New to smoking fish, want to be safe.

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
I know there are plenty of tasty fish to smoke but I want to try carp for myself. Can anyone fill me in tho if you scale them or anything before brine n smoke
 
I fillet them, remove the skin. And try to get as much of the dark mud veign meat off. I usually leave a little dark meat on as it absorbs smoke like a sponge, but it is oily and turns to an undesirable texture, but I cut it up and mix it to make pate anyways. They are quite bony and it's nearly impossible to get a boneless filet out of them. But if you brine it overnight and smoke at about 220 till thickest fillet reaches 190 internal temp the bones are usually disolved and unnoticeable.

You want to make sure they are caught from clean waters, and some say the smaller ones taste better than the larger ones, but ive done some that were over 20 lbs and still came out good.

If you clean one out, look at yhe main part of the meat, it should be light in color, maybe a tanish or sometimes light pink. If the meat is dark it probably wont turn out good and is better off used as fertilizer. Don't know why some are darker meat than others, ive caught some that had nice whitish meat and others that were dark purple all the way through out of the same waters.
Im refering to the main part of the meat. The lateral line or (mud veign) is always going to be dark.
 
Came out epic, especially for my first smoke. Had a bit of trouble getting smoke below 170 degrees, but jumped things up a bit till smoke got going. Took about 6 hours, got an internal temp of 155 on my thickest piece and called it quits. Very happy with the results. I was thinking it was going to be a bit sweet for my taste, but not at all so. Stoked to start off on a good note. Thanks Bearcarver !
 
 
Came out epic, especially for my first smoke. Had a bit of trouble getting smoke below 170 degrees, but jumped things up a bit till smoke got going. Took about 6 hours, got an internal temp of 155 on my thickest piece and called it quits. Very happy with the results. I was thinking it was going to be a bit sweet for my taste, but not at all so. Stoked to start off on a good note. Thanks Bearcarver !
Look great, I will be doing a batch Wed or Thur of this week, I hope they come out as good as yours look.

Did you use Bearcarvers recipe? I am finding out he is text book of knowledge!
 
http://www.fda.gov/food/foodscienceresearch/safepracticesforfoodprocesses/ucm092182.htm

yjay, morning..... The FDA recommends using Cure #1/Prague Powder when smoking fish.... It is sodium nitrite... when used in the correct amounts, it is totally safe... there are many pathogens that "could" be in the product....
In short, 1 tsp per 5#'s pound of fish will make the fish safe for consumption...
When I smoke fish, I filet and weigh the batch I'm going to smoke.... then I mix a batch of salt, sugar, cure, spices to add to the batch....
salt-2%..... sugar-1%...... cure 1.3 gms./lb.... + spices.......
Add the mix to the batch.. leave in the refer for 24-48 hours.... it will extract moisture from the fish.... turn fish a couple times leaving the moisture in the container... after 48 hours, rinse, dry, form a pellicle in front of a fan.... smoke to your desire.... I bring the fish IT to 140 ish in a 160 ish smoker.....

10 lbs. fish... 3.2 oz salt... 1.6 oz. sugar.... 2 tsp. Cure #1
 
Last edited:
That link is for cold smoking which I'm not doing. The thing is that I don't know anyone who uses nitrite in anything but sausage and the like, and I know a lot of people who smoke fish. That's not to say that they are necessarily doing it correctly.  It seems that people on the site here don't use it either. I brought my fish to an internal temp of 155 degrees because I read that the safe internal temp for fish is 145. And I don't leave my fish out under a fan to form the pelicle, I like Bearcarver's technique of leaving it in the fridge overnight to do it. The FDA stuff I believe is for commercial regulation. Am I playing Russian roulette?

My preference is to not use nitrite if it isn't necessary because I've read a lot of stuff about it possibly being a carcinogen.
 
Last edited:
Russian Roulette.... not really if you get the temp up within 4 hours and have lots of air flow through the smoker....
Folks think botulism is a thing of the past.... Since nitrites have been known and the amounts perfected through some serious analysis, botulism can be controlled so you don't hear about it much.... If the Native Alaskans would start using it for their seal meat and fish etc. it probably could be close to "cured" (I had to do that) in the US..... There are something like 7 different strains from dirt, water and seafood that are viable somewhere in the world... and it is not too forgiving.....
 
Ok. Thanks. Maybe on my next run I will start out a bit hotter and get up to temp a little quicker.
 
If you do an advanced search using my name, you will find a few smoked  King Salmon, Salmon Jerky, Salmon Nuggets posts with pics and some recipes.  90% of my recipes are of the basic dry brine using 4/1 ratio of dark brown sugar / non iodized salt with fresh garlic.   Depending on the size of fish I'm smoking will dictate how long I brine and smoke.  No matter what I'm doing, I make sure the IT is 145* before I pull it.
 
Last edited:
Cool. Thanks. I will. I actually went to am IT of 155 on my thickest piece to be extra sure and I liked how it turned out, but I'm no connoisseur.....yet
th_4th_of_July.gif
 
Looked good... probably can talk past tense because if it was me it would be all gone! People decades ago would just salt meat and then eat it so I'm sure your fine. I eat raw tuna a lot and haven't died or got sick yet. I'm going to try and smoke some suckers!
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Hot Threads

Clicky