Extreme Shark Smoking Discussion

arsenix · Jul 19, 2012

Hello! I have constructed a custom made 12' smoker which I plan to use to smoke a whole shark. The shark will be approximately 10-12' long, and weigh around 300-400 lbs. I am trying to estimate how long something like this will take to smoke, and I can't find any similar efforts documented anywhere. If anyone can give me an estimate I would greatly appreciate it!

James

daveomak · Jul 20, 2012

James, morning and welcome to the forum.... Please stop into "roll call" and introduce yourself... knowing your experience and location can help our members better answer your questions in the future...

About the shark.... How are you planning on preparing the fish.... It should probably be skinned and sliced into steaks maybe 2" thick for time and temp safety considerations..... other than that, I don't know what you could do with it to prepare a safe consumable product.... Maybe someone who has experience with a fish that large could provide some information for you.....

I'm not much help here, sorry.... Dave

whittling chip · Jul 20, 2012

You definetly want to skin the shark because they urinate through their skin. I would cut them into 2" steaks and smoke them.

I'll be going out this week and if I can get something over 54" I will be smoking it. (Unless I catch a black tip, no size limits).

WC

jirodriguez · Jul 20, 2012

Only shark I have caught was a 6 ft. blue shark, and we had it cut into fillets, which we then marinaded in mango salsa and grilled over charcoal to make shark mango fajitas! Mmmmm!

moikel · Jul 21, 2012

Got a few sharks down here but we only eat little guys.Gummy shark a favourite in the south. The big guys accumulate mercury & often have an ammonia smell. Cant really get my head around how you are going to cook it through. Have you eaten a lot of shark before this?

cliffcarter · Jul 22, 2012

arsenix said:
Hello! I have constructed a custom made 12' smoker which I plan to use to smoke a whole shark. The shark will be approximately 10-12' long, and weigh around 300-400 lbs. I am trying to estimate how long something like this will take to smoke, and I can't find any similar efforts documented anywhere. If anyone can give me an estimate I would greatly appreciate it!

James

Right... so are you gonna skin that bad boy first? There aren't any similar efforts to be found I'm sure. I don't know about the others who have responded but I doubt that you intend to smoke anything, what you are proposing to do is preposterous.

arsenix · Jul 31, 2012

I assure you this is no joke.

Pictures:

Before sheet metal covering:

Almost completed with winch to open:

Sorry for the poor quality, click the links for full size views. It has a crank winch to open the top, and will be mounted to a trailer today. Cooking surface is 32" by 12 feet.

daveomak · Jul 31, 2012

James, morning..... WOW.... That baby is cool..... Does the top lift out of the way to get to the fish after cooking ?? You have got to take lots of pics from start to finish...... Are you shootin' for a Guinness World Record too ??

There has to be more to this than meets the eye....

..... this ain't no "one time deal" I wouldn't think..... but then, sometimes when I think, my head hurts..... Dave

arsenix · Jul 31, 2012

The intent is to host an annual shark smoke every summer. This is the first try so we'll see how it goes is probably large enough for two whole pigs if the shark proves too challenging!

scarbelly · Jul 31, 2012

Are you trying to cook this as a whole fish?

arsenix · Jul 31, 2012

That is the intent to smoke it whole. I was hoping folks on here would have some advice on it. We had a pro-chef on hand who was going to lead the effort but he left the project. I am thinking we will have to smoke it on the hotter side so it cooks in a reasonable amount of time.

pineywoods · Jul 31, 2012

cliffcarter said:
Right... so are you gonna skin that bad boy first? There aren't any similar efforts to be found I'm sure. I don't know about the others who have responded but I doubt that you intend to smoke anything, what you are proposing to do is preposterous.

Why not we used to catch some good sized sharks I wasn't into smoking at the time but had I been I'm sure we would have tried it. I must admit I haven't caught any worth trying to eat in the 10-12' range but the last good one I caught was years ago in the Keys and it was over 8' Mako we processed it into shark steaks.

scarbelly · Jul 31, 2012

You are going to have some issues with the different thicknesses of the fish finishing at different times - I think you would be better off with steaks or fillets of equal thickness

chef jimmyj · Jul 31, 2012

I have done a lot of Black Tip and Mako Steaks but never a whole Shark. Right off I see some problems. It needs to be Skinned. The back 1/3 of the Fish will cook faster than the rest. The Fins and Tail are a very different type of muscle and I have only heard of them being used in Soup. Shark gets really Dry if over cooked, I would be worried that the outer meat may dry before the inner meat is cooked...In any event,Good Luck...JJ

garyt · Jul 31, 2012

Chef JimmyJ said:
I have done a lot of Black Tip and Mako Steaks but never a whole Shark. Right off I see some problems. It needs to be Skinned. The back 1/3 of the Fish will cook faster than the rest. The Fins and Tail are a very different type of muscle and I have only heard of them being used in Soup. Shark gets really Dry if over cooked, I would be worried that the outer meat may dry before the inner meat is cooked...In any event,Good Luck...JJ

Wrap in Bacon

chef jimmyj · Jul 31, 2012

garyt said:
Wrap in Bacon

An entire 10 - 12 foot Shark? That's a lot of Bacon...Might as well stuff the Shark in a couple of Hogs...

...JJ

s2k9k · Jul 31, 2012

Chef JimmyJ said:
An entire 10 - 12 foot Shark? That's a lot of Bacon...Might as well stuff the Shark in a couple of Hogs...

...JJ

Roll in sausage then wrap in bacon....Whole Shark Fatty!!!

miamirick · Jul 31, 2012

Chef JimmyJ said:
An entire 10 - 12 foot Shark? That's a lot of Bacon...Might as well stuff the Shark in a couple of Hogs...

...JJ

what would you call it a SHARHOGGIN?

shark.jpg

miamirick
Jul 31, 2012

arsenix · Jul 31, 2012

Sounds like I'm going to need to acquire around 100 lbs of bacon... at the very least we'll have 100 pounds of delicious smoked bacon to eat :)

On a more serious note is there some way we could cover the back of the shark partway through so it didn't get overcooked? Would wrapping in bacon reduce the overcooking/dryness potential? If necessary we are willing to acquire 100 lbs of bacon... whatever it takes.

This is the website for our shark roast event btw: http://sharkweekend.org/splash.php

I am not organizing the event... I just designed/fabbed the smoker.

James

miamirick · Jul 31, 2012

you should check into cooking the whole thing i've heard sharks accumulate mercury much like barracuda do and the larger they get the more mercury is stored intheir body

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