going to try to smoke some flathead catfish

more smoke · January 06, 2008, 03:36:28 PM

next weekend im going to try to smoke some flathead. im new to the art of smoking, i bought obs and have already done some chicken and a butt & brisket. just thought i would ask if anyone had any tips for flathead (big catfish) and how well should i clean my obs?

Wildcat · January 06, 2008, 04:06:18 PM

Welcome to the forum.

Clean a BS? :o :D Only parts of it my friend. Door seal area, where the vent slides open and closed, racks, etc. NEVER the interior cabinet walls.

more smoke · January 06, 2008, 05:51:45 PM

thanks for the info on cleaning . as for the flathead i did buy some hi mountain gourmet fish brine mix with maple sugar from bass pro says cook to an internal temp of 155 to 160 didn't know if it would be the same in a obs? i would like to try something with lemonpepper as well. thanks for all your help

Gizmo · January 06, 2008, 08:08:22 PM

Good thing you mentioned catfish. I was thinking if you smoked a flathead, you would be doing grinding, porting, and polishing. :D

Check out the Kummok Smoked Salmon. You might find the smoking process to work well on most fish.

more smoke · January 10, 2008, 03:51:21 PM

I just put my flathead fish in my brine. I gotta thinking there is't any skin on the fish. Just wondering if the fish will stay together or is going to fall apart like i think it will?

Gizmo · January 10, 2008, 11:33:31 PM

Brine will usually firm fish up a bit. It should stay together until it gets cooked at which time it will flake apart.

Habanero Smoker · January 11, 2008, 02:28:13 AM

If you have a lot of sugar in your brine the fish may stick to the racks, and if you are going to smoke/cook to 155°F - 160°F you may some problems of it falling apart when you are taking them off the racks. It's best to remove them from the racks immediately. Also I generally only take my fish up to 145°F.

more smoke · January 17, 2008, 08:03:15 AM

:( Fish didn't turn out so great oh well. Next time I try fish I buy some salmon and use kummok's recipe. Thanks for all the info you can find on this forum :) im sure glad I bought bradley smoker and came to this forum. Read about the PID and just got done ordering all the stuff hope to put it all together this weeked if it all comes in. I'm going to try putting it in the the smoke generator like some I have seen unless anyone thanks it's a bad idea.

Mr Walleye · January 17, 2008, 09:22:59 AM

Although I think putting it in the generator is a very clean installation the only thing I can think of is if you setup for cold smoking you will be limited by the length of the TC coming from the generator. Mind you, you will usually not require the main heating element in a cold smoking situation either.

Mike