Smoked Lingcod.....Back to the drawing board

[TomG]

Fillets in a 2 to1 brown sugar/kosher salt dry brine.


24 hours later meat has a soft "rubbery" consistency and is ready for the smoker.


"Cold" smoking for 2 1/2 hours at 65* with alder.



Cooking, 100*,125* for 1/2 hr,140* 2hrs, 170* 1hr.  Total cooking time 4hrs., fish IT 150*.


Finished product.



Looks good, smells great, but way too salty(under rinsed bacalhau) and so smokey it had a distinctively bitter taste. :'( :'(

Kummok, Manxman or anyone else with experince smoking white fleshed fish, suggestions, recommendations, etc. would be appreciated.

Cheers

[owrstrich]

that looks killer... i have become fond of the smoked fish recently... salty or not... still an inspiration...

im thinking fish jerky... kinda...

thanks for the photos...

owrstrich...

you gotta eat...

[Oldman]

TomG,

Just my 2-cents worth. IMO there is not enough oils / body fat in white meat so smoke.  Years ago I went around and around trying to smoke flounder.  Findly I gave up and said, where's my frying pan.

[MWS]

Tom,

I bet they would go great in a seafood chowder.

[bubbagump]

Sorry TG, I'm no help in this area, but I'm sitting here with an empty belly and those things look mighty fine. ;)

Bubbagump

[tsquared]

Tg-I've smoked alot of fish but not much white fish. 1 thing I've found with salmon is the fillets have to be absolutely dry, preferably with a bit of a shiny layer on them from drying. If there is any moisture on the surface at all, it tends to make the fish taste like something out of an ashtray. I'm not saying this is definately your difficulty but it is a possibility.
T2

[TomG]

If there is any moisture on the surface at all, it tends to make the fish taste like something out of an ashtray. .
T2

I agree T2. I dried this ling  in front of the same force 10 breeze I use to get a non sticky peillicle on salmon.  One thing I didn't do which I normally do  when salmon is pulled from the brine, is taste the fish for saltyness. A few times the salmon was too salty and the problem was remedied with fresh water rinsing. I was so anxious to get this batch in the smoker before the neighbors started opening threir windows, I forgot to check for saltyness.  My bad. :(

Mike, I was thinking fish stew and soup,  but a chowder would be perfect. Thanks.
Olds, luckly we saved a few fillets for the frying pan and they were super.

[manxman]

Manxman or anyone else with experince smoking white fleshed fish,

I have smoked a lot of whitefish (pollack, cod, haddock) but only coldsmoked to date, I have no plans to try hotsmoking at the moment although I do hotsmoke mackeral and salmon.

I brine the whitefish fillets in a roughly 80% brine immediately after filleting, I say roughly as I just use the floating egg test adding a bit more salt in stages until an egg floats in the mix.

Then it is chilled but I only put the (skinless) fillets in for between 30 and 60 minutes depending on fillet size. Fillets from a 5 - 8lb fish would be in at the lower end of the scale, filets from a 10-12lb fish at the top end of the scale, with a brief rinse and pat dry at the end. I find it is very easy to over brine whitefish and my earlier batches ended up way too salty.

I also got some professional advice from a local commercial smokehouse.

The fillets are then usually frozen, for some reason I have found this improves the end product.

Coldsmoking is done for about 6 - 8 hours, the end product is now consistently good and in great demand. The fillets are just cooked in the oven with whatever you want to add, a knob of butter and some black pepper is my favourite. :P

[Kummok]

Like T2, I'm not much help (yet!) on smoking cod cuz I haven't squeezed any in between the salmon. I plan to experiment with halibut and cod this winter, but other than tasting some VERY good smoked cod, I can't give experienced advice on how to smoke it. I've got a fishing buddy that lurks the forum occasionally....he's successfully smoked halibut and tuna. I'll bump him to his thread and see if he can get ya going.........(but ya gotta agree vote Republican in Nov to get the recipe  ;) ;D)

[TomG]

Manx, the next whitefish gets the Isle Rx.

I'll bump him to his thread and see if he can get ya going.........(but ya gotta agree vote Republican in Nov to get the recipe  ;) ;D)

Kummok, done! But do you think there're will be any left to vote for? ;D

[tsquared]

do you think there're will be any left to vote for?

Paging all Republicans! Paging all... err I should say CALLING all Republicans! :D
T2

[Kummok]

Kummok, done! But do you think there're will be any left to vote for? ;D

Man, I thought us Reps were to busy counting our capitolist cash to get involved with pages/interns. Are you sure he wasn't a closet Dem???!! ;) :D  Right now I think I'll lay low for a while and avoid using terms like "bump"  ;) ;D

do you think there're will be any left to vote for?

Paging all Republicans! Paging all... err I should say CALLING all Republicans! :D
T2

I don't reckon most politicians are answering ANY IMs at the moment.. ;) ;D

On the other hand, can you IMAGINE how many folks of EVERY political party are checking with their various cell carriers to see how to erase their message history?!?!!?  :o ;) ;D ;D

[TomG]

Paging all Republicans! Paging all... err I should say CALLING all Republicans! :D

HeeHeeHee :D

No worrys Kummok, or as M. Foley(RRRR-FL) would say,"I've got your back!" ;) ;D ;D ;D

[Chez Bubba]

 ;D ;D ;D

Kirk

[Kummok]

Too funny TG....but I still ain't gonna watch Brokeback Mounting with you ;) ;D

(P.S.  Sorry for late response....just got back today, from 4 day'r into the Great Alaskan Outback. A successful "expedition" bring back fresh Alaskan 'Silver Sage', some real fat Spruce Hens, and several pieces of diamond willow for a log stairway I'm building!)