White curds

[West Coast Kansan]

A stick about a 1/4 inch in diameter will hold the door open just a bit to help with the temp going up too fast (vent open of coarse). There will still be plenty of smoke with the door cracked.  Once you go to the 140 tower temp target you should be ok with just the puck burner going. I think we are still at about 65 degrees in No County. I could not keep the temp down below 100 degrees at 65 degrees the last time I tried a cold smoke. Just not enough ice in San Diego.  Will need to set up the box thing discussed on the forum next time I try a cold smoke. Anyway saw your post and will think about you as I carve this loin, pop a beer and watch the sell out on TV.

[Jeb]

I cut my fish into strips just as you guys do.  I have never tried a whole fillet; I want more brine in contact with the fish.

TomG those are some great pictures, I really like the drying rack and will defiantly have to build one.  The pictures of your end product are good ones, I like the comparisons. 

I'm going fishing for silvers next weekend so I will have some fish to try all the suggestion everyone has given.  I'm definitely going to bleed the fish upon landing it along with TomG's suggestion about how long to brine the fish.  I also think I wasn't letting the fish dry long enough prior to smoking.  Thanks everyone for your input and suggestion and I'll let you know how the next batch turns out..

Jeb

[Gizmo]

Pulled the salmon off at 5AM this morning.  Had a few pieces along the way.  ;)  Yumm.  No white curds, buggers or anything objectionable.  Low temps, strips and good brining probably all play a part as suggested above.  Kummok, the flavor was aaaaaaaawsome.  I'll post some pictures if anyone can suggest was the best size (file size) to post in.

Still have one question for the seasoned BSers, not sure if there are any seasoned yet with the digital being so new.  When using the temperatures posted on the site and the recepie site, are they referring to the ambient air temperature in floating around the food, the set temperature on the DBS display, or the oven temperature on the DBS display?  The oven temperature on the DBS display is always much higher than what I measure with an external digital hanging in free space near the food.