Any thoughts about how this went wrong?

[doongie]

I got some Cero Mackerel from a friend with the intent to smoke it. It was frozen in water in a large ziplock bag. There were 4 filets totaling 5 lbs, skin on. I thawed them in the fridge over a couple days, and changed the water once. I patted it dry, and used a dry brine I saw in a post from fellow member daveomak. Based on his post I used this:
7.7 g cure no 1
75 g maple syrup
50 g pickeling salt
5 lbs mackerel
I went heavy on the maple syrup because it’s only 66% sugar.

I brined it overnight, around 12 hours. I rinsed it and let it dry in the fridge all day, about another 12 hours.
It seemed to be tacky, I figured it was a reasonable pellicle.
I put it in the smoker set at 170, and in just over an hour the first piece hit 160.

When I pulled the first piece, it seemed strange. It has a rubbery outer texture, quite difficult to pierce with a fork. It also doesn’t seem to have taken on much smoke. It is unlike anything I have ever smoked before, and unlike any smoked fish I’ve ever had before.

Any ideas?

 

[Coach JoeQB]

I think the freezing in water probably is the cause of the issues. Cero Mackerel is an oily fish, and usually ok to smoke. Oily fish usually don't freeze well to start with, when freezing it would be best to IQF a whole fish and not a filet.

 

[thirdeye]

I've never smoked mackerel, but the two things that stand out for me would be... the fish was only smoked for one hour and yet reached an internal of 160°. I think you 'smoke cooked" it. I sort of ease the temperature up over several hours, and only smoke fish to an internal of 140° - 145°. In the wintertime I may only have an internal temp of 125° at the 3 hour mark, so I move it into an 180° oven to finish it in the next 30 minutes or so.

For what its worth - I use a dry cure on my fish too, and there is enough brown sugar in it for the cure to turn into a syrup. My cure times are around 6 hours, and my pellicle formation time is a minimum of 12 hours (but I've gone 18 hours). I normally don't use any Curing agents as I'm not in the danger zone longer than 4 hours.

 

[Winterrider]

I'm with thirdeye , start your temps much lower. When I have smoked walleye.I start at 130° and ramp up from there.