I smoked you a delicious bass (With B-view :) )

[walterwhite]

(With apologies to Napoleon Dynamite.)

I was curious how a fish like this would smoke up so I made some in my Mini-WSM. I used some cherry and box elder for smoking wood as those would be pretty mild. The fish itself is a pretty mild flavor. I sprinkled a little onion powder on it and put a little peanut oil on it since the fish seemed to have little fat.  After starting the fire and getting it under control (Smoker temp at 270° F and dropping) I put the fish on. About 25 minutes later, the smoker temp was down to about 210° so I peaked in. The fish looked fully cooked so I took a couple pieces off for dinner. They actually fell apart when I tried to pick them up with tongs so I know the fish was fully cooked.

\

The fish was a very light color so I left some more in the smoker to see how a longer smoke would affect it. This fish was good, but I could not pick up any smoky flavor. The green tomatoes I smoked with it had just a trace of smoky flavor. That was another experiment. We have lots of tomatoes!

I held temp at about 210° and took the remaining fish out at about 2:20. It was noticeably drier than the 20 minute fish and had taken on a delicious golden color. Surprisingly the smoky flavor was still very subtle.

Either way, the fish came out tasting good. As a bonus it did not leave the house smelling like fish which often happens when we cook it in the kitchen.

-walt

 

[rbranstner]

If you want a stronger smoke flavor on the fish try cold smoking it for a while before adding heat to it. Thats the thing with fish it usually cooks pretty fast so it doesn't have time to absorbe a good smoke flavor when using higher temps.

 

[flbobecu]

Sea bass or large/small mouth bass?

 

[bassman]

Just my kind of smoke (obviously).

  I would try using hickory for a stronger smoke flavor (or cold smoke first as RB suggested).  Good looking bass!

 

[squirrel]

Great idea, I've got some black grouper I want to smoke, I think I'll try cold smoking first, the bass looks awesome!

 

[walterwhite]

Largemouth bass from the Mississippi near the Iowa Minnesota boarder.

I need to look into cold smoking. However, I think it might require something with a separate fire box. I have bullet smokers (WSM, mini-WSM) and with the coals in the same chamber as the food, it doesn't get cold!

Next time I'll use something that generates stronger smoke, too.

thanks,

walt

 

[squirrel]

Sounds like you need to invest in an Amaz-N-Smoker. I love mine for cold smoking. I'm sure there's a link around here somewhere.

 

[rbranstner]

Sounds like you need to invest in an Amaz-N-Smoker. I love mine for cold smoking. I'm sure there's a link around here somewhere.

What Squirrel said. Or look into the soldering iron in a tin can method that works good to.

 

[meatnbeer]

For cold smoking I put a single burner hot plate in the bottom of my smoke hollow smoker.  Then I put the smoke box directly on top of the element.  Even on low/medium heat it generates a good amount of smoke with out heat.

I plan on doing it today.  I will have to see how it is going to work considering the outdoor temps are 87.