Smokin Bradleys

[JZ]

Time to get some fish out of the freezer for smoking. They look a little freezer burned so I will trim off the burned parts. It has only been 2 months since we got back from our fishing trip. :o

]

Here they are all cut up into slices and just before the brine is added.

]

In the brine and ready for a long soak overnight.

]

Sitting on the bench on the workshop with a fan going to get the pellicle. There are 4 more racks on another bench with a second fan on them. For a total of 10 racks.

]

All 10 racks in the 2 Bradleys with smoke rolling.

]

A pic of the racks in the OBS ... I was having problems with the fish in this smoker and I figured out what the issues were after I was finished. Too late. :(

]

And here they are out of the smokers ... one of my grandsons was spending the night and he couldn't keep his hands off ... good for him. :)

]

The problems were ; 1) did not allow enough time for a good pellicle to form and got boogers like you wouldn't believe, 2) I put the PID probe at the top of the cab and because of that the bottom was getting overheated, even with 2 fans running. This caused boogers at the back of the cab to burn onto the drip pan and the smoke from that burn was of course getting into the fish. Some of the fish that was in the OBS was very dry and I will likely give it away. Probably going to make another batch and hopefully not make the same mistakes again. ::)

[mikecorn.1]

Nice view you got there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[muebe]

Quite a load of fish there!

It is best to start at a low temp and progress up higher over the smoke time to avoid fatting out the fish. Also placement of the temp probe at the lowest rack is ideal.

With the load you got there it probably did not matter losing a few filets ;)

[JZ]

All wrapped up.
]

and labelled.
]

After a rest in the fridge overnight the fish was better. Some was still a little dry but tasted good so it got sealed up for future use.

Muebe. I ran both smokers at 120 for 2 hours then stepped up to 140 for 3 hrs then to 175. The fish in the DBS was from 4 racks that were dried in a different set up than the 6 in the OBS and they seemed to dry better and had a better pellicle on them. Very little booger drippings in the DBS. The OBS was a totally different story and I am pretty sure that most of the problem was placing the PID probe at the top of the cab instead of below the bottom rack. The fish in the OBS was fatting out during the 120 drying period - I should have clued in then  ::). I'm gonna blame it on a combination of old age a too many adult beverages ... mostly old age. ;)

[beefmann]

gotta love the view

[SouthernSmoked]

Niiiice!!

[Smoker John]

very nice