albumin (white protein issue)

[arctic charlie]

Hi members, maybe one of you can help me?  I thought I let the arctic char dry on the rack long enough before smoking, enough to develop a sticky top,... I understand that's called a pellicle.

My bradley smoker only goes as low as 120oF, so I started off at that temperature, and now it's at 140oF,... when I switched temps, from 120 to 140, I noticed a whole bunch of the albumin on each piece.

Any reason why this happened?  This is only my 2nd time ever smoking, so help would be appreciated.  Thanks!

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi arctic Charlie;

Welcome to the forum.

I'm not familiar with artic char, but in most fish coagulated proteins are generally a result of cooking the meat with too much heat, and too fast. Also it can be due to that particular protein structure of that fish. Not all proteins coagulate at the same temperature. Generally it can be blotted off with some paper towels.

I'm not sure which model you were using, but if you don't have a temperature probe that you can monitor the cabinet temperature with, it will be well worth it to purchase one. The temperature sensor on the digital models, and the temperature gauge on the original models, are not located in to best place to monitor the cabinet temperature when it has a load. Also you may want to look into using a cold smoke setup, which detaches your generator from the smoker. That way the bisquettes burner is not adding additional heat to the cabinet.