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Hi all. I was given a couple of nice, thick sea bass fillets, and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for doing them up right in a smoker. I have a baby SFB horizontal by Char-Broil, unmodded for now.
Here is how I do all my smoked fish. 2 gallons of water to 1 cup of non idionized salt. add 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of instacure. Mix all together and marinate 2 to 5 lbs of fish for about 1 to 4 hours.
Now here is the important part. Take fish out of marinate rinse off pat dry and sprinkle liberal amounts of old bay on fish.
Smoke to finish. You can either go low and slow (jerky type) or fast and cooked (meal type)
If going fast and cooked, you can skip adding the instacure in the marinate. Also with the meal type you can elect to baste with butter/margarine right before eating. Either way you definatily want to use the Old Bay.
Thanks, Dennis. The fast and cooked method is what I'm shooting for. I just want some of that smoke flavor, and I'm pretty sure sea bass tends to get fragile. Would it be best to put it on a plank, or do you think it'll survive the rack okay?
It will survive the rack, because you don't have to flip it, like you would on a BBQ grill, but if you want to survive the clean-up----spray the racks with Pam or similar, so it doesn't stick too bad.
Now I don't know how anyone else does it I just season it with some Zairian's cajun seasoning like everything else or maybe some Old Bay and just place it on the grates and let it go for a couple of hours and then it should get a slick looking sheen to it and a kinda crisp crunch to the outside and a smooth tender center to it. It's almost like a crust or a leathery feel to the outside but I use a good and strong maybe hickory or a mesquite wood for the smoke.
You could try slicing them up into 2 inch strips and letting them marinate in a ziploc bag with your favorite teriyaki sauce for several days in your refrigerator. Massage and turn the bag over every evening. Then put them in a smoker that's at 150 degrees. Smoke em for 7 hours....