Smoking Fish

We had some luck fishing the other day so I decided to have my first crack at smoking fish. Bullet smokers like mine have a bad reputation for being too hot, but the way I use it with my home made smoker pucks this does not appear to be a problem in the least. I still have not installed my new thermometer so I do not know exactly what the temps are like in there, but I do know that when I keep the door closed my meats do not get an internal temperature anywhere near done, even after 3 or 4 hours of smoking. In fact, with the door closed I get a constant smolder without even having to add wet chips most of the time. And with smoking fish these low temperatures are required.

When I want to kick up the temperature to finish something off to a fully cooked state right in the smoker instead of on the grill, I just open the door and use a hair dryer as a bellows to kick up the heat. Of course you have to remove the foot first before doing that, otherwise you will get it covered in ashes.

Most commercial smoked fish you get has been salted pretty heavily, and while I did want some salt I did not want nearly that much. I used the same salting technique as in the home made luncheon meat I did the videos for recently, but had no idea how long to leave it in the fridge so I went for a very conservative 45 minutes. Based on the results from that experiment I'd guess I could leave it for 90 to 120 minutes and get about what I'm looking for in terms of saltiness.