grow a variety of mushrooms. This is going to be a great summer having a smoker.

[destrouk]

Hey mate if you have any bricks around cover with Tin foil heat in oven throw in bradley will help kick the temp up you have to leave the grate open due to the moisture in the smoke but I have left mine open 1/2 way before and not had issues even just a crack for a couple of hours just to help regulate the temp . 

[KyNola]

Open your vent!  Having it closed down traps the moisture inside and holds the temps down in the tower.  It will also make the smoke start backing up into your smoke generator, thereby destroying it.  I took the vent off of mine.