Talapia Experiment

[Tenpoint5]

One of the guys at work asked me if I would smoke some fish for him. It went something like this from that point:
Sure!

OK it's Talapia, I have a 4 pound bag of individually frozen fillets.

Talapia huh?? I ain't never smoked Talapia. Tell you what I'll do you bring it in and I will play with it some and see what I can come up with. I will only do a few to test and you can tell me if that's what your looking for.

Sounds good to me.

So begins the Talapia Experiment. After scratching my head some I figured why not go with Kummoks recipe for Salmon should be a good start.
I thawed out 6 fillets and cut them into strips. Here's one of them.



I had to do some modifications to the recipe for a much smaller batch. I will list Kummoks first then my modification:

1 gallon cold water = 1 quart cold water
1 quart soy sauce = 1/4 bottle soy sauce
1 cup pickling salt = 1/4 cup Kosher salt
2 lbs brown sugar = 1 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp garlic powder = 2 tsp garlic powder
3 Tbsp cayenne pepper = 2 tsp sriracha hot chili sauce

Once I had the brine mixed up in a zip lock bag. I put the fillets in and let them marinate for two hours in the fridge. I only went 2 hours since the fillets were rather thin. I didn't want them to get too salty, just pick up the flavors. After the two hour rest in the fridge I laid the pieces on my frog mats on top of inverted racks. Placed a fan off to the side and started drying the fish and forming the pellicle.



Since I am Experimenting here, I thought what the heck "Lets add some extra flavors". So on the smaller rack I put fresh cracked black pepper on a few pieces and a light dusting of Soileau's Bayou Blend Seasoning on a few of the pieces (That should kick it up a notch) sorry about the pic kinda fuzzy but you get the idea.



Will post more as this experiment continues!!

[KevinG]

Well, ok - don't blame me if he grows a third eye right in the middle of his forehead!

;D

Looks interesting, never tried talapia either.

[Wildcat]

This is going to be interesting.

I like Talapia and had tought of water, salt, and some lemon as a brine, then add pepper during the smoke phase.

[hal4uk]

I'll taste test the ones with Soileau's for ya!
That 2 hour brine was probably plenty - not just because of the size, but Salmon is slighly firmer-fleshed; I'd expect the tilapia to drink it up easier.

[Tenpoint5]

This experiment went sorta wrong. Wife got home from work and informed me that WE was going to see her Dad and Step Mother. I was waiting for the bacon I had in the smoker to finish up then was gonna put the fish in. I was overruled!! Bacon finished and fish went into the refrigerator. Looks like I will have to finish it up in the morning. Should have a good pellicle by then I'm guessing.

[Quarlow]

Dang I hate when those chicks put a veto on the smoker. How can they have the power of putting a blocker on good experimentation with smoke?

[hal4uk]

How can they have the power?

Q...  You're kidding?  Right?

[Ka Honu]

Sorry to have to be the bearer of sad tidings but tilapia is not food.

[Tenpoint5]

Sorry to have to be the bearer of sad tidings but tilapia is not food.

I agree but I didn't buy it.

It actually turned out pretty good. I didn't get any pictures of the fish coming out of the smoker I was in a hurry to go to a Sunday Meet and Greet. I will see what flavor the guy at work wants and will take some pictures of the final batch.

[BuyLowSellHigh]

There was an Asian market in Houston that had a huge live Tilapia tank in the store.  If you saw the tank, you wouldn't want anything from it.  But compared to some of the natural waters in densly populated Asia, it was probably an improvement (as poor as it was).

[Rainmaker]

Its not my favorite fish but it sure is easy to come by.  So, if this turns out, I might give it a try.  Look forward to hearing which one you liked best.

[hal4uk]

Heck, I like tilapia.  Not as much as turtle, of course...

[Kummok]

Sorry to have to be the bearer of sad tidings but tilapia is not food.

I'm kinda with Ka Honu on this one...except that I actually like the very mild flavor of talapia (then again, I like catfish/perch/bluegill/etc)...but I have always thought of talapia as the tofu of fish (fishfu??) Anxious to see how this comes out.....

[Ka Honu]

Heck, I like tilapia.  Not as much as turtle, of course...

Be very careful where you take this.

[Tenpoint5]

He said he liked the Pepper and the Cajun spice so I will do that for him here real soon.